What’s Beard Reading? (3.09: “La Locker Room Aux Folles”)
Nothing. Beard isn’t reading anything in this episode. There isn’t even a book shown on his desk anywhere, at any time in the episode. Neither does Beard make any references to books or stories (though he does reference music, including the Grateful Dead, Black Crowes, Phish, Joe Walsh, and Jimmy Page). Still, there is in episode 9 one book that makes an appearance: Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. We see Jade reading Murakami’s book toward the end of the episode when Nate comes by after leaving Rupert at Bones and Honey. It’s an intriguing choice, and given how enigmatic the novel itself is, I don’t pretend to know the significance. But the book’s placement does serve to heighten our interest in Jade and gives us reason to think she may play some pivotal role in Nate’s redemption.
Jade has been mostly an undeveloped character to this point. We first see her in “Rainbow” in Season 2, when she stares down Nate as he tries to make a window-table reservation at Taste of Athens for his parents’ anniversary. She’s there, too, when Nate takes a dark turn, spitting in the mirror to muster the wherewithal to demand the window table in order to impress his dad. In fact, her indifference is the catalyst to Nate’s reaction. In other episodes, she stands aloof while the manager Derrick gushes about the Wonder Kid’s coaching prowess. The shift comes when Nate’s at a fairly low point, abandoned and humiliated by Anastasia — left alone at his beloved window table.
This is the moment that something changes for Jade, perhaps because Nate can no longer put on airs and can maybe now see those trappings of success as truly worthless.[1] But for whatever reason, Jade helps to take the sting out of Nate’s defeat. Rather than leave him lonely, she joins him for dessert: “After all, our baklava is divine,” she jokes in a lighthearted send-up of his earlier attempts to impress his date.
I’ll confess that I have not read Murakami and had only a passing familiarity with his work before looking further into Kafka on the Shore for this week’s post. The book sounds wild, in the vein of David Lynch or Thomas Pynchon, with a mix of Murasaki Shikibu and Don DeLillo thrown in for good measure. The story traces the lives of two characters: 15-year old Kafka Tamura and the elderly Satoru Nakata. Kafka is fleeing a dysfunctional household with a domineering father — the specter of an Oedipal prophecy looming large. Nakata suffered a mysterious accident as a child and now covers his expenses by rescuing cats (with whom he is able to converse).
The story alternates chapter by chapter from the plot of one character to the other, until their lives eventually intersect. Owing to Murakami’s brilliant writing, the realistic coexists with the fantastic quite comfortably, and apparently the book is a page-turner. Most reviewers describe the novel as enigmatic,[2] clearly grasping at meaning but what exactly that meaning is remains just out of reach. In other words, it’s the kind of book that’s catnip for English majors.[3]
We don’t know what Jade thinks of it or why she is reading it, but in this episode, we get a glimpse of her ability to read people in her interaction with Rupert. Her proficiency with narrative, especially one as complex and psychologically dense as Murakami’s novel, hints at the roots of this discernment. And we have seen enough of Rupert to know she is spot on in her assessment of his character. That scene is worth a re-watch:
Anthony Head masterfully depicts a narcissist at work, subtly undermining Nate and attempting to gain some measure of control in the situation. Jade’s stoic expression in the face of Rupert’s cajoling is priceless (and interestingly tracks closely with her initial response to Nate). And her estimation of Rupert afterward to Nate is telling: “He seems very wealthy. But also nice-like.”
It takes Nate a bit longer to see Rupert for who he is. Nate’s dependence on Rupert surely makes seeing that truth more difficult. “He’s actually really decent,” Nate explains to Jade. And almost by way of explanation, he adds, “Uh, I owe him a lot. So…” (“La Locker Room Aux Folles”). The light seems to dawn, however, when the guys’ night he was expecting turns into an invitation to betray this budding romance. We’ll see how the remaining episodes play out, but in that moment at least, Nate appears to come to his senses, finally resisting Rupert’s enticements to the dark side and embracing instead a future with Jade.
Being the narcissist that he is, Rupert won’t take such rejection lightly. He has chosen Nate as much for his weaknesses as for his coaching genius. That is why Jade poses such a threat, as she can help restore some of the confidence eroded by his father’s mistreatment through the years. Now that Rupert realizes he has lost his grip on Nate, look for him to make life quite uncomfortable for the Wonder Kid in the few episodes remaining. But based on last week’s episode, I’m also looking for Jade to offer Nate a lifeline.
[1] Some critics have critiqued this abrupt reversal in Jade, such as in this piece.
[2] See a sampling of reviews here: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/06/books/review/kafka-on-the-shore-realitys-culdesacs.html, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/08/fiction.harukimurakami, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/01/24/subconscious-tunnels
[3] Derrick does tell Nate at one point that Jade is in school. Or maybe she’s off on Tuesdays in order to feed her mum (“The Strings That Bind Us”). Who’s to say?
Other Installments of “What’s Beard Reading?” (for Season 3):
Episode 1, “Smells Like Mean Spirit”
Episode 2, “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea”
Episode 7, “The Strings That Bind Us”
Episode 8, “We’ll Never Have Paris”
