' Kafka on the Shore ' contains several riddles , but there aren't any solutions provided . Instead , several of these riddles combine , and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape . And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader . To put it another way , the riddles function as part of the solution . It's hard to explain , but that's the kind of novel I set out to write .
2 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in the Irish Times ( May 17 , 2003 , p . 60 ) .
QUOTE : The interviewer writes : Murakami writes as if in a dream . Not a sleeping dream - - he is no richer in night dreams than anyone else , he says - - but a waking dream , one he can control . And he demonstrates - - hands outstretched , fingers moving on an imaginary keyboard , eyes drooped . ' And dreaming like this , this is fiction , ' he says . ' It is exciting . I don't do any planning when I start to write . I just begin and follow my dream . '
Further on , Murakami says : Young people today are so helpless . The world they are in is so controlled it's not easy for them to find a way out . They are very thirsty and they absorb anything , naturally and eagerly . And stories , if they are good , they offer a way out . Not in reality perhaps , but in their heads , and that's a help . In that inner-space world you can find a special place for yourself . My books offer a sense of freedom from the real world .
Later in the same interview , Murakami says : I believe the purpose of writing a novel is to write in a very simple , neutral prose and to write a very complex , deep story . . . Some writers do the reverse . They are using very complex language to make up a very simple - - I would even say shallow - - story . And I don't think that's right .
3 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in the Paris Review ( Summer 2004 , Issue 170 , p . 115 - 151 ) .
QUOTE . Murakami says : We are living in a fake world ; we are watching fake evening news . We are fighting a fake war . Our government is fake . But we find reality in this fake world . So our stories are the same : we are walking through fake scenes , but ourselves , as we walk through these scenes , are real . The situation is real , in the sense that it's a commitment ; it's a true relationship . That's what I want to write about .
4 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in the The Times ( London , Jan 22 , 2005 , p . 36 ) .
QUOTE . Murakami says : In this age , you don't know who is a friend and who is a foe - - terrorism is just one example . . . They could be anywhere , any time , in any form . It's a more postmodern world than the Cold War era , but that's the reality whether we like it or not . Honestly speaking , this world is getting closer and closer to the world of my fiction - - more chaotic , more surrealistic and risky .
Further on , the interviewer comments : As the Sixties became the Seventies , the student avant-gardists were transformed into obedient salarymen . ' We said that we could change the world , but nothing has changed , ' he ( Murakami ) has said . ' The world has changed us . '
Later in the same interview , Murakami says : I want to be optimistic , but as a writer I tend to be pessimistic . If you don't believe something , you're nothing as a person or a writer . I want to see the good side of society but I know that sometimes it doesn't turn out that way . I guess I write about bad things in my stories , I write worst-case scenarios . Fiction is just like a dream . You have nightmares - - worst-case scenarios of your mind - - and they release possibilities . I try to keep dark sides in my stories - - it helps to keep the balance in actual life .
Further on , Murakami says : When I was young I thought I could write anywhere , I wanted to be free . But as I got older I realized that I can't be free . No one can be free .
5 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in The New York Times ( New York , Oct 15 , 2001 , p . E1 ) .
QUOTE . Murakami says : What I write are stories in which the hero is looking for the right way in this world of chaos . That is my theme . At the same time I think there is another world that is underground . You can access this inner world in your mind . Most protagonists in my books live in both worlds - - this realistic world and the underground world . If you are trained you can find the passage and come and go between the two worlds . It is easy to find an entrance into this closed circuit , but it is not easy to find an exit .
Later Murakami says : In Japan most people think that terrorism is the United States ' own problem . The U.S . is the strongest country in the world and Islamic people don't like America , therefore there is a terrorism problem . But that isn't right . The same thing can happen at any moment , in Tokyo , Berlin or Paris , because this is war between closed and open circuits , different states of minds . This is not about nations or countries , and not about religion , but about states of mind .
6 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in the European Wall Street Journal ( Brussels , Dec 11 , 2006 , p . 12 ) .
QUOTE . The interviewer writes : The protagonist in ' Kafka on the Shore ' is uneasily semiconscious of a murder he may have committed in the past . Themes of history and memory clearly run through Mr . Murakami's books . Yet he seems loath to analyze his own work for political messages or historical lessons , saying that he just wants to ' write a story . ' Sending overt political messages is simply not the job of a fiction writer , he says . That's not to say that Mr . Murakami's colorful prose doesn't address serious issues . It just does so in an indirect way - - which , in Mr . Murakami's view , may be even more effective . ' If you say , I'm very sad , my dog died , it's a message - - a statement . Nobody sympathizes with you , ' he explains . ' In that case , you have to change your statement into another kind of story . When you're sad , when you lost your dog , you should not write about your dog . You should write about another thing . If you write about the dog , it's an essay , not fiction . '
I hope these quotes prove helpful as you think about Kafka on the Shore . They were helpful to me . . . in the end , they helped me to stop trying to find answers to the riddles . I just let the enjoyable experience of reading this novel knock around in my brain for a while , providing me with all kinds of personal intellectual introspection .
My recommendation : read the book , enjoy the journey , and if the journey awakens any special meaning for you . . . well , enjoy that , too .
001 4 I guess from other reviews that I'm not the typical reader of this sort of book - some of the other reviews go way over my head , which might suggest that the book did , too . Unlike many readers , I'd never heard of this author , nor have I studied philosophy or metaphysics , nor did I appreciate any of the clever references to other works which I gather are in the book . So my review is based on the book alone without any external context or any expectations of this author at all . I picked the book up more or less at random from a public library shelf because it looked interesting .
The first half of the book had me sitting up reading in the early hours of the morning , it was that good . I'd never read anything quite like it and was fascinated to see where the story was going to go . I appreciated the book's readability too , with the author conveying complex ideas without getting bogged down in complex language . Some of the reviews I've read subsequently are less readable than the book itself , so don't be put off by thinking you need to be an intellectual to read it .
Unfortunately I felt that after the first half of the book , the sense of wonder began to fade and instead of being content to be caught up in the plot I was starting to wonder where it was going to go and how long it was going to take to get there . To be honest I hung in there for the last quarter mainly because I didn't want to abandon the book having come this far . It's not that the writing deteriorated or that the storyline wasn't still interesting , more that the characters weren't developing any further and it looked like they weren't going to . The plot just played itself out and I lost that Wow , I can't wait to see what happens next feeling .
Nevertheless , it's unlike anything else I've read and I did enjoy reading it . On the most basic level it's a fantasy which requires that you suspend your ideas about the nature of reality and , like one of the main characters , just accept what's going on without making judgements and perhaps without trying to understand at all . I can't say that it was an entirely satisfying read from cover to cover , but there were moments in which I was totally entranced . I will probably read more from this author , especially if I find that reality is getting a bit too heavy for me and I need a break .
By the way , cat lovers may need to be warned that there is one particularly unpleasant scene ; I'm not entirely convinced that it was necessary and it is very disturbing .
002 4 Kafka on the Shore is at once familiar and unfamiliar to readers of past Murakami stories : in story and in plotting it is reminiscent of past works of Murakami ; the Tamura Kafka storyline is in many ways a re-telling of Hard-Boiled Wonderland , and the split narrative style also reminds one of that book . Indeed , many times throughout the book I found myself thinking that Kafka on the Shore felt like a kind of summation of Murakami's works , all the way from Hear the Wind Sing through After the Quake in terms of style and plot elements .
Despite the many familiar elements , there are several significant deviations from the usual formula , starting with the protagonist Tamura Kafka . Unlike the typical 30 - something everyman familiar to readers of Murakami , Kafka on the Shore features the young and proactive Tamura Kafka and to the best of my knowledge is the first of Murakami's novels to be written half in the third person , giving Murakami a bit more freedom in telling this tale from different characters ' perspectives . More important than narrative technique was Murakami's approach to the story : whereas many of Murakami's novels are full of a sense of loneliness and a feeling that the characters are chasing after something which is already beyond their reach , Tamura Kafka is very much in charge of his own destiny as his choice at the climax of the novel indicates .
Although Kafka on the Shore started off wonderfully , by the second half of the book , the plot became unusually linear and predictable for a Murakami novel . The Nakata / Hoshino plotline in particular was cryptic without the scope or wonder of Wind-Up Bird , for example . Oshima , one of the most interesting characters Murakami has created ( and that's saying a lot ) is sadly underused in the second half . Murakami's use of corporate icons and feminist figures is awkward and a bit forced . In general , what starts off with the potential to be Murakami's masterpiece falls a bit short in the end .
Part of the problem is that Kafka on the Shore feels like Murakami is undergoing a shift in style and in substance but it is a little unclear where he is trying to go to . Unfortunately , his latest novel , After Dark , does not clear up the issue either . As Murakami has aged , his protagonists have gotten younger ( a 15 - year old boy in Kafka and a 19 - year old woman in After Dark ) . . . but they often seem like a middle-aged everyman trapped in a young person's body . It will be enjoyable to see what direction Murakami takes in the future , but compared to his works of the ' 80s and early ' 90s , Murakami's recent works have retained his energy . . . but lost a bit of the soul that make a Murakami novel an experience greater than the sum of its parts .
003 4 Reading Murakami is a bit like going into therapy . The images and dreams can seem familiar and identifiable to others , but they are also full of personal meaning . Each book tightens the web of associations and memories for Murakami readers ; as result they end up talking about other books in order to understand the novel at hand . ( This is true with other writers as well , of course , but Murakami intentionally ventures into the dark psychological realm . ) I loved this novel , and found it a very satisfying extension and refinement of his work , particularly Hard-Boiled Wonderland , Wind-Up Bird , and Dance , Dance , Dance . I particularly enjoyed the ending , the writer's usual area of weakness . But the book doesn't depend on the ending - - anywhere you enter , there are mental puzzles and verbal delights galore .
I dreamt more than usual while reading this book . Murakami sends me deep into myself , where I examine those feelings and forces that churn and charge forward , driving me to express my true self and to take control of my own life . As with some of the other books , I had the feeling that I was becoming more fully myself while I followed the developing situation . Much of the novel exists between two worlds , which resonated deeply with me because of the death of my mother six months ago and my heightened awareness of her lingering presence . I swam everyday when I was reading Kafka on the Shore , and being in water was an ideal medium for coming to terms with Kafka's progress through the labyrinth of familial obligation , anger , and self-knowledge . I read Tony Kushner's A Dybbuk while floating in the pool one afternoon - - a play in which a living soul inhabits the body of his beloved . The rabbi entrusted with her exorcism fails and love triumphs in a very uneasy world : it felt like I was reading a gloss on Kafka . I had just finished a surf novel , Tijuana Straits , before I started this one , and I kept hearing echoes from that work ( by Kem Nunn ) echoed as well as sections of Richard Linklatter's first film , Slacker . This is the process many go through reading Murakami - - all sorts of elements come to more vivid life and stick to the psychological fly-paper .
Like most Murakami novels , this felt improvised , as if he weren't sure where he was headed , but the prose was more polished and the story more buffed than the early novels . It seemed more like East of the Sun or the short stories , which is just fine by me . The national amnesia about the horrors of World War II was not explored as deeply as in Wind-Up Bird , but it was suggested enough to lead the reader to reconsider in light of current events in China and Japan . Among other things , Murakami is working things out in real time - - our time ; as concerned as he is with the eternal , he is also writing quickly enough to let the present flicker through his words .
There are surprises , recollections , jokes , and profundities aplenty . This seems an excellent introduction to the world of Haruki Murakami as well as a step forward into the unknown that is his particular turf .
004 4 I finished this book quite some time ago , and it's taken me a while to review this book , because frankly , I've just been at a loss of how to write a lucid and representative review . I felt tongue-tied and writer blocked in the afterglow on this spellbinding adventure . Murakami took me to realms I have not reached with books for a while now , and which I am still gently floating on . I finally did decide to write though , because I think it's imperative for me to document how I felt about the book and really try and impress upon other bibliophiles that they must , must , MUST read this !
The two fundamental themes of the book are simple , and in fact , quite clichéd : one can run , but not escape , and life needs to be dealt with ; and that every person has a purpose and a destiny to fulfil . The way these themes are illustrated is , however , far from simple , and to do so , Murakami shares with us two tales : one of a precocious fifteen-year old boy who leaves home in an attempt to escape his oppressions , and the other of a mentally challenged old man who needs support on many fronts to just go through daily life , but has curious abilities like being able to converse with cats and making fish rain from the sky . Both the protagonists undertake fascinating physical and metaphysical journeys which inevitably weave together at the end , but in very unusual and interesting ways . Accompanying them , or somehow associated with them , on these journeys are just a handful of other characters , who while clearly playing a supporting role , are essential to the success ( as in some logical conclusion ) of the journeys , and are enchanting in their own right .
Murakami is very successful in illustrating the key themes of the book by the end ( and in fact through most of its course ) , even though the plot is full of events that are oftentimes difficult to follow and challenge ones understanding . The book clearly demands a suspension of physical belief ( refer fish example above ) , much in the vein of the magic realism of Marquez and Rushdie , but somehow , it doesn't feel the same . Similarly , while it deals extensively with the abstruse and the subconscious , it does not feel like surrealistic . Instead , all the unreal parts feel very natural , and it's very easy to accept them , just like it's easy to accept the myriad of contradictions that Japan ( where this book is set ) seems to be . Pulling this feat off is one of the most admirable stylistic achievements of this book . Another superb aspect of this book is the characters that Murakami has created . The breadth of the characters from the two protagonists through the hilarious avatar of Colonel Sanders to the confused gay woman-in-man's-mind is only matched by the depth of exploration of each character . The characters draw the reader into their minds and lives , allowing the reader to understand and empathize with them to very great extents , which is remarkable given the complexity and unreal nature of a lot of the characters .
The one aspect of the book which I can imagine some readers will find frustrating is the number of events , fringe characters , situations , dialogues , and sub-plots that seem to have no bearing on the main story or the plot . I , personally , learnt a new lesson from Murakami's narrative escapades and fertile imagination . Murakami very explicitly talks about metaphors throughout the book , and I think it has a purpose . The purpose was exactly to help the reader get rid of conventional thinking and reading approaches . After being perplexed for a while , I realized that all these inexplicable things were themselves metaphors , or analogies , or abstract concepts , which needed to be accepted as such without being taken literally . Once you stop doing that , and just feel them and the impact they make on your mindset rather than looking for literal bearings on the story , everything falls into place and the reading gets taken to a new level of beauty altogether . I think this is the greatest strength of the book , not its greatest weakness , and would urge readers to take this approach so that they can truly relish this wonderful adventure .
In conclusion , I strongly recommend reading , and even owning this book . I can easily imagine that this is a book you will want to go back to again and again , if not for the whole book , for many small aspects at least . Have fun !
005 4 The title above says it all , and perhaps the reason why I have responded so negatively to the book , is because I have read everything Murakami has ever written prior to Kafka on the Shore . I am noticing many of the reviews pertain to first-time readers of Murukami , and so I can completely understand how this blatantly esoteric miscellany of all his other works might come across as the beautiful dream-like introspection , first-time readers deem it to be . What startles me however , is all the heaping praise from the regular murukami enthusiasts . It has , honestly , got me wondering if I am not completely OUT-OF-MY-GATDAMN-MIND ? ! ? ! Haha . . No Seriously .
The beauty of many of Murukami's prior works such as Wind-Up Bird . . [ an understated masterpiece ] is the subtlety in the writing , the uniqueness of the different characters [ in nuanced ways ] and his ability to incorporate somewhat fantastical elements , but in a very balanced manner . All of that is missing in Kafka on the Shore , where you've got hair-brained clowns like Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker monkeying around along the way to wherever this book is taking you .
If you've read Murakami before you know that kafka always plays central but lo-key in his books , yet here the book is titled as such and the point is made over and over throughout the storyline . If you've read Murakami before , this book should read like his personal writer's exercise book from which allegories , characters , and sketches of plot have been culled to create all the books he wrote before . In Summary , this book is the hither-thither effluvia swimming in his mind that he draws from to create masterful work . Its messy and we shouldn't be reading this , I prefer not to see the little man with the greasy comb-over pulling the ropes behind the velvet curtain . . . . that's just me .
006 4 This was my first Murakami novel and perhaps my awe with his style and craftsmanship are reflected in the five stars I'm giving it . It's not that there's any question in my mind that this novel deserves five stars , but it seems regular Murakami readers regard this book as a weak effort and if that is so , then I have quite a treat ahead of me .
On the surface this is a retelling of Oedipus , with Kafka playing the role of the son destined to unwittingly kill his father and marry his mother fulfilling the curse of prophecy . More deeply the book is an homage to Franz Kafka , playing masterfully with surrealist dreams and decaying realities . This is the story of the odd chapters , of Kafka the runaway , a fifteen year old in body but a wise older man within . On the even chapters Murakami tells the magic-realism story of Mr . Nakata , an older man who'd been in a strange accident when he was fifteen that left him without the intellectual ability to read or write . It left him as a simpleton with the unique ability to communicate with cats . Nakata , man in body - boy in mind , is Kafka's polar opposite , and their lives and destiny must intertwine throughout the tale .
Murakami analyzing the pointlessness of political positions on the liberal and conservative side of the aisle , first through a rebuttal of the feminist priorities toward a small private library where Kafka has found home and employment , and later through the voices of two Japanese soldiers who had deserted rather than fight in a war where they'd have to kill men they felt no animosity toward . The author shows the futility of forcing people to do what they don't want to do , all in the context of a story about a boy fulfilling a prophecy that he abhors .
Of particular note in the novel was his use of music as a metaphor for the actions and abilities of people . From the Beatles to Beethoven he deconstructs musical elements and parallels them to Kafka's moral failings and coming of age redemption . Just the sheer beauty of his musical descriptions was enough to awe me with the prose as poetic as any author I can recall reading .
It may not be Murakami's best , but it's worthy of five stars as it stands .
- CV Rick
007 4 This story appears to be about two people , Mr . Nakata and Kafka Tamura , but it's really about everyones search for the other half of their identity . There is a myth that in the beginning there were three types of people , male / male , female / female and male / female . They were cut apart , and we all spend our lives looking for our other half . Nakata and Kafka are followed on their search . There are also three minor characters who make the whole story possible , Hoshino ( for Nakata ) and Oshima and Miss Saeki ( for Kafka ) .
It's interesting to note that Kafka is Czech for CROW , Shima can mean island or stripe and saeki means a marginal profit . A crow is usually a metaphor for change ( neither good or evil ) , most of the action occurs on Shikoku which is the smallest of the Home Islands but the most mystical in japanese myths , Oshima is of a different stripe ( read the book you'll get it ) , and Miss Saeki is actually a ' marginal ' person . I wish I knew more or that the translator had notes to explain some others that I missed or don't know , they would make the book more enjoyable .
Interestingly enough this is simply the story of a boy going through a ' right of passage ' and another being released from his mental prison . Kafka , is a fifteen year old boy , searching for a lost mother and sister , but in truth he is searching for himself .
Murakami is an amazingly well read man ; this you will find out from the quotes of his characters and the knowledge of different cultures that they possess . He quotes such diverse people as Jean-Jacques Rousseau , Beethoven , Hegal , Dickens and many others . They are always quoted in context and are never just thrown in the way people bandy about names to show how cool they are .
This story is a journey , and like all journeys start with the first step . The first step of your journey is to pick-up a copy and begin to read . It is definitely worth the trip .
008 4 All in all , Murakami doesn't disappoint with this latest novel . He has a knack for handling the surreal and making it seem plausible , and using that to explore those feelings and moods in life that are incredibly hard to put into words . The plot carried me along , and it was hard to put the book down a few times when I had other things to attend to . The character Nakata could have really been botched as a monotonous , boring , or else sentimental character if handled by a lesser writer , but Murakami gets it just right . Kafka Tamura did seem a bit too mature for a 15 year old , however . I kept picturing him as in his early 20 ' s despite myself . But overall the characters are convincing enough and rather memorable .
There were a few rough spots , though , where the characters made Murakami's literary devices a bit too explicit , as if he doesn't quite have enough faith in his readers to get the point . Similarly , even though several of the characters are avid readers , some of the dialogue gets a bit stilted in spots - - just a shade away from being pretentious . These are of course minor flaws in an otherwise excellent work . Murakami is perhaps starting to get self-conscious about being taken seriously as a novelist ? If so he shouldn't - - he continually writes some of the most profound , freshest stuff out there .
009 4 The title alone , KAFKA ON THE SHORE , signals that what's inside is out of the ordinary , and it most certainly is . Haruki Murakami has filled this 436 - page novel with a mysterious object in the sky , talking cats and an alter-ego black crow , an old man who sleeps for forty hours at a stretch , a hemophiliac hermaphrodite librarian , concepts who appear in the form of Johnny Walker and Colonel Sanders , ghosts , leeches raining from the sky , a giant slug that inhabits human bodies , and a magical stone portal to an earthly Limbo deep in the forest . Toss in some Beethoven and Haydn , Adolph Eichmann , Napoleon's invasion of Russia , Oedipus Rex , the Trojan princess Cassandra , The Tale of Genji , the Arabian Nights , and American jazz and rock music , and the result is a cultural rollercoaster ride through a sort of secular , pop mysticism .
The story line alternates between two distinct threads . The odd-numbered chapters trace the coming of age escapades of Kafka Tamura , a fifteen-year-old high school dropout and runaway . Kafka is preternaturally mature and unusually self-disciplined for a dropout , but his childhood has been marked by the sudden departure of his mother and sister and the upbringing of a cold and distant father . He encounters a series of sexual adventures on his sojourns , complicated by a bizarre connection to his father's stabbing death and his apparent completion of the Oedipal triangle by sleeping with an older woman who might be his mother .
The second story line involves Satoru Nakata , an aging man-child who collapsed as a youth into a sudden sleep along with fifteen of his classmates while they were in the forest on a mushroom-picking excursion . Unlike the other children who woke up shortly after , Nakata remained in a coma for several weeks . When he finally awoke , he could no longer read or write and had lost his memory . However , he had a newfound ability to speak with cats . We follow Nakata on a grail quest that even he cannot understand , aided by a truck driver named Hoshino whose life is changed by his experiences with the old man he calls Gramps .
Ultimately , Nakata's and Kafka's stories merge in Shikoku , a small Japanese island , where Kafka has been simultaneously hiding from his father and from the police . Nakata unknowingly opens a door that enables Kafka to confront the truth about himself and his feelings toward his mother , a truth that allows the boy to proceed with life on his own terms , to sit at the metaphorical shore and contemplate both his past and his future .
Fans of Murakami will likely enjoy KAFKA ON THE SHORE for its offbeat brazenness and its kinky ride through modern culture , while those new to the author may find this book uncomfortably strange . Either way , Murakami's is a unique voice in modern literature , full of humor and intriguing speculations , offering a fascinating perspectives on the meaning of life and how we each find our own way to live it .
KAFKA ON THE SHORE is a literary three-ring circus , but as everyone knows , the circus is always fun . And it's also a magical place we sometimes dream of running away to join , a place where we , like Kafka Tamura , can escape the burdens of real life .
010 4 Disclaimer : I love Murakami and have read every novel he's written outside of Pinball .
That said , I found Kafka his least impressive work by a wide margin . Some of this , I am convinced , is due to the translation , which is not only uninspired but in many places downright sloppy . There's far too much says-ing , was-ing and general verbal passivitiy in the book . ( At this point I think it's only fair to give some credit for the sheer magic and lyric power of ' Wind-Up Bird ' to Jay Rubin , who somehow seems to translate a different Murakami than either Gabriel or Birnbaum . )
As for the work itself . . . I don't know . I see that a lot of people really enjoyed it . I found the philosophy boring , the plot plodding , and the characters very poorly sketched . In the way that a true Gus Van Zandt fanatic can derive pleasure from watching Even Cowgirls Get the Blues , I enjoyed reading this book , but it did not have anywhere near the same kind of effect on me as his others have . I felt like I was struggling to hear the voice of the writer I know and love beneath a screeching jumble of white noise .
011 4 I am a prodigious reader of literary fiction , yet Kafka on the Shore is the first that I've read so far by Haruki Murakami . He is widely popular ( particularly among the young ) all over the world . He has won numerous literary awards including the Gunzo New Writer Award ( 1979 ) , the Noma Literary Award ( 1982 ) , the Junichiro Tanizaki Prize ( 1985 ) , the Yomiuri Literary Award ( 1996 ) , the Kuwabara Takeo Award ( 1999 ) , the Franz Kafka Prize ( 2006 ) , the World Fantasy Award ( 2006 ) , and the Kiriyama Prize for fiction from the Pacific Rim ( 2007 ) . His fan base is worldwide and legion - - most are rooting for him to win the Nobel Prize sometime soon . So , I thought it was high time that I read one of his novels . I am glad that I did .
I found Kafka on the Shore intellectually intriguing and compulsively readable - - overall , a stunning surreal Cirque-du-Soleil kind of literary experience . When I finished the book , I was intellectually stimulated and exhausted . I was also a tad bit let down by an ending that did not seem to measure up to the magnitude of the whole . But most of all , I was powerfully confused . I am the type of reader who loves to uncover thematic meaning within works of literary fiction , but this book had me stumped .
The book is a surreal coming-of-age tale . There is an eclectic mix of genres , including sci-fi , fantasy , psychological , detective , erotica , mystery , thriller , spirit quest , and romance - - they're all here - - and the scaffolding that holds the plot together is nothing less than a postmodern Oedipal myth ! It's positively brilliant , deliciously bizarre , and enjoyably brazen .
The more I struggled with uncovering the thematic meanings hidden in the whole , the more it became obvious that enjoying the journey thorough the story is far more important than deciphering whatever themes and riddles may be there . Nonetheless , I persisted , trying desperately to piece together a set of coherent symbolic themes . Yet every time I thought I was onto something , the interlocking concepts fell apart in the details . It was a pleasurable mental exercise , nonetheless .
Personally , I found the book intellectually profound mostly because of the small bits and pieces of stimulating intellectual dialogue and description that pop up routinely throughout the book - - discussions of philosophy , symbolism , metaphysical systems , modern culture , musicology , etc . These make the reading complex and fascinating , and contribute to making the surreal appear real .
As an academic research librarian , I was challenged to try to find what interpretive spin others had placed on this novel . So I did my research as thoroughly as I could , given the time and resources I had at my disposal . There are countless reviews , on blogs , in academic reference sources , and in newspapers worldwide . There are also numerous interviews with the author about this work and others . I have digital access to all these resources and have spent many more hours than I would like to admit combing through them trying to find whatever there was that might shed light on what the author meant to convey with this work .
In the end , I actually found precious little in terms of a cohesive thematic unraveling of the meaning behind the text ! What I did find that seemed significant , were various interviews with the author where he shares with us how he writes , what themes he is trying to convey when he writes , and what he was trying to do with this book in particular . Here are some of the most relevant quotations I found from these interviews .
1 ) SOURCE . Author's Q and A for Kafka on the Shore posted on the Murakami's Random House Website .
QUOTE . Murakami writes : ' Kafka on the Shore ' contains several riddles , but there aren't any solutions provided . Instead , several of these riddles combine , and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape . And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader . To put it another way , the riddles function as part of the solution . It's hard to explain , but that's the kind of novel I set out to write .
2 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in the Irish Times ( May 17 , 2003 , p . 60 ) .
QUOTE : The interviewer writes : Murakami writes as if in a dream . Not a sleeping dream - - he is no richer in night dreams than anyone else , he says - - but a waking dream , one he can control . And he demonstrates - - hands outstretched , fingers moving on an imaginary keyboard , eyes drooped . ' And dreaming like this , this is fiction , ' he says . ' It is exciting . I don't do any planning when I start to write . I just begin and follow my dream . '
Further on , Murakami says : Young people today are so helpless . The world they are in is so controlled it's not easy for them to find a way out . They are very thirsty and they absorb anything , naturally and eagerly . And stories , if they are good , they offer a way out . Not in reality perhaps , but in their heads , and that's a help . In that inner-space world you can find a special place for yourself . My books offer a sense of freedom from the real world .
Later in the same interview , Murakami says : I believe the purpose of writing a novel is to write in a very simple , neutral prose and to write a very complex , deep story . . . Some writers do the reverse . They are using very complex language to make up a very simple - - I would even say shallow - - story . And I don't think that's right .
3 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in the Paris Review ( Summer 2004 , Issue 170 , p . 115 - 151 ) .
QUOTE . Murakami says : We are living in a fake world ; we are watching fake evening news . We are fighting a fake war . Our government is fake . But we find reality in this fake world . So our stories are the same : we are walking through fake scenes , but ourselves , as we walk through these scenes , are real . The situation is real , in the sense that it's a commitment ; it's a true relationship . That's what I want to write about .
4 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in the The Times ( London , Jan 22 , 2005 , p . 36 ) .
QUOTE . Murakami says : In this age , you don't know who is a friend and who is a foe - - terrorism is just one example . . . They could be anywhere , any time , in any form . It's a more postmodern world than the Cold War era , but that's the reality whether we like it or not . Honestly speaking , this world is getting closer and closer to the world of my fiction - - more chaotic , more surrealistic and risky .
Further on , the interviewer comments : As the Sixties became the Seventies , the student avant-gardists were transformed into obedient salarymen . ' We said that we could change the world , but nothing has changed , ' he ( Murakami ) has said . ' The world has changed us . '
Later in the same interview , Murakami says : I want to be optimistic , but as a writer I tend to be pessimistic . If you don't believe something , you're nothing as a person or a writer . I want to see the good side of society but I know that sometimes it doesn't turn out that way . I guess I write about bad things in my stories , I write worst-case scenarios . Fiction is just like a dream . You have nightmares - - worst-case scenarios of your mind - - and they release possibilities . I try to keep dark sides in my stories - - it helps to keep the balance in actual life .
Further on , Murakami says : When I was young I thought I could write anywhere , I wanted to be free . But as I got older I realized that I can't be free . No one can be free .
5 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in The New York Times ( New York , Oct 15 , 2001 , p . E1 ) .
QUOTE . Murakami says : What I write are stories in which the hero is looking for the right way in this world of chaos . That is my theme . At the same time I think there is another world that is underground . You can access this inner world in your mind . Most protagonists in my books live in both worlds - - this realistic world and the underground world . If you are trained you can find the passage and come and go between the two worlds . It is easy to find an entrance into this closed circuit , but it is not easy to find an exit .
Later Murakami says : In Japan most people think that terrorism is the United States ' own problem . The U.S . is the strongest country in the world and Islamic people don't like America , therefore there is a terrorism problem . But that isn't right . The same thing can happen at any moment , in Tokyo , Berlin or Paris , because this is war between closed and open circuits , different states of minds . This is not about nations or countries , and not about religion , but about states of mind .
6 ) SOURCE . Interview with Murakami in the European Wall Street Journal ( Brussels , Dec 11 , 2006 , p . 12 ) .
QUOTE . The interviewer writes : The protagonist in ' Kafka on the Shore ' is uneasily semiconscious of a murder he may have committed in the past . Themes of history and memory clearly run through Mr . Murakami's books . Yet he seems loath to analyze his own work for political messages or historical lessons , saying that he just wants to ' write a story . ' Sending overt political messages is simply not the job of a fiction writer , he says . That's not to say that Mr . Murakami's colorful prose doesn't address serious issues . It just does so in an indirect way - - which , in Mr . Murakami's view , may be even more effective . ' If you say , I'm very sad , my dog died , it's a message - - a statement . Nobody sympathizes with you , ' he explains . ' In that case , you have to change your statement into another kind of story . When you're sad , when you lost your dog , you should not write about your dog . You should write about another thing . If you write about the dog , it's an essay , not fiction . '
I hope these quotes prove helpful as you think about Kafka on the Shore . They were helpful to me . . . in the end , they helped me to stop trying to find answers to the riddles . I just let the enjoyable experience of reading this novel knock around in my brain for a while , providing me with all kinds of personal intellectual introspection .
My recommendation : read the book , enjoy the journey , and if the journey awakens any special meaning for you . . . well , enjoy that , too .
012 4 I want to take issue with Zachary Hanson's ( below ) bombastic criticisms of this book .
Maddeningly inexplicable plot elements tossed off that add up to little more than bizarre Oedipal wish fulfillment , soft-porn , macabre anime-style violence and fantasy sequences is a terrible abstract . The sotry of Kafka Tamura is supposed echo the story of Oedipus . To try and use that as a reason why the book is not good is simply foolish .
Violence in this book is actually quite rare , and the sex scenes , while somewhat graphic , mirror those in other Murakami novels . They're c ertainly nothing offensive .
Also , I personally found the dialogue between Hoshimo and Nakata to be some of the most beautiful literary dialogue I've read in a long time . The quote used is taken out of context , and without a reference to the fact that one of the characters has the intelligence of a child , it may appear banal . On the contrary , the story of these two men actually surpasses in many ways the parallel story of Kafka Tamura .
This book , while not on par with the superb ' Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , ' is a beautiful , well told story that will have you thinking about the control we have over our own lives .
If you've read Murakami before , you'll see much of the same symbolism , as well as repeated themes .
In any case you won't be disappointed .
013 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Paperback )
This is my first Murakami , but most definitely not my last . Considering that KotS got less than full rating by the average reviewer in amazon , I am in for a treat with his other books .
What had kept me away until now ? I remember that somebody somewhere had classified HM as postmodern , a label which is likely to scare me away . I am quite happy with modern or even older , why do I need anything more modern than modern ? Most previous samples of this direction ( is it one ? ) were less than fascinating . Also , my previous attempts at digesting East Asian fiction were not always successful . ( Wasn't there somebody called Banana ? ) Maybe it was just the translations , but definitely I was not hooked . Now I may well be .
What made me overcome my postmodernism-phobia ? Persistent recommendations from different sources , plus a certain curiosity what Kafka might mean to Japanese teenagers .
After all , Kafka is a major fix star in my literary planetarium . Seems I can share that with Japanese teenagers . First pleasant surprise .
The book is a much more straightforward narrative than I expected . Two storylines are developed in parallell , one is Kafka's , a 1st person narrative of a teenage , yet mature runaway , the other a 3rd person story of a mentally handicapped older man named Nakata .
There is magical realism : Nakata is unable to read or write , but can converse with cats . Johnnie Walker is a suicidal murderous maniac and has a talking Doberman . It is all perfectly plausible . ( Nice bit of product placement by Johnnie Walker , that story . ) It rains sardines and mackerels in Tokyo , or leeches on a parking lot . After the frog rain in LA from Magnolia , nothing surprises us much .
There are strong elements of Greek mythology . Is K . going to kill his father and love his mother ? Or will it develop more into a sibling conspiracy ?
There is mystery and there are elements of a thriller . Suspense is not lacking : what is the meaning of the blackouts experienced by both protagonists ? Are we up for a larger conspiracy yarn ?
It is also funny , like in the great scene when the two women from the women's rights organisation find fault with the library . Hilariously incorrect , as in not pc . Also a touch of Middlesex .
It also has the concept for a script for a great road movie : The Illiterate Hitchhiker .
In other words , if this is postmodernism , so be it .
Great stuff . As the Chicago Tribune allegedly said , according to the book cover : a striking experience in consciousness expansion . Well put . It reminds me of Robert Anton Wilson , but HM is more poetic and less flimsy .
014 4 This is my first Murakami , but most definitely not my last . Considering that KotS got less than full rating by the average reviewer in amazon , I am in for a treat with his other books .
What had kept me away until now ? I remember that somebody somewhere had classified HM as postmodern , a label which is likely to scare me away . I am quite happy with modern or even older , why do I need anything more modern than modern ? Most previous samples of this direction ( is it one ? ) were less than fascinating . Also , my previous attempts at digesting East Asian fiction were not always successful . ( Wasn't there somebody called Banana ? ) Maybe it was just the translations , but definitely I was not hooked . Now I may well be .
What made me overcome my postmodernism-phobia ? Persistent recommendations from different sources , plus a certain curiosity what Kafka might mean to Japanese teenagers .
After all , Kafka is a major fix star in my literary planetarium . Seems I can share that with Japanese teenagers . First pleasant surprise .
The book is a much more straightforward narrative than I expected . Two storylines are developed in parallell , one is Kafka's , a 1st person narrative of a teenage , yet mature runaway , the other a 3rd person story of a mentally handicapped older man named Nakata .
There is magical realism : Nakata is unable to read or write , but can converse with cats . Johnnie Walker is a suicidal murderous maniac and has a talking Doberman . It is all perfectly plausible . ( Nice bit of product placement by Johnnie Walker , that story . ) It rains sardines and mackerels in Tokyo , or leeches on a parking lot . After the frog rain in LA from Magnolia , nothing surprises us much .
There are strong elements of Greek mythology . Is K . going to kill his father and love his mother ? Or will it develop more into a sibling conspiracy ?
There is mystery and there are elements of a thriller . Suspense is not lacking : what is the meaning of the blackouts experienced by both protagonists ? Are we up for a larger conspiracy yarn ?
It is also funny , like in the great scene when the two women from the women's rights organisation find fault with the library . Hilariously incorrect , as in not pc . Also a touch of Middlesex .
It also has the concept for a script for a great road movie : The Illiterate Hitchhiker .
In other words , if this is postmodernism , so be it .
Great stuff . As the Chicago Tribune allegedly said , according to the book cover : a striking experience in consciousness expansion . Well put . It reminds me of Robert Anton Wilson , but HM is more poetic and less flimsy .
015 4 I am not quite to the end of this amazing novel - - so surreal and yet so emotionally real - - and I can't wait to see what happens . I also wondered about the translation - - how much is Americanized for our benefit , and if it's not then is it even more dream-like in Japan ? From Colonel Sanders to eggs for breakfast , and all the musical references - - Prince ? A thoroughly modern book with historical context , Kafka on the Shore captured my attention completely . Don't worry about getting it and just go along for the ride . What a story !
016 4 In alluding to the Western pioneer of subconscious fiction , its title prepares us for a strange ride . And so it is not wholly unexpected when early in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore , US Army intelligence officers probe Japanese witnesses to uncover the cause of a strange phenomenon . On a certain day during the Second World War , schoolchildren hiking in a forest fell en masse into a deep sleep , according to those familiar with the case . As the children begin to snap out of their trance-like states some few hours later , a boy named Nakata remains unconscious , his eyes open and slowly moving from side to side . Exceptionally , when he does awaken weeks later , his memory has been wiped clean . Commenting on the amnesia which has befallen Nakata , a psychiatric expert introduces the American interviewer to the concept of spirit projection .
Japanese folktales are full of this sort of thing , where the soul temporarily leaves the body and goes off a great distance to take care of some vital task and then returns to reunite with the body . The conceit turns out to be central to both of the novel's storylines : that of Nakata , who rejoins the world in a dimmed state to carve furniture and catch cats in his neighborhood of Tokyo ; and that of Kafka Tamura , a 15 year-old runaway searching for his mother and sister . The flight of souls from life to what's after , from present to past , and from person to person make for a sometimes jumbled airspace , but , invariably , the greater challenge to connecting the dots of Kafka On the Shore's storyline lies in actually putting the book down .
Kafka's story begins as his fifteenth birthday ushers in the ideal age to run away . Kafka admonishes himself , From now on - - no matter what - - you've got to be the world's toughest fifteen-year-old . That's the only way you're going to survive . And in order to do that , you've got to figure out what it means to be tough . Humorously , Kafka's version of a tough runaway roughs it at a second-tier business hotel , eating at modest sit-down restaurants , after daily gym sessions . Clearly , Kafka's trials are psychic , his toughness required to deal with the Oedipal curse put on him by his father , an appreciated sculptor . On the night his famous dad turns up murdered , Kafka wakes up soaked in someone else's blood . But his innocence is assured - - he is halfway across the country when the incident occurs .
Or so it seems until Kafka's friend Oshima , a librarian who gradually becomes more involved in his life , advances an explanation having to do with living spirits . That kind of thing appears a lot in Japanese literature he notes . The Tale of Genji , for instance , is filled with living spirits . In the Heian period - - or at least in its psychological realm - - on occasion people could become living spirits and travel through space to carry out whatever desires they had .
So as police hunt for Kafka , the young man is ushered into hiding by Oshima , whose secluded cabin lies deep in the wooded mountains of Japan . In the mountain scenes , Murakami excels in creating another , darker world . Here we find nestled a guarded temple that provides shelter to the spirits of the living . Bounds of reality are constantly challenged in the novel , both in its manner of story-telling , and in its characters , who are so often special cases . When Oshima , a strong-willed intellectual , is taken to task for his sexist opinions , he rebuffs the charge , revealing himself as a hermaphrodite . In a notably even-tempered tirade against narrow minds devoid of imagination , Oshima asserts that What I can't stand are hollow people .
The concept of hollow people , that is , people who are capable of being used as a vessel , is expanded in the book . When Kafka's father is murdered , he appears in the guise of an evil Johnny Walker , replete with top hat , cape , and knee boots . Out to steal the soul of various cats , Johnny Walker here encounters Nakata , who becomes entwined in Kafka's fate . The shifting identities of the book's characters and spirit projections create another plane for their interaction . The head librarian , a mother figure to Kafka , too seems to be a vessel for her own fifteen-year-old soul . Her intense relationship with her son occurs both in reality and in the temple of spirits . Though difficult to neatly summarize , Murakami enables the suspension of disbelief through a cleverly plotted storyline . The story's extra dimension creates a space in which contemporary conceptions of love are challenged .
Kafka on the Shore is also the name of a painting in the book . Its scene depicts a boy , alone on shore , watching a lover's boat move away to another island . Through such imagery , Murakami relates the sensation of being removed , taken away to a past life that is only accessible in dreams . The spirit projection may resist analysis , but it serves to state a physical longing , and readers will empathize enough to be swept along with the narrative . Though at instances we feel like Hansel and Gretel , leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that have disappeared when we turn around , Murakami's rapid pacing , straightforward prose , and sense of humor make reading Kafka on the Shore a wholly pleasurable experience .
017 4 Before KAFKA ON THE SHORE , I had only read some short pieces in VINTAGE MURAKAMI , which struck me as very Raymond Carveresque pieces with slight doses of absurdity and surrealism . . . interesting , but nothing earth-shaking .
KAFKA ON THE SHORE shattered , then far exceeded , my expectations . The story cuts between Kafka Tamura , a 15 - year old boy running away from a strange and unhappy home , and an elderly , mentally disabled man Nakata who can speak to cats . Kafka strikes me as a rather typical existentialist narrator - - a distant and removed Stranger to his environs - - but the learned and eloquent characters he meets ( like Oshima ) , as well as his inner explorations , provide for fascinating reading . Nakata's story is more dream-like , with extravagantly surreal episodes like fish raining from the sky , at first leaving the reader unclear as to whether we are in a world of magic or just have an unreliable narrator .
This fascinating work is the best I've read for some time , weaving fantastic elements of magic and dreams in while retaining the down-to-earth reality of the characters and straightforward prose that I have come to expect from Japanese authors . Think magic realism , but more , with more magic AND realism than its predecessors .
I can't recommend KAFKA ON THE SHORE highly enough .
018 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Hardcover )
Every once in a while you read a book that gets deep into the marrow of your bones , and Kafka at the Shore is such a book for me . It is essentially a book about the mystery of time , and the magic of metaphor . The whole of it is a metaphoric poem , a post-modern version of the Oedipus myth as it unfolds in the life of Kafka Tamura , the 15 year old protagonist . Summaries of the book sound silly and odd - - talking cats , fish falling from the sky , Colonel Sanders as a pimp , a man who eats cat's hearts and makes a flute from their souls , but it is none of these odd plot elements that makes it so powerful . Rather it is the book's metaphoric power - - how we see the whole of life and death in it - - suffering , loss , desire , love , promise , fate and all conditions in between . It takes us to the edge of the world and brings us back deeply enriched and nourished . It propels us into what Murakami calls the pure present , in one of the best pair of sentences I've come across in a while : The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future . In truth , all sensation is already memory .
019 4 Every once in a while you read a book that gets deep into the marrow of your bones , and Kafka at the Shore is such a book for me . It is essentially a book about the mystery of time , and the magic of metaphor . The whole of it is a metaphoric poem , a post-modern version of the Oedipus myth as it unfolds in the life of Kafka Tamura , the 15 year old protagonist . Summaries of the book sound silly and odd - - talking cats , fish falling from the sky , Colonel Sanders as a pimp , a man who eats cat's hearts and makes a flute from their souls , but it is none of these odd plot elements that makes it so powerful . Rather it is the book's metaphoric power - - how we see the whole of life and death in it - - suffering , loss , desire , love , promise , fate and all conditions in between . It takes us to the edge of the world and brings us back deeply enriched and nourished . It propels us into what Murakami calls the pure present , in one of the best pair of sentences I've come across in a while : The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future . In truth , all sensation is already memory .
020 4 Please permit me to first state that I am true Murakami fan . I have found all of his works more than enjoyable , and wish that I could read Wind Up Bird and Norwegian Wood for the first time ad infinitum . This said , Kafka on the Shore was a bit of a disappointment , and yet it is still Murakami and therefore deserves four stars .
My general feeling about this book was that Murakami felt like he had not gotten his point across in his other works , and hence , wrote this story trying to reiterate all of his old themes into this new piece . Foremost , Murakami is obsessed with the idea that as we move through life we leave some that is essential to our being behind . We go through a process of recognizing this . This process is takes us on a journey that is very much like an absurd detective story to find what has been lost and eventually come to terms with it .
This is exactly what Kafka on the Shore does . It is a mix between Wind Up Bird ( reference to wells and Japan's military past ) and the End of the World portion of Hardboiled Wonderland . . . ( shadows ) . Yet , the story does not leave the reader with the same sense of empathy for the protaganist that is so common across his other novels . For example , while Dance Dance Dance lacked the depth of other works , it was immensely entertaining and empathetic . This is Kafka's true downfall . Nevertheless , as the days have gone by since reading the story , the reader is still left with the contemplative sensation as with any of his other works .
Finally , I was a bit confused by his literary references . In the first half of story , Murakami's characters discuss important Japanese authors . Then he moves toward Greek mythology , and finally popular Western Music ( leaving the Japanese behind ) . At first , I thought he was trying to make his novel truly Japanese to thwart criticism of being too Westernized . But , then he abandons the Japenese references altogether and moves completely to the West . Hmmm ?
But , if you are a true Murakami fan , read Kafka on the Shore . You may be a bit disappointment , but it's still Haruki . If you've never read him before , then , there's nothing to lose .
021 4 Wow . A book that sometimes reads like a soulful Coltrane riff , sometimes like the sexy stuff of Prince , and sometimes like Beethoven at his moody , genius best , The novel , part science fiction , part love story , part coming of age , part mystery , is one to take as it comes , sometimes slowly and sometimes faster than breath . Murakami tells the mysterious story of Kafka the toughest fifteen year old in the world , who is running from his father's Oedipal curse . The story of Nakata , a kindly , illiterate older man is enterwined with and balances the mood of Kafka's tale . Nakata , who speaks to cats and can cause natural disasters is joined in the story by Hoshino , a young truck driver compelled to help Nakata at any cost . This is a sometimes manic , moody and mindful exploration of the possibility of labyrinthine Time loops where people can be thrust into outcomes other than what is meant to be . Nakata and the director of the library , the lovely Miss Saeki , are two people whose lives were affected by such an experience . Both have suffered great losses as a consequence , and both have very weak shadows , which in Murakami's stories define people who have lost their memories , the part of themselves connected to this life . Murakami explores metaphors considered in his other works to new effect . The library is repository of memory . The forest is a place of contentment in being completely oneself . Love and how we do or do not live it define the people of Kafka on the Shore . Sex and gender are well considered themes . Oshima , the library assistant who becomes a friend to Kafka gives insight to Aristophones and the concept of the beloved as ones's other half - male / male , female / female , or male / female - how we stumble through our life desperately fumbling for our other half . Most readers will sympathise and delight in Kafka's first sexual experiences and mind blowing , as well as heart breaking first love . Murakami creates nuanced minor characters , including talking cats , who move the story toward the climax and often give philosophical substance to their encounters with the main cast . There is one notable hooker who combines the philosophy of Henri Bergson ( quoted in my title ) with Hegel's thoughts , At the same time I am the content of a relation , I am also that which does the relating , and sex takes on a mind boggling tantric twist for Hoshino's enlightenment and pleasure . Kafka and the others in this story explore what it means to be a truly free human , how we mostly trap ourselves into mindsets and habits that do not support loving kindness to ourselves as well as others , and how by actually giving ourselves over to what is needed and what we can do about it , we become untrapped , never bored , and in love with our time of life . This is one of the books I will pick up to read again in part and in total , because I think it speaks to all ages , and it does so with humor , warmth , intelligence and love for the everyman .
022 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Paperback )
Haruki Murakami said , in an interview , that he was trying to use simple language to tell a very complicated story in KAFKA ON THE SHORE . He lamented the fact that most authors seem to be doing it the other way around . He might be right about that , but I'm not sure why that's such a bad thing . In fact , if you take KAFKA as his argument for a new stylism , then I've gotta vote on the side of the complicated words telling simple stories .
The unfortunate thing is that KAFKA reads like the shadow of something much , much better . Or , better yet , like a mosaic of pieces that have broken off of better ideas . It's a complicated story , alright , about the intertwining fates of a fifteen year-old runaway with an Oedipal curse and a mentally handicapped man named Nakata ( who , incidentally , can speak the language of cats ) . Punctuated throughout both stories are seemingly disconnected eccentricities : soldiers who never age , a Colonel Sanders pimp , otherworldly coincidences , dream-shifts , transdimensional beings , and - - possibly - - incest . Lots of incest .
There's a very real possibility that I found the novel so distasteful because the first tale is told from the point of view of the runaway , Kafka , who , it turns out , is a really bad storyteller . Artists are those who can evade the verbose , Murakami writes in this novel , and yet Kafka never fails to describe in droning detail the clothing and accoutrements of everyone he meets . Maybe that's just a testament to Kafka's shallowness , his pervasive pubescent indigence , his inability to see beyond his own needs . ( Although , instead of needs , I should write sexual desires . )
Ironically , Murakami includes a discussion on Chekhov halfway through the book . Chekhov wrote that if , in a play , we see a gun on the table in Act One , buy the final act , that gun should have been fired . It's an excellent rule , an argument not just for necessity and meaning , but also for narrative import . Murakami writes , on behalf of Chekhov , What doesn't play a role shouldn't exist . And then he fills this book with the most bloated nonsense : an out-of-place argument against women's rights that contributes nothing to the story , detailed explanations of food and forests , and lots of lingering descriptions of Kafka's genitalia .
I get that Kafka is fifteen , and perhaps obliged to be phallocentric , but it doesn't make him a very sympathetic character , which is unfortunate , because he's half of the book . He is running away from a dark and foreboding family life , and he carries with him a disturbing , sexy prophecy , handed down by his father . Kafka behaves , at first , as if he is running away to avoid this prophetic curse ( and believing this makes the first half of the book bearable ) , but Kafka eventually embraces his fate , rationalizing his actions by saying that he doesn't want to be at the mercy of anything but his own decisions . Romeo makes the same delusional argument at the end of Shakespeare's play , just before he kills himself . The argument in this case has a similar effect , although instead of resulting in the death of a character , it simply kills the story .
The trickiest thing to this kind of off-the-wall fiction is focus and meaning , and Kafka has none of either , although he does a lot of aimless searching for the latter . The most effective part of the book is the half that follows Nakata , a man who appears to be mental disabled , but who has strange and intersting powers . Nakata is being led by some unknown force on a quest for an entrance stone , and along the way he encounters whisky mascots , some unusual precipitation , and a surprisingly helpful trucker . Nakata is an endearing character , if not one-note , and his story - - even with some of its unexplained nuttiness - - has some drive and consistency .
Unfortunately , it doesn't batten down the emotional mess with which it is paired . Murakami is trying to make a much larger point , he's trying to demonstrate the subtle geometry of love and loss , and longing and belonging . It's like using math to explain the motion of waves on the shore : the equations are complicated , dark , and perhaps unending ( and , ultimately , unsolvable ) . It's intriguing , I'll give him that .
But even the best ideas need limits , and this book sprawls all over the place like a stoner who's passed out on your couch , spouting pseudo-philosophical non sequiters and self-referential witticisms that aren't nearly as sly as they think they are . Characters get into herky-jerky dialogues just so Murakami has a chance to make a quick comment on the nature of symbols , or consciousness , or what it means to exist . He crams these bite-sized philosophy prompts and lectures into the lines and instead of being profound or thought-provoking , they cripple the already glacial pace of this book .
There's nothing wrong with absurdism that a little humor and self-deprecation won't fix , but there's none of those things in KAFKA ON THE SHORE . Instead , it's a pastiche of barely edible egoism , a shotgun approach to metaphysics and spiritualism . In the last third of the book , Murakami writes , Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time . . . Pointless thinking is worse than no thinking at all .
I can't say I agree with that statement - - not 100% , anyway - - but if you do , then you're better off not reading this book .
023 4 Haruki Murakami said , in an interview , that he was trying to use simple language to tell a very complicated story in KAFKA ON THE SHORE . He lamented the fact that most authors seem to be doing it the other way around . He might be right about that , but I'm not sure why that's such a bad thing . In fact , if you take KAFKA as his argument for a new stylism , then I've gotta vote on the side of the complicated words telling simple stories .
The unfortunate thing is that KAFKA reads like the shadow of something much , much better . Or , better yet , like a mosaic of pieces that have broken off of better ideas . It's a complicated story , alright , about the intertwining fates of a fifteen year-old runaway with an Oedipal curse and a mentally handicapped man named Nakata ( who , incidentally , can speak the language of cats ) . Punctuated throughout both stories are seemingly disconnected eccentricities : soldiers who never age , a Colonel Sanders pimp , otherworldly coincidences , dream-shifts , transdimensional beings , and - - possibly - - incest . Lots of incest .
There's a very real possibility that I found the novel so distasteful because the first tale is told from the point of view of the runaway , Kafka , who , it turns out , is a really bad storyteller . Artists are those who can evade the verbose , Murakami writes in this novel , and yet Kafka never fails to describe in droning detail the clothing and accoutrements of everyone he meets . Maybe that's just a testament to Kafka's shallowness , his pervasive pubescent indigence , his inability to see beyond his own needs . ( Although , instead of needs , I should write sexual desires . )
Ironically , Murakami includes a discussion on Chekhov halfway through the book . Chekhov wrote that if , in a play , we see a gun on the table in Act One , buy the final act , that gun should have been fired . It's an excellent rule , an argument not just for necessity and meaning , but also for narrative import . Murakami writes , on behalf of Chekhov , What doesn't play a role shouldn't exist . And then he fills this book with the most bloated nonsense : an out-of-place argument against women's rights that contributes nothing to the story , detailed explanations of food and forests , and lots of lingering descriptions of Kafka's genitalia .
I get that Kafka is fifteen , and perhaps obliged to be phallocentric , but it doesn't make him a very sympathetic character , which is unfortunate , because he's half of the book . He is running away from a dark and foreboding family life , and he carries with him a disturbing , sexy prophecy , handed down by his father . Kafka behaves , at first , as if he is running away to avoid this prophetic curse ( and believing this makes the first half of the book bearable ) , but Kafka eventually embraces his fate , rationalizing his actions by saying that he doesn't want to be at the mercy of anything but his own decisions . Romeo makes the same delusional argument at the end of Shakespeare's play , just before he kills himself . The argument in this case has a similar effect , although instead of resulting in the death of a character , it simply kills the story .
The trickiest thing to this kind of off-the-wall fiction is focus and meaning , and Kafka has none of either , although he does a lot of aimless searching for the latter . The most effective part of the book is the half that follows Nakata , a man who appears to be mental disabled , but who has strange and intersting powers . Nakata is being led by some unknown force on a quest for an entrance stone , and along the way he encounters whisky mascots , some unusual precipitation , and a surprisingly helpful trucker . Nakata is an endearing character , if not one-note , and his story - - even with some of its unexplained nuttiness - - has some drive and consistency .
Unfortunately , it doesn't batten down the emotional mess with which it is paired . Murakami is trying to make a much larger point , he's trying to demonstrate the subtle geometry of love and loss , and longing and belonging . It's like using math to explain the motion of waves on the shore : the equations are complicated , dark , and perhaps unending ( and , ultimately , unsolvable ) . It's intriguing , I'll give him that .
But even the best ideas need limits , and this book sprawls all over the place like a stoner who's passed out on your couch , spouting pseudo-philosophical non sequiters and self-referential witticisms that aren't nearly as sly as they think they are . Characters get into herky-jerky dialogues just so Murakami has a chance to make a quick comment on the nature of symbols , or consciousness , or what it means to exist . He crams these bite-sized philosophy prompts and lectures into the lines and instead of being profound or thought-provoking , they cripple the already glacial pace of this book .
There's nothing wrong with absurdism that a little humor and self-deprecation won't fix , but there's none of those things in KAFKA ON THE SHORE . Instead , it's a pastiche of barely edible egoism , a shotgun approach to metaphysics and spiritualism . In the last third of the book , Murakami writes , Taking crazy things seriously is a serious waste of time . . . Pointless thinking is worse than no thinking at all .
I can't say I agree with that statement - - not 100% , anyway - - but if you do , then you're better off not reading this book .
024 4 Kafka on the Shore
On his 15th birthday a boy decides it is time to run away from home . He adopts the first name of Kafka while keeping is last name Tamura . After taking some money and other odds and ends from his father Kafka boards a bus in Tokyo and leaves for Shikoku which is south of Tokyo . . .
Nakata was involved in a strange phenomenon as a child during World War 2 . The event left him in a coma for some time . After waking he had forgotten everything including who he and his family were and how to read . Years pass and Nakata is now an older man and still cannot read or write . He can however talk with cats and uses this unusual gift to locate missing cats in and around the City in which he lives . . . . . . .
This was my first experience with Haruki Murakami and it was a very enjoyable one . Murakami's writing is heavy handed with metaphors , analogies , and symbolism . There are also a lot of metaphysical elements to his writing in Kafka . This book and Murakami for that matter is definitely not for everyone . The story did not unwind along a typical plot line , and other elements of the story which to say the least will come across as very unusual and will likely turn some readers off . The story isn't an action packed novel and it isn't full of explosions but the writing was great and just seemed to flow seamlessly and kept me interested throughout .
The Good : The writing overall very good . Murakami used an atypical style . Half of the book ( Kafka's chapters ) are written in the first person point of view and the other half ( Nakata's chapters ) are written in a third person point of view . I liked that the story didn't follow a typical plot line . It kind of reminded me of Stanley Kubrick's stories and how they unwind in that there isn't an ultimate goal for the characters . The story just examines the characters for a particular period of time . As mentioned this book is heavy in metaphysics which I found interesting but may not work for other readers .
The Bad : Nothing memorable . There are some elements to the story that some readers may find unusual to say the least but I can't give details without giving spoilers .
Overall : If you can handle the metaphysical aspect of this book pick it up and give it a try . It is definitely worth reading .
025 4 As a fan of the Wind-up Bird Chronicle , Murakami's Kafka on the Shore provides a surrealistic trip , and an even bigger treat to fans of his previous books . With memorable characters , original story , and Murakami's unorthodox prose and style , Kafka on the Shore is an unforgettable book . Throwing musical , social , and cultural references around , Kafka has an immediate feeling , and makes it seem all the more relevant . Comparing the book to Murakami's masterpiece Wind-up Bird Chronicle is bound to happen , and as a fan I'd have to say I enjoyed both equally .
026 4 Kafka on the Shore may be one of the best places to start reading Murakami's works , and is even a good work to include in a sample of modern Japanese literature . The story has an unusual set of elements to it , including fantasy , dreams , and spirituality , coupled to familiar literary devices , such as parallel and intersecting plot lines and journeys . They're used effectively most of the time , and the writing creates a decent tapestry .
Almost immediately you're sucked into the story , and if you let yourself trust the author's premise for a few pages , you'll be rewarded with a fantastic tale . At times he seems to throw in a twist to save a stale point , but that's forgivable . The ending ( which I wont give away ) was a bit of a let down , although I can't say I'm surprised . I think it would have been impossible to end with the strength the book builds up from time to time .
I found this to be a fast read , having read it over two nights of my vacation . Again , trust the author ( and buy the setup ) , and you'll find yourself enjoying an engaging story .
027 4 Kafka on the Shore is a great book that is different from many Haruki Murakami's previous works . Many of his characters are relaxed people in their thirties . They go with the flow and do not worry about tomorrow . The personage of the book is a fifteen - year - old boy who's is name is Kafka . He is very mature and determined person . He knows how to push himself . His story is intertwined with the journey of an elderly man named Nakata and a truck driver Hosino . Their story is surreal and magical . It explains Kafka's journey from metaphysical point of view . With reading on , it becomes absolutely clear that these two stories complement each other .
I have read many books of Haruki Murakami . I find them very deep in spite of the easy language the writer usually uses . He has this talent to impart the atmosphere and feelings of his characters . Just as his other books , Kafka on the Shore gives rise to different , sometimes contrary , emotions . The book brings diverse thoughts .
Kafka on the Shore is especially strong to me because I have reached the age when a person realizes that going with the flow is impossible and starts looking for one's own way and purpose . The book truly opens this side of Kafka's emotional experiences .
The only weakness of this book is its ending . The plot becomes overextended and predictable . The main part of Haruki Murakami's works has this problem . It does not irritate me because many writers do this . I also believe that the goal of the book is to get a writer's thought to a reader . In many cases the ending becomes a sort of framing for the main idea and then it does not matter . Kafka on the shore is among those cases . Haruki Murakami wants his readers to participate in the process and arrive at their own conclusions .
Kafka on the Shore is the book for younger people who do not mind metaphysical tendencies in literature . It is for people with imagination who like to think on and digest a book for some time after reading it . I would also recommend this book to the people that like different and odd books .
Kafka on the Shore is a book that hypnotizes and leaves a reader attached .
028 4 I think Murakami has become the best magic realists of our time . While not as great as Garcia Marquez when he was at the height of his powers , Murakami is nonetheless fabulous . His ability to introduce the surreal in ways that feel real is at the heart of his storytelling gift . He also has a precious ability to guide us into the pain and joys of his primary characters . Young Kafka is so typical of many , many young people today - - - lost and looking for context to their lives . I hope they can go on a search for meaning as rewarding as the one Kafka travels .
029 4 This creative novel from the always facinating Haruki Murakami is more satisfying and focused than The Wind Up Bird Chronicle because it doesn't keep going off on tangents detailing the past of sevral quirky characters.This novel focuses on the experiences of 2 different characters : A 15 year old runaway who finds a new home in an old library and establishes a connection with the mysterious woman who runs it / A slow witted but charismatic old man who can communicate with cats who finds himself on a mysterious quest to find a stone that may open the door to a different world.There are plenty of fantasy elements but it's blended in so well with reality they don't overwhelm the characters.Murakami nicely sidesteps the rules of conventional storytelling , you don't just go from Point A to Point B and this creates an unpredictable reading experience.For such a creative story though it has the sweet nostalgic feel of a coming of age story at times , terrific sly humor and even a suspenseful climax every bit as creepy as a Stephen King book.A great one of a kind book that is the literary dream equivalent of a David Lynch movie .
030 4 Reading , Kafka on the Shore was a mystical experience for me . I felt like I was dreaming about being in a room with an open window and occasionally an ocean wave splashed water on the concrete floor and the breeze carried the smell of brine up into my nostrils .
Did it all make sense ? No . Were there parts of the book that weren't as fully realized as they could be ? Yes . Was it the most deeply affecting novel I'd ever read ? Yes .
Haruki Murakami's work is about things and people existing on multiple planes . In Kafka , Colonial Sanders is a pimp . A son makes love to his fifteen year and fifty year old mother . A simpleton can talk to cats but can't understand much of what people say . By accepting these things , I opened myself up to the illogic of my own subconscious and Kaftka became a waking dream where I felt intensely alive and deeply connected to the world . There has been some critical discussion about how Murakami's technique is based on the Shinto religion . If that's true , then Murikami's genius is in making me feel the essence of this religion without my having any understanding of the culture or philosopy from which it sprang .
I see Kafka as a portal into a world of a new kind of consciousness . I see this in universal terms rather than as a merely a creation of Murakami's . I feel that while Kafka springs from his imagination it speaks to my creative core , one I share with the rest of humanity .
031 4 I've finally finished Haruki Murakami's new novel Kafka On The Shore , and it was an entertaining read . I'm not sure where it ranks among his other books yet . I have to evaluate it in retrospect of what I remember about the other books I've read , some of which were four years ago or longer . It is another mysterious search for meaning and self-definition in the face of evil . There are several loose ends that don't quite get tied up in the end , but Murakami's novels often end up like this . You are often left to draw your own conclusions about the novel's meaning . As usual , there are several motifs and digressions about the individual's fate in society vs . free will , the existence of another world separate from everyday reality , fantastical elements intercede with everyday life . However , it is done in a way so that it seems completely normal and a necessary part of the story . I think the narration is a major departure in that it is from the point of view of the 15 year old Kafka Tamura and mentally challenged Nakata . Kafka must come to terms with his father's premonition that he will be with his sister and mother , and kill his father . Nakata , an old man who had a mysterious accident as a child that has made him a sort of autistic adult with the ability to talk to cats , goes on a journey to set the world right before dying . During the course of the novel we encounter Johnny Walker , as a cat murderer and physic representation of evil , Colonel Sanders , as a pimp and seer , fish and leeches fall from the sky , and there's another pure love lost-story not unlike what we first saw in Norwegian Wood . This is his longest novel since The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles , and it really allows you to get to know the characters as they move toward their respective fates .
032 4 To begin with a major annoyance , the English translation by Prof . Philip Gabriel of Murakami Haruki's Kafka On the Shore has been excessively britishized for the first Vintage paperback edition . The result is a weird mixture of American syntax and style with British spelling , typography , and vocabulary ( mobile phones , lorries , and torches abound ) . Alas , this mixture isn't just weird and off-putting : it's effectively out-pulling insofar as the translation's constant flow of linguistic inconsistencies pulls you right out of the story , time and again . It's a great example of what I've come to call the Transparency With Birds effect . Meanwhile , Vintage also issued Gabriel's original translation in a reprint paperback edition , so both that and the original hardcover edition are an option .
The story itself can wrap you up & take you away , but Kafka on the Shore is certainly not among Haruki's masterpieces . The story lines are excessively opaque and excessively predictable at the same time , the characters at once over - and underdeveloped , and the novel has a Stephen King-ish feeling about it ( certain motifs , characters , modes of progression ) , but without King's knack for weaving even the most outlandish storylines into a gripping and satisfying solution . Not that Kafka On the Shore needed a solution , but it also lacks internal coherence . In the end , too many things and events have not been accounted for , neither in terms of a solution nor in terms of coherence . And certainly not in terms of development : especially Kafka Tamura , the principal character with first-person view ( mostly ) , seems to have ended up right where he started , up to and including his fully intact alter ego that goes by the name of Crow .
The story's development , like the characters ' , is designed to be labyrinthine - - - a recurrent motif - - - rather than linear . Only , it's more circular than labyrinthine , on balance . While both the phrases wrong turns must be righted and wrong turns have been righted turn up sufficiently often in the original paperback edition's 615 pages to suggest one must have missed some major plot point or other , it is close to impossible even after attempts at backtracking to pinpoint what wrong turns have been taken when by which characters , let alone righted . That's postmodern , alright . Speaking of which , there's also that typically postmodern mix of ancient archetypes and corporate conspiracy elements , complete with a more than decent load of learned detours into art & culture , but without the tightly controlled over-the-top playfulness of , like , John Barth's or Donald Barthelme's or Robert Coover's fiction . Plus , Murakami's use of feminist characters and corporate icons feels forced , heavy-handed , and artificial . At times , the heavy-handedness even affects his writing technique : the way two pseudo-feminist cardboard characters function to reveal important attributes of another important character's make-up ( Oshima ) borders on hack work .1
But still , Kafka on the Shore is a rich and gripping reading experience . It does expand one's understanding of the world , or at least one's repertoire of questions . But of weaknesses , alas , it has more than its fair share .
> > This review has been updated on Dec . 8 , 2009 . The updated review was originally published at my blog [ . . . ] .
033 4 I do enjoy Haruki Murakami . I am one who responded particularly well to Dance ! Dance ! Dance ! , Wind-up Bird , and Hard-Boiled Wonderland . I also never saw the appeal of Norwegian Wood nor The Wild Sheep Chase . If you enjoyed either of those books , you might want to take my review with a grain of salt . If your tastes run in my same direction , then you might not even want to give this one a read ( though an author's failures can bring us much insight into his work - - if you truly love Murakami , you might enjoy the activity of asking yourself , why didn't this one work ? )
Here were the good points of the novel : 1 . a strong beginning , 2 . sympathetic characters , 3 . an eerie atmosphere on occasion constructed .
However , I felt this novel suffered severely from the lack of an uncanny energy that practically drives most of Murakami's works . Our author is remarkable at producing a strange and powerful sensation in the reader that everything that is happening is meant to happen , links up into some coherent whole , and is also eerily familiar . He does this in part through an everyman protagonist who is forced to undergo the bizarreness of supernatural events that resonate with a psychological reality . He clearly understands how to create an atmosphere of mystery and tension in many of his other novels : he rides the line beautifully between realistic and mundane descriptions and events , and the occasional moment of a breakthrough into another world - - the other side . It happens when we least expect it , like self-insight .
In Kafka , the characters are too certain about where they are going and what they are doing . The reader is alienated from them . They handle too perfectly the wierdness of the situation that surrounds them . Murakami sacrifices the uncanny and any real tension in order to produce characters who are in control ( as another reviewer puts it ) . But what is so powerful about Murakami's writing is that he recognizes ( usually ) how nothing is truly within our power .
Also , he does not ride the balance all that well between normalcy ( even mundanity ) and the fantastic . He leaps into the fantastic without giving us sufficient build-up ( except for the first several chapters , which are nice ) or sufficient time to reflect upon what has occured .
And can anyone tell me what's with the gratuitous prostitute ?
034 4 If you don't like avant-garde-ish stuff , don't read this book . If you think postmodernism is of the Devil ( or just very lazy messed-up minds ) , don't even bother opening this book . If you think philosophy is a waste of time , don't even go near Murakami .
Because he has characters quoting things like :
The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future . In truth , all sensation is already memory . ( Henri Bergson )
At the same time that ' I ' am the content of a relation , ' I ' am also that which does the relating . ( Hegel ) . The girl proceeds to expound the phrase : Hegel believed that a person is not merely conscious of self and object as separate entities , but through the projection of the self via the mediation of the object is volitionally able to gain a deeper understanding of the self . All of which constitutes self-consciousness .
A page later , a guy who's the embodiment of Colonel Sanders ( a'la KFC ) chides a truck-driver :
A revelation leaps over the borders of the everyday . A life without revelation is no life at all . What you need to do is move from reason that observes to reason that acts . That's what's critical . Do you have any idea what I'm talking about , you gold-plated whale of a dunce ?
Now get this . The Bergson and Hegel quotes / remarks are smack in the middle of a love scene and made by a college girl prostituting herself for tuition money . Her client was the truck-driver . Colonel Sanders was the pimp .
I'll be honest : I DIDN'T ' GET ' THIS BOOK ! I'm not aware of any conventional-sounding reason for Murakami writing this . Like sound bytes which sound good ( if a little awkward ) , it's like one big collection of provocations , ' mysteries ' , pseudo-connections - and just too bad for coherency .
I enjoyed SOME parts of it and Murakami has a way of drawing you in , enticing you to read more . But in the end , I'll be honest , I felt a little cheated . I felt like that whale cum dunce . And I likely won't think of KFC the same way again .
035 4 I am a fan of Murakami and I read already most of his novels . I liked Kafka on the shore . It took me on its waves on a fantastic magic ride and lead me to a safe shore in the end . I agree that sometimes in this novel , Murakami gets carried away with his imagination ( ex . the personnages of Johnie Walker and the KFC colonel were a little too much for me : - ) ) but in a whole reading it was a intellectual and spiritual pleasure.However , I want to point out the surprising didactic aspect of the novel . Maybe because it deals with a 15 years old boy it has many didactic messages along with the plot . Like the discipline and gym exercises that Tamura does , his reading and music tastes also the other characters have a lot of didactic sayings - I did not mind that but I wonder if it was done intentionally ( maybe there was a request of the education ministry to write an educating novel for young generation : - ) ) - there is a lot more to talk about this novel but that needs a lot of time and space ( a reading club maybe ) so in the meantime I wish Murakami to keep on his wonderful work because I enjoy a lot reading it .
Mary B . Bloom
036 4 Any book that can hold you on the edge of delighted and confused from the first page to the last is a real treat . An author who tackles a surrealist plot takes on the challenge of maintaining a convincing atmosphere of being at the border between reality and imagination without ever slipping too far in either direction . Murakami met the challenge in spades in Kafka on the Shore .
From the very first page of the book you sense having one foot in a world you can't wholly understand and another in the world you do understand . Murakami maintains the feeling for the length of the book to marvelous effect . You end up taking a journey with the young Japanese protagonist ( Kafka ) that is both entertaining and thought-provoking .
As you read the book , you'll notice influences that range from the X-Files to Don Quixote and you'll never want to put it down . Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys slightly surreal or existential fiction .
037 4 At first glance , Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore looks big and dense . On the other hand , it does not feel as such . Chapters fly by as the plot thickens : it's a page-turner . However , at the core of the novel Murakami is attempting just what his novel looks like : something bigger and more far-reaching than a potboiler .
The novel at once tells the story of Kafka Tamura and Nakata . Kafka is the world's toughest fifteen-year-old . After running away from his father in Tokyo , he begins on a journey to a new life to find his mother and sister who left when he was little while at the same time drawn by some force to the island of Shikoku . Nakata is an elderly man whose mental abilities were compromised in a freak accident during World War II . He is also left with a strange gift , however : the ability to talk to cats . The two characters are drawn together as the mysteries behind Kafka's family , Nakata's past , and the past of a beautiful and tragic librarian , Ms . Saeki , are unraveled .
The strengths of the book lie in the wealth of characters that Murakami creates . They are all unique : Hoshino , a sleepy-looking man in his mid-twenties , not very tall , with a ponytail , a pierced ear , and a Chunichi Dragons baseball team cap who helps Nakata on his search , Oshima , an attractive hermaphrodite , among some . Murakami shows his skill as a writer in the way that he creates them all distinctly , but binds them closer and closer together . It is the human connections in the book that help solve the mysteries of Kafka and Nakata . Even when these connections are not conventional , say the romance between an older woman and Kafka , Murakami finds the beauty in these relationships .
Throughout the book , the influences of both traditional and modern Japanese culture show . The book carries more than a hint of Japanese spiritualism . Nakata talks to a rock , ghosts appear from the past , and a spirit incarnated as Colonel Sanders even appears to guide Hoshino . There is never a sense that one power is driving the strange revelations and coincidences in the lives of the characters , but of many different spiritual entities . Some of the most important scenes in the book take place in dreams . It is in these dreams that the true nature of people is revealed . As in Murakami's other novel , The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , the shadow of World War II still looms as an important event for Nakata . Lastly , the people that Murakami explores in his book are not he people who fit perfectly into Japanese society . Kafka tries to live alone , . . . I have zero friends . I've built a wall around me , never letting anybody inside , he says . Nakata is also alone after his accident when he cannot perform to the standards of society .
Kafka on the Shore leaves much to be desired : there are many unanswered questions and seemingly loose ends when it is finished . Do not expect Murakami to wrap these things up for you because he enjoys leaving the reader to hypothesize and draw their own conclusions , on many levels , from his book .
038 4 This is my first time reading Japanese author Haruki Murakami - and it will definitely not be my last . Kafka on the Shore is quite enigmatic , and the story is such an origial tale with enormous seductive powers . The novel consists of two intertwining stories featuring 15 - year old run-away student Kafka Tamura and retired feline-loving simpleton Nakata . They are both on a journey , but for different reasons . The coming-of-age story of Kafka is the perfect compliment to Nakata's exit-of age . Don't worry about me giving away the ending - mostly because the author himself dosn't seem to be giving it away . Suffice it to say it is a modern Oedipus tale sauteed with plenty of surreal twists served over a steeming order of nail-biting suspense .
I have recently read too many novels where there are lots of mysteries and overly constructed surprises only to have a conclusion where it is all nicely tied up and neatly explained - and you are supposed to be surprised as to how it all was really connected . It is becoming such a tired and quite predictable formula . This story , however , will not give you the answers like tomorrow's newspaper will give you the solved sudoku puzzle .
In a certain way , Murakami reminds me a bit of Kundera ( my all-time favorite author ) . The characters are compelling , the descriptions acute , yet elusive , the emotions raw and brutally honest , and the sense of mystery unapologetically lingers long after the story ends .
As far as the translation is concerned , it did seem a bit over-translated at times . It seemed artifial to read about dollars instead of yen , and the colloquial expressions often seemed too American . . . However , I don't speak any Japanese , so I cannot be too critical - I can just offer my sense of the translated text .
I cannot wait to read more from this Japanese Kundera . . .
039 4 If it is the first time you read Murakami , do not begin your journey with this book . You really should go through his short stories , and then at least Dance Dance Dance before you try this one . It is not an easy reading , and unless you are used to Murakami's style , are familiar with some of his previous works and ideas , you will not enjoy the book as much as you potentially can .
On the other side , if you are already hooked by Norvegian forest and are able to listen to the songs of the wind , then add this one to your bookshelf and enjoy .
( Sorry , I am slightly cheating here - I usually read Murakami's books in Russian translations , which are fabulous - I do not know whether Murakami was lost in translation into English.Hopefully , not - and it's worth the try , anyway . )
040 4 This book is for people who like to ponder a book a long time after reading it . It is a good book for bedtime readers , since the chapters are short and the book is easy to remember where you left off if you doze off , book-in-hand .
A good Book Club selection ; being metaphysical , it should get people talkiing .
Easily one of the best nonfiction works of 2005 .
041 4 Kafka on the Shore richly deserves its praise by The New York Times as one of its most notable books of fiction in 2005 . On a more personal note , I regard it as the most compelling new work of fiction I have read this year , and substantially more absorbing a read than the novel which I regard now as a distant Number Two , Rick Moody's The Diviners . But I do wonder whether it is truly one of Haruki Murakami's masterpieces ; of these both Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles are genuine literary classics of modern world literature . In stark contrast , I agree with a previous Amazon reviewer that the Kafka Tamura saga - one of the two intertwined plots - is reminiscent of Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World . And yet here , unlike in the earlier novel , Murakami seems fascinated in seeing Kafka's strange odyssey via the eyes of a 15 year-old teenager , not a thirty-something adult Japanese male .
Kafka on the Shore is an epic , modern near classic devoted to the themes of loneliness , love and longing . While Kafka Tamura's odyssey for a mysterious mother and older sister who vanished when he was four is quite compelling in its own right , this plot is occasionally overshadowed by the bizarre saga of the geriatric simpleton Nakata , the mysterious survivor of a bizarre World War II episode in his childhood , and somone who has a most unusual rapport with cats . Indeed , Nakata , in many respects , may be the novel's true emotional core and truly one of the most compelling , original characters ever created by Murakami . Their separate quests will lead them from Tokyo to the distant Japanese town of Takamatsu , and involve not only love , but murder most foul , and strange events such as a rain of sardines falling from the sky . With Kafka on the Shore , Haruki Murakami reaffirms his position as Japan's most important contemporary novelist , and one of our great writers of modern contemporary fiction .
042 4 To name a novel after an author you are compared to is only the beginning of Murakami's many tricks . Kafka , the author , is credited for creating sub-narratives , ones which exist only in the reader's mind . Murakami is proudly in dept to Kafka , and goes so far as to name a book after him , knowing it will raise a hair or two on all his readers .
Similar to Hard Boiled and Wonderland , the novel is split into alternating chapters . One is of a runaway named Kafka , the other is of a semi-retarded older man named Nakata . Their respective stories read autonomously at first , but in classic Murakami vein , subtle correlations between the stories start poking around , and one soon becomes suspicious that perhaps the stories run parallel in some dimension . Brilliant handling on reader's tendencies to remember and / or forget things . It's as if Murakami is relying on reader's forgetfulness to play with recollection and dreams . The novel reads at many parts like a dream , in which time and space are absorbed into a small point , only to expand again when pertinent .
There are traditional plot strategies : a murder , a mystery , and a chase . However , these act as only anchors in the narrative . What Murakami is more interested in is identity , both symbolically ( who we are as people ) and formally ( character aspects in a novel ) . Murakami plays with classic themes : unrequited love , oedipal complex , abandonment , adolescent loneliness , implications of war , and spiritual pilgrimages .
What makes this novel very special is that the ` mystery ' is never solved . Readers are never granted the satisfaction of finding out what really happened . All the characters remain the same ; only in the reader's head do the characters bleed into one another . On the written page , there is no proof that anything uncommon actually happened , and when they do , it is attributed as a dream ( certain characters sleep for two day stretches during the same time that crazy things happen ) . Yet , by the end of the novel , we aren't so sure about what exactly happened . Was Miss Saeki Kafka's mother ? Did they sleep together ? Is Kafka the boy on the shore who died long ago ? Is Nakata really Kafka after is entered the ` entrance ' in the forest ? Was one story simply the dream of the respective story's character ?
The answers are not important . The ` memories ' that the reader carries away-memories from the ` real ' novel , memories from the memories in the novel , memories of reading the novel , and the myriad of blurry tiers that divide such things-are what are most important to Murakami , and us .
043 4 Kafka on the Shore is my first dose of Haruki Murakami , and one that I took up on a whim . After reading some reviews here , I also thought it was worth a shot . It was a shot I certainly in no way regret .
The first thing I would mention is the stunning array of unusual , but at the same time so real , characters . Kafka Tamura , the 15 - year-old runaway , forms the main narrative , but there are major contributions from likes of Nakata , the mentally challenged elderly man who talks to cats . Perhaps the most interesting character is Oshima , but I will leave the reasons for the reader to discover . The characers were all touching some way , and all of them had real flaws , but also some real virtues . Despite their oddity , I found myself identifying with them and even sympathising with them .
Thrown into the mix is a heady concoction of truly bizarre events that all seem to link in together . Events spread over decades of time start to intertwine as the book progresses , as the pieces fall into place . The seemingly out of this world is merely commonplace in Kafka on the Shore , which did a lot to rattle my own frame of reference .
In addition to the events and characters , Murakami has loaded his novel with various changes in person of the narrative . Kafka Tamura's elements are in the first person , while other characters are in the third person . Added to this , changes in the tense , and the occassional shift to second person , and you have a novel in which it is hard to get a fixed reference .
I came away from this book having thoroughly enjoyed it to the very last page , unlike some who found the second half lacking . I must admit that I am not entirely sure why I enjoyed it so much . I have the nagging feeling that there is a whole load of meaning that I have missed , but that may be a latent sense of paranoia on my own part .
I loved this book , and I am still mulling over what I have read in it . It is certainly a book that will keep the grey matter occuppied for some time after you have turned the last page .
044 4 Todays word is brought to us by the only Japanees author I've ever read , Haruki Murakami : DRAMATURGY .
page 287 Kafka on the Shore :
The stone itself is meaningless . The situation calls for something , and at this point in time it just happens to be this stone . Anton Chekhov put it best when he said , ' If a pistol appears in a story , eventually it's got to be fired . ' Do you know what that means ?
. . .
What Chekhov was getting at is this : necessity is an independent concept . It has a different structure from logic , morals , or meaning . Its function lies entirely in the role it plays . What doesn't play a role shouldn't exist . What necessity requires does need to exist . That's what you call dramaturgy . Logic , morals , or meaning don't have anything to do with it . It's all a question of relationality . Chekhov understood draumaturgy very well .
People who are somewhat adaptable understand dramaturgy . They don't spend time asking , ' why does the gun have to show up in my story ' or being scared of said gun . They deal with the gun ( or in Kafka on the Shore's case the stone ) , they accept without fighting it and move on .
The characters in Murikami's latest story flow with it's inertia : Kafka running away from home , drifting to wherever chance ( or is it ) takes him . Nakata , an aging simpleton , able to speak to cats , unexplicably drawn to a stone . The truckdriver Hoshino , shuttling Nataka from city to city , always lost as to the destination or why they travel at all . Others also seem caught in the flow of time , spiraling towards a final confrontation .
As in most of Murakami's books , that conflict is not resolved in the way you would think . This novel leaves more questions and uncertainty than any great novel should . However , if you've read any of Haruki's works then you are more than accustomed to this .
If you have never read anything by him I would equate his style to that of Johnathin Carrol , with Murakami being the clear better of the two . But , even that is not an apt comparison . I can honestly say that I have never read anything quite like Murakami . If you plan on starting , I would try Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or ( the most popular in America ) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle .
045 4 Finished Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore today . Man , what a book . Blown away , I was . Now I begin to understand why this cat is considered one of the coolest , hippest literary novelists around , and one of the biggest sellers . Not just in his homeland , Japan , but everywhere around the world .
The first thing I did was look for his other novel , also considered one of his best ,
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle , and it's on my shelf , mewling and miaowing in anticipation . ( I tried all the Mumbai bookstores without luck , then happened to be at Inorbit Mall , Malad ( W ) , after a trip to my C.A . to finalize accounts for last f.y . , and there it was , perched on a bottom shelf , flicking its tail and squinting its eyes at me in that lazy , sun-dazed way that cats have at high noon . I picked it up and carried it to the counter , stroking it lovingly , ignoring the stares of the baffled salespersons . )
In case I haven't drowned you in the cat metaphors yet ( an important part of Murakami's writing , just as white dogs are an integral obsession in the novels of Jonathon Carroll , another brilliant fabulist who boldly straddles the train-tracks that separate Literary Awardland from Genre Fantasyland ) here's one more catty comment : This is a novel that leaves you feeling like a Siamese with a belly full of fish and fresh cream .
Murakami's prose , even in translation from the original Japanese , is perfect for the kind of story he tells . Simple , spare , yet unafraid to launch into flights of fantasy at a moment's notice . The story unfolds in parallel tracks . One , the main storyline , is about a 15 - year old boy who leaves home , and his negligent self-obsessed father , and embarks on a long journey , presumably to find his long lost mother and elder sister , but also just to get away from his father , his life , himself . As anyone who has read enough fantasy-and this is a fantasy , whatever you choose to classify it as-knows that a new identity must begin with a new name . And the name our protagonist chooses for himself is Kafka . Not without significance , he keeps his father's surname , Tamura . Becoming Kafka Tamura .
The other parallel track is about an old feeble-minded man named Nakata who ekes out a living on his government sub city ( subsidy but the mispronunciation is also not without significance , for Nakata will descend eventually into a sub city ) and makes some extra yen on the side as a cat detective . Yes , you read that right . Cat detective . Because , you see , a long time ago , when he was very young , he suffered an incident which left him severely mentally impaired , and with a new mental faculty he hadn't possessed earlier : the ability to speak cat . He puts his ability to good use , seeking out lost domestic cats for a small fee and some of his favourite foods - Nakata loves eel , he tells everyone he meets , several times over , usually until they feed him some eel . He's pretty good at it , too , and some of the most enchanting scenes in the book deal with him interviewing cats and the remarkable conversations he has with them .
The novel follows these two characters ' points of view in a simple , alternate-chapter structure . Now , I'm not going to tell you the whole story . But you should know this :
If you've ever read and loved a Stephen King novel , you can't not go crazy with happiness reading this novel . Seriously . I don't give an ass ' hoot whether the bigtime literary critics consider mentioning Stephen King and Murakami in the same breath to be some kind of literary blasphemy-they probably do . I can hear Harold Bloom turning over in his grave , and he isn't even dead ! : ~ )
But without trying to elevate Stephen King to Nobel Prize stature , or to denigrate Murakami in any fashion , the resemblance is startlingly obvious . There's a recurring character-type in Stephen King's novels : the simple-minded country bumpkin or mentally challenged boy who speaks of himself in the third person and has some favourite catch-phrase he throws at everyone he meets ( Wolf ! Wolf ! Right here and now ! in The Talisman ; Moon ! That spells Tom Cullen , it does . in The Stand and so on ) and that's what Nakata resembles so eerily .
It's hard to think that Murakami might never have read Stephen King but I guess it's possible . But then how do you explain the other motifs that resemble King's work-the runaway boy backpacking it ( a la The Stand ) and the Bad Guy with long boots , black cloak and hat and sentient black dog and all ( The Stand , and other books ) and a hundred other small but significant similarities ? Nah . I'd wager money on it .
Murakami loves his Stephen King . He's just lucky enough to be packaged and marketed as a literary master instead of a Japanese fantasy novelist .
Either way , the point is that this is a novel that's as easy to read and as enjoyable as a Stephen King novel . And it's a great novel.I know that Murakami is looked down on by a lot of Japanese readers and critics who consider him a sell-out who doesn't capture the real Japan or portray Japanese life and culture accurately . I respect that point of view . In India , we often have the same kind of bitching about our own authors . Last I checked , there was a movement to add a new section to the IPC ( Indian Penal Code , another marvelous legacy we inherited from our British forebears - Thank you , old chum , whatever would we do without all your antiquated laws ? Oh , pshaw . Don't mention it . ) , the new section being specifically targeted at Indian authors who find success selling their novels overseas !
Anyway , so I understand that Murakami may not be seen in the same light as , say , Kenzuburo Oe or Soseki Natsume or Yukio Mishima , and I won't claim to have read enough Japanese literature to draw a final conclusion , but I'll say this , I know a great novel when I read one , and Kafka on the Shore is one of the best . Read it , and keep your Stephen King close at hand . And tell me if you don't see the similarities . But most of all , enjoy this novel , for that's what it ' s meant for , not to be analyzed to death , or debated over by anal-retentive academics in dusty committee halls ; simply read , reread , and enjoyed , down to the last delicious lick of the last savoury page .
Purrrr .
046 4 Murakami is at the point in his career where we can speak of vintage Murakami , and this has many of the familiar traits that will make it successful and a engaging read : two narratives that begin as unrelated and slowly converge , magic realistic elements leavening the story , an elemental role given to music ( and its evaluation ) as part of characters ' awakening , and of course an enthralling narrative .
Unfortunately , it just doesn't come together - - or better put , Murakami hasn't resolved many of the novel's dangling issues that may make novel writing a bit tedious but ultimately endow the work with rewarding coherence .
I'll try not to be tedious myself , but here are a few of the major questions that are never addressed , let alone resolved . The novel is governed by a father's Oedipal curse upon his son , which 15 - yr-old Kafka runs away from home to escape . Kafka seems to fulfill the curse , but we never know whether it is the realm of dreams ( or an alternative reality ) , or in some way real . For example , he wakes up with blood soaking him the night of his father's murder , but Nakata seems to have been the killer who entered a fairy-tale world where he kills Johnny Walker , a demon who represents the monster patriarch ( though we're not told how or why the elder Tamura takes this form ) . Needless to say , we never learn who killed Tamura in the conventional world . Likewise , Kafka seems to sleep with his sister ( part of the curse ) and a woman who may or may not be a lover from a past life or his mother - - we never know . After all this cosmic transgression and ritual pollution we would expect some fallout for the oedipal lad , but the novel's ending drops the whole topic without attempting to either demonstrate how Kafka outwitted fate or that his father uttered a false curse as part of his plan to torment his son , who he may resent .
Confused ? Well , there are problems galore : Nakata's a great character - - perhaps the work's most endearing - - but what exactly happened to him sixty years earlier as a child to restructure his mind ? Was that distant plane that immobilized a group of school children really a plane ? We're meant to strongly suspect not , but we're never told what it in fact was and how it transformed Nakata . Likewise , the novel's seminal scene may involve the metaphysical completion of Nakata and Miss Saeki , which allows her the spiritual release from memories that plague her , but why is Nakata the vehicle and how does he restore what's here now to the way it should be ? In terms of the novel's logic , we're never told what his connection to her is , or why the entrance stone has opened for him to cure her and how that affects Kafka .
It's frustrating : I am a genuine fan of Murakami's work , and even recommend this novel with considerable qualification ( I'm sure that's obvious by now ) , but it falls short of such past accomplishments as Hard-Boiled Wonderland and . . . or Wind-up Bird Chronicle , though it is significantly better than Dance , Dance , Dance .
047 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Paperback )
All of Murakami's books , including this one , reads the same . They all have the same plot-line , characters , monsters , dream-like sequences , isolated dwellings , etc . Having said that , I will continue to read Murakami , because his books are better than most . The wonder and amazement I felt after reading my very first Murakami , The Wind-up Bird Chronicle , has long since dissipated , but I still feel an old twinge of it from time to time since I intersperse them out with other books .
048 4 All of Murakami's books , including this one , reads the same . They all have the same plot-line , characters , monsters , dream-like sequences , isolated dwellings , etc . Having said that , I will continue to read Murakami , because his books are better than most . The wonder and amazement I felt after reading my very first Murakami , The Wind-up Bird Chronicle , has long since dissipated , but I still feel an old twinge of it from time to time since I intersperse them out with other books .
049 4 On the advice of an author ( her last name is ` Hospital ' ) . I started reading Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore . She had advised emerging writers to read book translations from languages other than English to experience different voice . I had not read any of the novels by this author .
The book began on a high note . A 15 year old school boy runs away from his house and travels to another city in Japan . He hated school . But I suddenly found another story starting in the next chapter . A group of school boys while collecting mushrooms in the forest lose consciousness for a while but then wake up fine . So I thought this book may have some element of science fiction . Or the author would come up with an explanation in some future chapter . But no explanation ever comes .
Then there is a third story of a cat talker . An old man dies in an apartment and a wriggling animal crawls out of his mouth . You never know what's the significance .
A ghost of a fifteen year old girl lives in the body of a 51 year old woman .
Two soldiers missing from World War 2 live in a forest without aging . In some other dimension there is a township inside a forest .
And there is some entrance stone which needed to be turned upside down .
Aren't all these things interesting ? Reader continues to read because of the belief that issues will be connected and resolved in the end . And when it did not happen I felt cheated . ( I finished this book to learn a valuable lesson of ' how not to write ' )
And you would think the three stories would merge in a coherent story at some point early in the book but doesn't occur till the end of the book .
This is a very poorly written book . Weren't there any editors to take a look at the prose before this book got published ?
Let me go here one by one .
` I nodded ' is a cliché . But is repeated so many ( 67 to be exact ) times I got irritated . Another line in the dialogue repeated frequently is ` Nakata is not very bright . ' Well , readers are not suffering from dementia . Told once or twice , we would remember it , right ? There is also a character that is shown to wear a Kunichi Football hat or take it off , all too often . It irritated me .
` Self-editing for Fiction Writers ' says - And when you explain dialogue that needs no explanation , you're writing down to your readers , a surefire way to turn them off . There are many scattered examples of poor dialogue in this book . Here's an example :
` Yes , a little , Nakata replied .
Impressive all the same , tabby commented .
My name is Nakata , Nakata said , introducing himself . And your name would be ?
Ain't got one , the tabby said brusquely .
And the improbable Kafka and Oshima ( the librarian ) , both school drop outs discuss the kind of philosophy that would put Socrates and Plato to shame . Part of the latter part of the book feels like a kind of encyclopedia of music .
Another repulsive piece of scene was when 15 year old Kafka asks a 51 year old woman to have sex with him ( he knows she could be his mother ) and she obliges him by getting laid at night .
I was put off by this novel . Is there a possibility that this author's other novels might be good ? I won't dare to find out .
050 4 Upon first delving into Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami , I found myself dreading another coming of age story . However , it proved to be so much more than this in a variety of ways . Of course , there is still the classic runaway story present , but how many coming of age tales feature talking crows and cats , in addition to raining leeches ? Despite my preconceived notions , Kafka on the Shore opened up an entirely new realm of thinking for me , which is what I appreciate most in a text .
I truly loved the alternating storylines of Kafka and Nakata with each chapter . Not only were the two incredibly interesting on their own , but I also craved to learn how they would intersect and finally converge . I feel that above all else , such suspense truly kept me engaged and connected at all times , even during rants about World War II .
Moreover , it seems that the overall strangeness of the text cannot be ignored when attempting to uncover what draws the reader in to the point of entranced connection . The bizarre Oedipal complex prophecy , the children passing out during a break from school , Johnny Walker , and the sexual dreams transformed the story into something much larger , something much more powerful . These details removed any suspicions that this was another attempt at a Huckleberry Finn , and introduced the text as its own entity . Additionally , I feel that each of these details , in spite of how strange they may or may not be , allowed the story to transcend to an utterly spiritual level in my mind . They blended the line between reality and imagination , so much so that I found myself barely questioning the dialogue of a cat . Also , the ethereal and poetic writing maintained this blend and instilled a dream-like quality to the text . I believe that this really transformed the story , for with each line , the fantasy becomes a bit more real and the reader is no longer distracted by an over analysis of nightly visits from Miss Saeki's fifteen-year-old spirit with some sort of physics talk .
I find it incredibly fascinating that time has such a large role in the end , because throughout the majority of the story , it has no significance at all . As Hoshimo must kill the stone's nemesis when it is dark , he therefore must battle with time by napping during the day . Similarly , Kafka must compete with time , for if he doesn't , he risks the chance of the entrance closing before he has escaped . Perhaps the fact that time actually possesses significance in the last few chapters is no coincidence at all , but instead , illustrates that normality has been restored . With the entrance now closed and Kafka's prophecy behind him in the past , it seems that he can officially move forward . He no longer has to cope with the blend of the past , present and future , but can now embrace the present in the manner he decides is proper . Time is ultimately set into place with the image of Kafka's watch beginning to function again , and it paves the way for the clear outlook on life that Kafka seems to have in the end .
The Komura Memorial Library was an idyllic Eden for me , and Oshima's cabin in the woods reintroduced Thoreau-inspired concepts . Oshima was a mentor for me , a teacher above all else , and I craved eel after almost every reading . It was exceedingly easy for me to immerse myself in the world of text , reading close to 100 pages each day . And as I imagined myself submerged in the serenity of the woods , the fresh and detailed writing engaged all of my senses and made me feel that , as a reader , I really was a part of the story . I closed the book with a feeling of completeness , but more importantly , one that I could understand . And I truly feel that ultimately , that is what every great book aims to instill in its reader .
051 4 Many years ago I read Murakami's Wind-up Bird Chronicle which left me absolutely spellbound . I loved the plasticity of its prose and the suggestive and surprising metaphors that where wrapped around the shadowy plot . Other Murakami novels that I have read since - Hard-boiled Wonderland . . . and South of the Border . . . - left me disappointed .
The same is true , I am afraid , for Kafka . The story has been conceived as a darkly allegorical account of a young boy's coming of age , sexual awakening and initiation rite . The first two hundred pages are promising , if not at the same level of the Chronicle . But then Murakami seems to get lost in his own narrative labyrinth and the story becomes a wearying sequence of dreams and teleportation experiences ( by want of a better word ) . Lots of it is merely clever and gratuitous - not tightly woven into the plot - and it soon wears off ( a small and obvious example is the choice of ` Kafka ' as the protagonist's name , the initial frisson of which quickly fades ) . As a result many of the twists and turns in the narrative , even if they were not exactly predictable , left me cold . To me none of the Kafka - stuff comes close to the deeply serious , compelling , unforgettable epiphany of Lt . Mamiya in the Chronicle .
Neither is the prose at the same height of the earlier novel . There is too much that is simply mundane ( after 500 pages of Kafka one has a pretty good idea ( a typical Murakami turn of phrase ) what range of options is available to Japanese for breakfast , lunch and dinner ) and only seldomly Murakami achieves the poetic density of his best work .
Pity . But I'll keep looking out for a worthy successor to the Chronicle .
052 4 Five stars and then some . Sometimes , you'll read a book and wonder how the author managed to be so brilliant . This is one of those books that raises that question .
In ( very ) brief , the book depicts two parallel storylines : that of a teenager who has run away from home and that of agiing man who , though he seems simple , posseses some remarkable abilities . The range of supporting characters is wide , and they are all well-drawn ( with the possible exemption of the young Sakura , who is not so much enigmatic as she is simply a bit thin ) ; Murakami has tremendous skills in character development : each character is well-rounded , well-developed , and speaks in a unique voice . All of the main characters also tend to wrap up their own trajectories , which is a feat ( tying up all the loose ends , which is especially a formidable task in a novel as long and involved as this one ) that many novelists never seem to grasp .
The plot itself is , as mentioned above , far more complicated than can be outlined in a review . What a potential reader needs to know is that the plot never becomes entangled and that the reader never becomes lost . There are plenty of points of metaphysical speculation , and the plot is all the richer for them ; they are part of the novel's lifeblood . This is not navel-gazing ; Murakami weaves them into his plot in order to make us reflect not only on the magic realism world of his characters but also on our own being-in-the-world . Reading this novel is NOT a passive activity but is instead one of active engagement .
Above all , reading this novel is enjoyable . Murakami has given us a page-turning plotline , one that keeps us asking what on earth could be coming next . He has given us likeable main characters , ones we want to follow into the next chapters . He has given us a world where the impossible is possible , and we want to extend our stay there . He does this all in an engaging , frequently shifting , narrative voice that keeps the novel cohesive and steers us onward .
Translator Philip Gabriel also deserves mention for his lively translation into English . Puns , jokes , idiomatic expressions , and slang all come through loud and clear in English . They style of the novel comes through in a natural voice , one that is never contrived or bland .
053 4 Haruki Murakami's masterpiece of multiple forms is difficult to pin-down , even for the basic Amazon review . Supposedly taken from the title of a famous pop-song by a fictional one-hit wonder , Kafka on the Shore is hypnotic in its prose , gripping in its depth and as lucid in its intrigue as any platinum selling piece of music could ever be , or promise .
But maybe that's what Murakami was suggesting on a few levels . . . the power of music , the power of a dream or the power of a strong metaphor . Either way , he succeeds here , and does so with such a deft and trusting hand , that you can't help but not feel confronted by your own trust that you've put forward as a reader with every turn of the page . Rarely does an author give so much to a piece of work as Murakami does with the vagabond tale of young Kafka and the dutiful speaking cats .
Kafka on the shore is the book that everyone wants to write , it is the book that everyone wishes they had the ability to write . It's the book that modern civilization has been building up for , or at least it was when it was written . Taking the suggestion of the author and re-reading it several times , I find it to be just as compelling now as it was the first time I experienced it . And experienced is probably the best word . It's made of the stuff that built the pyramids , or the statues on Easter Island or the insight ( or madness - take your pick ) needed to paint
The Starry Night
or craft
Beethoven's Archduke trio
.
Murakami continually shakes off his detractors like a sleeping hobo , shakes off the pesky fleas in the cold of night , only to wake the next morning and commit himself to the impossible with vigor , proving the world is not right and something really does not look well upon the face of our beloved Colonel Sanders as retort .
With such a loyal fan base these days , Murakami wins the pennant - where other writers , like
Carlos Castaneda
, have failed to convince you that the world that they're describing is both real and tangible , no matter how many cracks they may take at it . Haruki Murakami hits home runs every time .
054 4 Not everyone's cup of tea , but Kafka on the Shore is a magical read : taking the reader on quite a strange and enchanting journey , filled with rich and engaging characters that makes one look within as well .
Wonderful read for those who like something different .
055 4 Kafka on the Shore is easily one of Haruki Murakami's most accessible , surreal , fun and enjoyable reads . When you put it down , I think you're left turning it over in two ways . The first being trying to figure out how the two stories that occur in the book are connected and what exactly happened . The plot is like a labyrinth in it's structure ( incredible considering Murakami apparently had no idea where it was going when he wrote it ) that's a thrill to unfold and a mindbender when you start piecing it together . The second thing you're left mulling over is the point of the book . I think that this is where Kafka on the Shore comes up a bit short . For me , it doesn't add up to much because while I think there are several points Murakami is trying to make , they end up getting lost underneath the dazzling storytelling . I do have other complaints - the novel is a bit flabby , and some of the dialogue is a bit corny ( this could be the fault of the translator Philip Gabriel who for the most part turns in a brilliant translation ) . Despite these complaints , Kafka on the Shore will leave you floating on a cloud somewhere contemplating what you just read , unaware and oblivious to the world below . Recommended .
056 4 I actually discovered this book based on an Amazon recommendation and immediately fell in love with Murakami's writing . His writings carry a dreamlike quality , with a large , blurred area between reality and fantasy . We are invited to delve into the psyche of his many characters and explore their personal stregnths , as well as their conflicts . In the end , many of the characters paths converge . But , tantalizingly enough , many questions in the plot and in the characters are left unanswered , giving the reader the challenge of resolving these riddles . I came away from this book looking for more , and am on my way to reading his other works .
057 4 Murakami's novel follows the fate of two unconventional characters . The first is called Kafka Tamura . He undertakes to run away from home on his fifteenth birthday , travel to a remote place and spend some time living in a library . His project turns out to be successful and so he finds himself at the Komura Library in Takamatsu where he meets Oshima and the enigmatic Miss Saeki .
The other character is an older man called Nakata , a master cat-finder who is able to converse with cats although he can neither read nor write .
Both Kafka and Nakata find their way to Takamatsu although they never meet . During their wanderings they meet all kinds of characters , some of them have a surrealistic nature . Indeed quite a few scenes have a dream-like quality because they are not rational . It is as if the reader were reading a sort of stream-of-consciousness but its form is fully structured unlike similar passages found in James Joyce or Virginia Wolf . It is a tale of quest which is highly inventive with cats conversing with people , fish raining from the sky and soldiers rambling in a forest , un-aged since the second World War . . . The superb reading for Naxos Audiobooks is done by Sean Barrett and Oliver Le Sueur . A fantastic performance .
058 4 I am a huge HM fan , I've always considered the man a genius , and definitely one of the greatest writers of our time . On Kafka on the Shore Murakami re-invents himself , writing a book that is very bold , original and unexpected . This is one of those books you cannot put away untill you finish it . And even afer you're finished reading Kafka , you'll think about it quite a lot , and will be eager to talk with other people who've rear the book , about it . Why ? Because HM decides to end this book in a way where most of the questions remain unanswered ! He leaves it to the reader's own imagination to answer many questions . . .
As usuall , Murakami creates great and lovavle characters , people who are unique and you can indentify with . Unlike many think , Kafka is NOT the only hero of this book . There are 2 other ones , and they are the ones you'll fall in love with - the unfogettable Mr . Nakata ( a unique old man , who is simple minded because of an even that occured in his childhood ) and his new-found friend Hoshino ( a young truck-driver , with a troubled past , who discoveres himself through his trip with Nakata ) . A few other characters appear all through the book as well . The plot is captivating , it envolves so many elements of fiction , reality , spirituality , love , romance . and more . . . You'd think that noone is capable of putting all those elemnts together into one book , but apparantly Murakami IS . This is a story about growing up and descovering yourself . This is a story about love and passion , that cannot excist unfortunately . It's a book about sadness , and loneliness . About escaping . . . A book about dreams . . About friendship . . . About loyalty and true belief . . . You can add on to this list . . . Haruki Murakami is one of this age's greatest and most original writers ( yes , I am saying it again ! ) , and he proved it once again on his boldest book . You won't be able to put this book down , and even though you might end up being confused at the end ( actually you WILL end up being confused ) , it doesn't take a think away from the book ! Because sometimes , a sign of a great book , is the one that makes you think . A lot . You become the writer yourelf . . .
Bottom line is , that this is a uniqye piece of work of a true genius . A book that will make you think , a book that will make you sad and happy alltogether . And most of all , a book that will make you believe .
059 4 A young boy is seemingly released into an unknown existence resulting from an apparent dark history . Without guidance and progressing on intuition alone , Murakami takes the reader through a dramatic reality wrought with ethical faux pas and led by liberalism . The boy's ego , A boy named crow , is evocative of Alex in Anthony Burgess ' A Clockwork Orange . It is an apparitional character in Murakami's novel , which comprises several other outlandish characters , seemingly disconnected yet bewitchingly associated . Expect several philosophical investigations raised between Murakami's lines , including a humourous play of Wittgenstein's Tractatus in a significant dialogue between a librarian and a representative of a feminist group .
060 4 This is not an easy read . All of its 600 odd pages are littered with subtle undercurrents making it dense , complex and surreal at times . Often sad and wistful with copious amounts of philosophy , art and music thrown in , Kafka on the shore is never boring . True , parts of it are slower and some parts whizz by . Sometimes you'll feel frustrated at not getting what the author intends to tell you immediately . This book requires some patience . Its not fast food meant to be gobbled up in a quick bite . rather , it is like rare wine meant to be savored .
This is the first Murakami book I have read , so I may be off key in his writing styles and his previous works comparison . I will not reveal the plot , but let you in on the fact that often there isn't one . The author leaves a lot for you to decide in what you want to believe in . . . ' Everything is a metaphor ' he writes and indeed its for you to decide how to decode it . Which is why you'll often find that you can relate to it at different levels . Its a sheer piece of art and you'll either love it or really hate it .
The journey of a 15 year old to clear his warped mind of a curse is intersected with that of 60 year old whose mind is much that of a young adult - unable to read or write . In that sense , the work is allegorical . What one lacks and searches , the other has - opening doorways to age and mind . Alternate chapters detail this journey and their paths cross though they may or may not ever meet physically . Murakami strongly uses the idea of a labrynth and the notion that we are the products of the reality of our minds .
One of the reviewers here remarked that he wasn't sure if Murakami is a Genius or merely someone really clever . I'm not sure myself - for very often you feel that something ordinary must have a hidden meaning in the book . Perhaps that is what the author means to deliver in the book . That our realities and our understandings of everything in this world is a product of who we really are .
A really fine piece of literature that deserves to be amongst the best books written recently .
061 4 Yet again , Murakami has created a world of enigmas and spacious silences that , on his terms , makes a kind of sense . The other reviewers are right to point out that there are loose ends not tied up , but that seems minor when the characters and settings were so memorable . The library on Shikoku , for example , is cleanly fixed in my mind , quiet as a house painted by De Chrico ; the conversations betweeen the trucker and Nakata were classic road trip dialogue ; the relations among Oshima , Kafka and Miss Saeki are beautifully , patiently drawn . This novel is gorgeous .
So it's not the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , which I read five years ago and still reverberates with me . It's still well worth reading - twice for that matter .
Finally , check out the excellent website Murakami's American publishers have done at www.harukimurakami.com . There are two interviews with him and an interesting translators ' round table .
062 4 Though it wasn't clear to me what was going on , I loved this book for Nakata's charming conversations with cats up until the chapter with the graphically described cat murders . Harrowing though it was for me to read that , I continued reading the book because it is a readable story and I wanted to finish what I'd started . Having finished it , I find it ironic that Murakami refers more than once to Chekhov's assertion that if a writer puts a gun into a story , it has to be fired , when Murakami drops all kinds of guns into his story that he never does fire . Why do we have this chapter with the cat murders ? What does Johnnie Walker mean when he says he's taking their souls to make a flute ? Why is he called Johnnie Walker , anyway , and why is another character called Colonel Sanders ? Why did Kafka's mother leave , why did he have a lousy relationship with his father , why did his father prophecy that Kafka would repeat Oedipus's acts , and why does Kafka embrace that prophecy , though at times he professes to be trying to escape it ? What's the evil thing that Hoshino kills at the end , and why does he have to do it so that Nakata will rest in peace ? I certainly don't know , because Murakami never does tell us why he puts any of this stuff in his book , nor have I found any other reviewer who's figured out the answers to any of those questions . Throwing gratuitous violence and other unexplained eccentricities together for the sake of throwing them together hardly makes for great writing . I might pick up a different Murakami novel to see whether he does any better elsewhere , but the only reason I give this book as many as 2 stars is because the narrative is , at least , competently written .
063 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Paperback )
Although I wrote my masterfs thesis on the literature of Murakami Haruki and although I have read each of his novels and short stories several times over the last five or so years , I am still uncomfortable writing about his novels . I think little about writing about the writings of other writers , but like the films of Iwai Shunji I am always hesitant to write about the writer whom has influenced me the most in my career path in the past half decade . It is for this very reason that it has taken me three times to read Kafka on the Shore , JtJ ,。。 C *。。 , before I feel even moderately comfortable writing about the thick bookfs contents . Another reason why I hesitate to write about Murakamifs books is because of the authorfs own view of those analyzing his books . When Jay Rubin , Harvardfs head of modern Japanese Literature and one of Murakamifs translators , asked Murakami about some evasive passages , the author replied gYou think to muchh to the eminent scholar of the works of Natsume Souseki . However , here I am armed with my mushy brain about to delve into the realms of Murakamifs most recently translated novel .
Like his critically acclaimed novel Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World , Kafka on the Shore is a bifurcated work that tells the duel stories of the 15 - year-old Kafka Tamura and Nakata a mentally slow man in his sixties . Although the paths of these two protagonists never cross in the entirety of the 400 plus page book , there stories are tied together with a pact of violence and blood , but that is getting a little ahead of the story .
Unlike most young junior high school boys whose main concerns are video games , hanging out with friends , and noticing the blooming bodies of their female classmates , Kafka Tamura is more concerned with running away from home . After his mother fled with his adopted sister , Kafka remained with his father a distant and very successful sculptor . Absolutely detesting himself and his life under the roof of the elder Tamura , Kafka honed his mind and body to prepare himself to escape home , and on his 15th birthday Kafka does just that . He flees from home to the distant island of Shikoku where no one knows his name . However , onefs past is not an easy thing to escape and certain questions , such as why did his mother leave him , continue to burn in his mind .
Unlike the sharp Kafka , Mr . Nakata lives his life in a constant fog . Having his mind wiped clean after he drifted into a coma for mysterious reasons during World War II , Mr . Nakata spent his life caught in the present . Unable to remember the past and unable to think of the future , the present is Mr . Nakatafs world . A skilled furniture maker during his working years , Mr . Nakata spends his days whittling the way the time by searching for lost cats and being that he is able to talk with cats greatly aids Nakata in his quest to find his lost feline friends .
Both seemingly content , Kafka having found solace in the confines of a small library and Nakata spending his timeless days searching for cats and accepting handouts from those whose cats he found , their worlds are torn to shreds when Kafka wakes up one night near a shrine with his shirt drenched in blood and when Mr . Nakata encounters the cat killer Johnnie Walker . Like many other Murakami protagonists , it takes these jolts out of normalcy to get the protagonists moving and during their journeys and along the way they encounter a colorful cast of characters whom are normally more interesting than the protagonists themselves . Kafka encounters the geffeminateh Oshima and the beautiful Miss Saeki and Nakata encounters a rude , but good natured truck driver named Hoshino who meets Colonel Sanders , yes , the fried chicken guy .
While an enjoyable read , Kafka on the Shore has a few flaws as well . In The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World , Murakami constantly hints that there is another world or realm in which our memories dwell and in which the things and people that we have lost remain to be grasped when the memories of said things and people surface in our minds . However , in Kafka on the Shore , Murakami constantly makes statements about this other realm . It would be better for the reader have a hazy understanding of this place instead of having it beaten over his or her head . Also , the character of Oshima , who I think is a good character overall gets a bit annoying when he constantly quotes books such as Murasaki Shikubufs The Tale of Genji or Ueda Akinarifs Tales of Moonlight and Rain . While this is helpful to flesh out some parts of the book , it does have a tendency to get old . However , his long talk with Kafka about music of Haydn is quite good .
Murakami tends to write one major novel following each lighter novel . With the slender tome Sputnik Sweetheart being written before the fatter Kafka on the Shore , Kafka is probably considered a more complex work . However , if it will be considered as important as Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle only time will tell . Yet , Kafka is an enjoyable work and one that should be read by all Murakami fans .
065 4 This is an odd volume . I'm not sure what else to say given the fact that the opening pages dwell on a mysterious incident that occurred to a group of students in Japan during World War II , but the subsequent 400 pages never get around to explaining the reason behind that event . If the definition of post-modern novel means that the author is free to write about anything that strikes his or her fancy - - such as talking cats , overlapping worlds , long , black , snake-like objects coming out of dead people's mouths - - without feeling the compunction to explain why , than I may need to run screaming back to the Dickens and Hardy section of the library immediately . I fully appreciated Murakami's scene-setting capabilities . There were several pages that read beautifully . I was fully engaged within individual chapters and sections of the book . But as an entity , this novel suffered from the lack of anything that may have resembled a motive or a sense of closure .
066 4 I have read all of Mr . Murakami's books and he is by far my favorite author . The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is my all time favorite book , and this is coming from the son of a librarian that grew up in libraries . I was in Japan when this book came out and it was like Christmas for me . I still have no regrets about buying this book and it was worth the price . I just wish I could meet Mr . Murakami and tell him , please stop with the educating bits . Throughout the book there are long passages where he is trying to teach the reader about literature classical music and jazz . These passages have nothing to do with the plot and are really tiring . I'm sitting on my couch reading and I don't want to put the book down , and suddenly I have to read these inserts where the characters suddenly stop being who they are and turn into Mr . Murakami telling us how good a piece of music is , or something about Greek mythology . I want to know about these incredible characters he has created . I don't need or want these insertions that take away from the flow of the book . That said , keep them coming please sir , and thank you for lighting my world during the dark times .
067 4 This is the first Murakami novel I have read . I liked his short stories I read in the New Yorker and initially and periodically I was disappointed with the novel , tried to put it down more than once , parts of it were boring , the prose was pedestrian , the work seemed more like a comic book than a novel , I got tired of long descriptive passages , I didn't like the lectures , I wondered about all the product placement , like ads , but I plowed on . I tossed it in the trash and then retrieved it , there was something drawing me to it , maybe the mystery of life . I finally finished it , didn't care for the ending , but couldn't imagine how to end something like this . I didn't want to like this novel , I generally don't like fantasy although I like good science fiction . And when I was finished with it I threw it in the trash again ! It's like I was having a love affair with this book and was going through all the stages , romance , disillusion , desire , and reality , no one and nothing will ever live up to our expectations and this book didn't either , and yet , after I finished it I couldn't get it our of my mind . I felt like I was a character in the novel living the same kind of hallucinatory reality , not being able to make sense out of anything , dreaming in a waking state . If that is any indication of the success of this work than it succeeded infiltrating my consciousness and taking possession of me . I think I have found a potato chip author , I have to have another one and will probably have to read everything he's wrote . Not that I'll like it , I'll muse and grumble about him , his simple minded philosophy , his lack of genuine erudition , his poor writing style , grade school level . I will think of Jerzy Kosinski and Marquez , and Lewis Carrol all far superior writers , I will resent Murakami's immense success , but I will probably go on and read everything he's wrote and for the life of me I won't know why . I have been hypnotized - - isn't that what life's all about ?
068 4 Read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle instead . Murakami's latest novel is certainly readable , in the sense that a very cheap wine is drinkable , but it is also bottomlessly self-indulgent . Murakami writes very well , but he is not writing about much of anything in Kafka on the Shore . Empty and dull .
069 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Hardcover )
I don't claim to fully understand either ending of the two amazing stories told here . What I love about both is the way Murakami can play with diunal time and soultime as well as telepathy and history .
After reading this book straight through in one long day and into the night , I felt cleansed . For several nights , I had vivid and wonderful dreams . Why so ? Because and I'm only guessing here , HM goes into realms of our lives that few of us dare enter , the mysterious which is also our realities , and so , his work if well read is also catharis for the reader , or it was for me . Monumental and memorable are the times and spaces he traverses what is hard to do without such a book .
070 4 I don't claim to fully understand either ending of the two amazing stories told here . What I love about both is the way Murakami can play with diunal time and soultime as well as telepathy and history .
After reading this book straight through in one long day and into the night , I felt cleansed . For several nights , I had vivid and wonderful dreams . Why so ? Because and I'm only guessing here , HM goes into realms of our lives that few of us dare enter , the mysterious which is also our realities , and so , his work if well read is also catharis for the reader , or it was for me . Monumental and memorable are the times and spaces he traverses what is hard to do without such a book .
071 4 I won't bore you with the details that dozens of other reviews mention . Instead , if you are a fan of Murakami , read this book several times . Each time is a little different and you pick up on metaphors , symbols , and events that you might have missed the first or second time through . Even Murakami himself says to read multiple times ( on his website ) . Highly recommended as an intelligent , modern twist on Oedipus Rex .
072 4 This is the second book by Murakami that I have read ( Hard-Boiled being the first ) . As a reviewer , I fall to the negative . Irrespective of the imaginativeness of the plot , or the themes involved , I found the writing , simply , to be terribly clunky , and at times quite banal . The shifts to philosophical conversation feel forced , stylistically lacking any elegance ( or sophistication ) , and disjointedly inserted into the flow of the story . The sex is so point-blank as to be humorous - - and not in a good way . And at times the language and delivery is flat bad ( pg 326 in the hardback edition for example ) . Though in honesty , I wonder how much this is due to the translation : and frequently the writing feels like it was clumsily translated , with not enough attention paid to the style and flow of the words , sentences and paragraphs .
As a reader , I have yet to see what distinguishes Murakami from popular fiction : both novels seemed to lack organic unity . Imaginative , yes . But on the level of the writing , is it really any better than generic fantasy ? ( Or am I being denied that artistry by the translations ? ) Unable to answer that question , I offer this simple summation : I was unimpressed ( having forced my way through the last quarter ) , though reserving final considerations of Murakami's work until a later date ( possibly until after a full translation of Wind-up Bird becomes available ) .
073 4 The adjective inevitably attached to Haruki Murakami is metaphysical . There certainly is some Hegel in Kafka on the Shore , delivered in the form of a lecture by a woman of the night after a totally artistic act of [ pleasuring a man ] , and immediately after a quote from Henri Bergson . I'm told enrollment in philosophy Ph.D . programs shot through the roof , so to speak , after Kafka came out .
It could be that I'm just not bright enough , but I didn't really grasp the metaphysics in Kafka on the Shore . I'm similarly mystified by the supposed depth of Paul Auster's writings ; I love The New York Trilogy and Oracle Night but the philosophy in each seemed to me an excuse for laziness . We're moving along in three meta-mystery novels , when it turns out that the lens turns in on the detective . Or we're hiding in a dark basement , when the lens turns in on the protagonist . It's an excuse not to end a story while pretending that you have .
Fortunately , I'm pretty sure that Murakami's supposed metaphysical genius says more about the laziness of book reviewers than it does about Murakami . Most of what makes Kafka on the Shore , and After Dark , and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle enjoyable , is Murakami's facility as a storyteller . Wind-Up Bird is a constant tease , and so is Kafka on the Shore . We start Kafka with two my God , what the hell is happening stories which will play out , in parallel and intersecting ways , throughout the rest of the book . On the one side , we have a classroom full of Japanese children hiking off into the hills in 1944 , as the country is being bombed to within an inch of its life . They reach a clearing and stop to take a break , and every one of them falls unconscious . Their teacher stands there , stunned , before racing back to her village to get help . All but one of those students regains consciousness within a couple hours . One of them falls into a coma and wakes up with an empty brain and with the ability to talk to cats . So . . . that happened .
In the present-day part of Kafka we meet the novel's namesake . He's running away from home for reasons unknown . We know it has something to do with his cruel , distant father , but that's about it . Kafka may be crazy ; he certainly carries a disembodied voice , whom he calls the boy named Crow , that talks to him sometimes . Kafka , by the way , isn't his real name . He's chosen it as part of the new identity with which he sets out on the road .
( Soon enough Kafka receives manual stimulation that seemingly comes from nowhere , thus furthering my hypothesis that Philip Roth made unexplained sexual favors , unaccompanied by reciprocation , respectable within literary novels . As the novel progresses , the manual stimulation makes a bit more sense , but I can't escape the suspicion that a lot of highbrow male authors think , Unwarranted sexual climax ? Don't mind if I do ! )
On one path , then , we have the brainless cat-talker ( who , by the way , refers to himself exclusively in the third person : Nakata needs to take a dump and so forth ) . On the other we have a really interesting little kid , setting out into the world without much of a plan . He ends up in one of those ornate libraries specializing in obscure forms of literature ; it's the only place where he can expect to be left alone as he formulates a plan for his next steps . He meets its librarian , Oshima , and its head , Miss Saeki . Everyone's got some terrible secret . Sometimes the secrets are actually nauseating . The story is always gripping .
We flip back and forth between the two threads . They come closer together , and eventually the flipping happens every few pages . Murakami knows how to nail his dramatic pacing . You won't put this book down once you pick it up .
By the end , a lot remains unanswered . I think that's almost a definition of a Murakami novel , but somehow it's less frustrating here than in Wind-Up Bird Chronicle . The storytelling more than makes up for any leftover plot holes . I'm unwilling to call Kafka metaphysical , though . That word shouldn't just be a synonym for vague .
074 4 This was my first Murakami book , and I found myself completely engrossed in the book from the beginning . It is amazing how the story grabs hold of you until you can think of little else until it ends .
075 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Paperback )
' Kafka on the Shore ' is yet another great Murakami novel . I'd say people will either love it or find it annoying depending on what's their take on Murakami's highly recognizable style : first of all , Murakami writes surreal fiction , being often tagged as the literary equivalent of David Lynch . Not everyhting makes senses , many things are left unexplained and there are always passages that are more ' atmospheric ' than related to an actual plot .
Secondly , there is always a great deal of ( quintessentially japanese ) orderileness in the way most characters behave . The way they prepare their lunch , pack their goods before leaving to somewhere . . . it is always described in a very methodical way which I find profoundly soothing . So you get this contrast between the surreal vibe of the narration and the extremely composed way most characters go through their daily routines . In this novel , this is best exemplified by Nakata , an old man who can prophesy the future and do extraordinary things but leads an otherwise simple and unassuming life .
' Kafka on the shore ' presents two main storylines , narrated in alternating chapters and somehow joining around the end : one chronicles the oedipal quest of a 15 - years old runaway , who might have killed his father and slept with both his mother and sister . All of this is left unclear . Is it real ? is it a make-believ fantasy ? Is ' the boy named Crow ' Kafka's superego or something else entirely ? Don't look for answers because you won't find any , just like in a Lynch's movie , everyhting is alternatively dreamy or eerie with the contours always blurry .
The second storyline follows Mr . Nakata ( actually everything begins with some X-files from the Second World War . . . ) , victim of a mysterious accident who left him ' not really bright ' . This man , accompanied in his odissey by a drop-out trucker , doesn't know much about what he's doing , but is pushed forward in his travels by a mysterious force , amidst magic entrance stones , entities who take the form of several famous advertising characters , talking cats and leeches raining from the sky .
All in all , Murakami is an acquired taste and , as such , may well polarize judgments but if you care for imaginative fiction and can accept a storyline that doesn't explain everyhting , then this novel is definitely a must .
076 4 ' Kafka on the Shore ' is yet another great Murakami novel . I'd say people will either love it or find it annoying depending on what's their take on Murakami's highly recognizable style : first of all , Murakami writes surreal fiction , being often tagged as the literary equivalent of David Lynch . Not everyhting makes senses , many things are left unexplained and there are always passages that are more ' atmospheric ' than related to an actual plot .
Secondly , there is always a great deal of ( quintessentially japanese ) orderileness in the way most characters behave . The way they prepare their lunch , pack their goods before leaving to somewhere . . . it is always described in a very methodical way which I find profoundly soothing . So you get this contrast between the surreal vibe of the narration and the extremely composed way most characters go through their daily routines . In this novel , this is best exemplified by Nakata , an old man who can prophesy the future and do extraordinary things but leads an otherwise simple and unassuming life .
' Kafka on the shore ' presents two main storylines , narrated in alternating chapters and somehow joining around the end : one chronicles the oedipal quest of a 15 - years old runaway , who might have killed his father and slept with both his mother and sister . All of this is left unclear . Is it real ? is it a make-believ fantasy ? Is ' the boy named Crow ' Kafka's superego or something else entirely ? Don't look for answers because you won't find any , just like in a Lynch's movie , everyhting is alternatively dreamy or eerie with the contours always blurry .
The second storyline follows Mr . Nakata ( actually everything begins with some X-files from the Second World War . . . ) , victim of a mysterious accident who left him ' not really bright ' . This man , accompanied in his odissey by a drop-out trucker , doesn't know much about what he's doing , but is pushed forward in his travels by a mysterious force , amidst magic entrance stones , entities who take the form of several famous advertising characters , talking cats and leeches raining from the sky .
All in all , Murakami is an acquired taste and , as such , may well polarize judgments but if you care for imaginative fiction and can accept a storyline that doesn't explain everyhting , then this novel is definitely a must .
077 4 Murakami's Kafka on the Shore goes beyond a typical coming of age story . Kafka Tamura is a young adult struggling to escape his father's oedipal prophecy and his mother's abandonment . His journey is paved by hardships , both internal and external , and his triumphs and failures are extremely powerful . In the five hundred pages of Kafka it is impossible not to develop an emotional connection with the protagonist . Although his life is hardly relatable , ( having a father that eats cat hearts , falling in love with his mother ) his intensity and raw emotion make his struggles feel like your own . Murakami crafts his characters with a delicacy that makes them feel real despite the book's unrealistic plot . The characters of Kafka on the Shore make the book extremely gripping , and Kafka's eventual success is deeply moving .
The only qualm I had about Kafka on the Shore was the style in which it is written . I am not too familiar with Japanese writing , or translations from Japanese to English , but the language felt a little too basic . The sentences often felt slightly empty , and the word choice felt too simplistic . I felt that there was a disconnect between the complex plot and characters , and the unsophisticated language . The simplistic prose of Kafka on the Shore seemed to muddy the intricacy of the story .
078 4 I've heard and read of this mythic Haruki Murakami fellow before reading this book . I thought it would be a nice , summer read when I picked it up at a used bookstore in my neighborhood . At the end of the book , I was a little annoyed and regretful of finally discovering Murakami for myself . I was annoyed because the story was so absorbing and bizzare that I couldn't stop reading it . I just read it and read it for two straight days during the weekend , thus distracting me from graduate school-mandated reading that I really should've been doing .
But anyway , the book was fascinating and extremely engaging . The only other Japanese writer I've read previously was Banana Yoshimoto . I found Murakami's and Yoshimoto's styles similar yet distinct . Both have a simple ( but not simplistic ) narrative style and is enchanting and not excessively difficult to follow . In this book , Murakami's use of imagery and symbolism is complex , but not so complex to the point of being inexplicable . Even though there are two parallel and separate stories / characters that we are following , the book's flow is smooth and not choppy at all . Although it felt like Murakami himself didn't even know where the story was leading us to for most of the book , it was so addicting that I was just strung along willingly through the maze-like journeys of both protagonists .
All the characters in the book are charmingly flawed and human . Despite the extraordinary circumstances , some of which border on being fantastical and science fiction-y , it is very easy to like and empathize with the characters . There are many loose ends at the end of the story , but somehow , I found that it is still satisfying and did not disappoint . Besides being hooked on to Murakami , my only other regret is that I didn't start reading Murakami earlier .
079 4 Murakami has performed a little magic himself . He's written a novel that is shorter than some of his short stories . The longevity of stories like A Shinagawa Monkey is to be measured by their influence on the minds of its readers , lasting long after the last paragraphs are experienced . Months after that story appeared in The New Yorker , I was still considering the effects that personal identification has on my thinking about who I am . Nothing similar is effected by Kafka on the Shore .
So much of this novel circles around surreal elements that the novel appears to be a demonstration , almost exploitative , of a fiction writer's license to make up things . I do not deny him that privilege by this complaint . In order to achieve a status among his contemporary fiction writers , one must produce full-length novels the titles of which readers will recite again and again over the years . However , we can recite A Shinagawa Monkey and Where I'm Likely to Find It , wherein appear supernatural powers - - an ability by an investigator to pinpoint a monkey as a thief , a monkey who can steal from a girl's apartment , a monkey who can talk and feel contrite and articulate his jealousies , and a volunteer-investigator who surpasses all normal investigators in self-restraint . The problems of the world demand mature entertainments like literatures that reflect on human endeavor deeply , self-consistently .
But really what has Murakami in Kafka done to address societal challenges , as extensively as he has in his stories ? We get acquainted with a truck driver and thereby extend our feelings toward truck drivers or perhaps all career drivers in general : they suffer backaches just to make a living , they work constantly , they have familiarities that put us at ease in otherwise weird situations . He has not defended art , nor specifically poetry , however . The artist sculptor going by the name Johnnie Walker is no exemplar of socially useful behavior . The haiku library that houses a region's generations ' of poetry is not explored . Murakami is impatient to take us to his own miracles . His boy Kafka proclaims adoration at first for certain books but then for hundreds of pages while living there no longer adores for us specific books nor is seen actually indulging in any there . He's using the library as a hangout , an escape from his father . Are we using Kafka on the Shore for escape from a similar torment ?
The purposes of literature demand defense in a day when businessmen are turning away from literature in droves , in favor of the more banal forms of entertainment : video , games , and on . Yet literature's greatest virtues - - depiction of the interior lives of real humans and depiction of the different strands that intersect in real human's lives - - is not worked out well here . We see miracles and legal testimonies that excite us . But how do different individuals in their inner lives take things like the testimony of the physicians at the beginning of this novel , interpret , and form views about them , cope with them ? Literature from either a first-person narrator or a closely empathizing third-person narrator can inform of us this by convincing description . Non-fiction accounts cannot . Murakami , though , doesn't attempt this enough in general . Characters float around like ghosts , whisked around , as he makes his way to his next supernatural incident . I mean , Kafka awakens in blood stains yet his thoughts are not in any way projected on his environment . What is this projection ? It is beyond the facticity of this here stain and this here inference that something must be done . The character must notice in the course of his investigation stains on carpets , expressions of horror on passersby . His feelings , even though the feelings of a naive youth , must be found all around as he gets absorbed in the challenges the incident creates .
I do not object to comic book surrealism ; I simply request more from an author who is proven more in his short fiction .
080 4 I went in having had no previous experience with Murakami , so I would recommend this novel to others the same . If you check out the negative reviews you'll see that some people really hate this book ! I can understand why , and I do agree on some points . ( It can get obvious and pretentious in parts , but to me the whole / was / greater than the sum of its parts . )
I enjoyed the characters , the tension , the scenery . Oshima in particular is a really well-crafted character - one of my favourite characters from recent literature . I won't go into plot details and character relationships , but I will say that I enjoyed this book enough to go back and re-read it a few months later . ( And I love cats , so that was a bit of effort . )
Regarding other people's complaints - soft porn , pointless violence , meaningless entertainment , shallow philosophy - quite honestly , I enjoy a bit of those sometimes ! It's perfect if you're looking for something to pick up and escape into . The loose threads that most Murakami readers hate just don't bother me here . Having said that , I've only read Kafka and the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle ( which I didn't enjoy as much ) .
To finish off this roundabout review , I'll only say that I enjoyed it and it's worth a read ! The protagonist is easy to get along with , the split narrative style kept me turning the pages and the whole thing was generally a good read . It's not light reading but it won't drag you to the edges of emotion either . Recommended .
081 4 I saw this on the bookshelves and bestseller lists and had been avoiding it for some time for a few reasons :
1 . I'm generally not a fan of translations , especially from languages as different from English as Japanese
2 . The whole surreal thing didn't seem that appealing
3 . For some reason , the cover really annoyed me ; It reminded me of the Frodo Baggins character in Sin City
Once I started reading , I was able to put all of that aside . I got into the storyline , felt for the characters and ended up caring about the outcome . The story is elegant , and although all the pieces don't quite fit together logically ( at least to me ) , it ended up making enough sense .
My general advice is to read the first 30 or 40 pages before you decide the book is not for you .
082 4 I have read ever single book Murakami has written and he still has the power to engage and engross the reader even though you basically know what's coming-yet have no idea how it will happen .
This work takes several of Murakami's trademarks and sharpens the devices to a fine edge . The urban anomie that characterizes all of his novels is on display - - though here in a venue well outside the normal world of Tokyo . The intertwined stories - - here of a teenage runaway and an old survivor of a freak wartime accident - - that ultimately intersect in unexpected ways . The characters that are weirdly unnatural yet completely normal . The aspects of mystical realism - - Nakata , the old fellow in the second story strand can talk to cats : several WW II vets appear still living - - if that's the word - - in a timeless world adjacent to ours in eerily vacant circumstances - - that somehow seem perfectly normal circumstances . All of that is on display wielded as a philosophical journey by a master craftsman .
This is a tale that involves loss of personality of a character who nonetheless captures our imagination with his unique talents and worldview , another that is the picture of internal discipline yet is probably schizophrenic , another who's real gender is totally at question . In many ways the most riveting character may be a boy in a painting whom we never know as anything other than a boy in a pointing . Not the standard mainstream fare yet Murakami takes us on their journey and we willingly go because we feels all of their pain and angst as they do .
In point of fact I'd rate this book just a hair behind The Wind Up Bird Chronicles . That's pretty rarified territory . It's a place you want to experience . Read this book .
083 4 5 star for his insight into life and what makes people tick - - great translation - - must be read slowly to savor and get it all - - great imagination in presentation of content . dick jones
084 4 This book should probably be read twice so as not to miss all the philosophical allegories hidden in it . As a woman I did not always enjoy the male pre-pubescent sexual scenes , but on the whole this book was amazing . As I mentioned above , I think I need to read it again to get the full meaning out of it . I enjoyed the fact that it was written a Japanese man with a life perspective so different from my western view .
085 4 Not as engrossing as some of Murakami's other writings . I'm biased though , unjustifiably I think he is a better short story writer than he is a novelist . . . much like Lahiri .
086 4 Murakami is savored by those who fall for him . Not everyone will , but if you're one of those charmed by him , you'll want to slowly go along and read it all . Not going to go over plot , etc etc . He comes at the world from a certain angle that's not like anyone else's , and he can make you see if from that angle , too , if you're willing . And it's good for you to have that experience .
087 4 Murakami is up to his old tricks , thinking lofty thoughts about how lives translate into narrative , and how narrative gives shape to life , and what happens to human experience , desire , and identity when you eschew History ( where time marches forward , with regularity , in waking life , in individuated consciousnesses ) for a different set of narrative rules . His grand-schemed playfulness in this novel reminded me powerfully of the Matrix trilogy . As a work of literature , it's not transcendent like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle , but it's compulsively readable for a novel about such Big Ideas , and outstandingly intelligent for a summer page-turner .
088 4 According to R . Jackson ( a theorist of fantasy literature ) , fantasy literature frequently features a phenomenon of psychological regression , where blurred becomes differentiation between objects , or time frames or spaces . In this novel , Kafka On the Shore , this may be happening literally . The adolescent boy , Kafka , undergoes the Oedipus Complex , which must have occured to his infancy , and Nakata is reduced to the mental stage , in which he cannot communicate with others properly as fit for adults , whether intellectually or emotionally . Especially , the character of Nakata is very attractive . His intellectual capacity may be that of a child , but only he knows what to do and how to do it to save the world , though the practical task of saving it is accomplished by his disciple ( a truck driver , what was his name ? ) . So the child - like Nakata is the real hero who saves the world . Does Haruki want to say ( the source of ) salvation lies in childhood ? Like the poet Wordsworth or Jesus said ? Wasn't Nakata a carpenter ( if my memory is correct ) like Jesus ? Or are all these random associations just a bunch of baloney ?
089 4 This is a story about the Oedipus conflict , taken to the extreme .
It is the story about once-smart boy , who , after an inexplicable incident , loses his memory and intelligence and gains the ability to cat whisper . Some are more difficult to converse with than others , ( p 76 ) You have to anticipate a few problems when cats and humans try to speak to each other . The boy becomes a man . His shadow is only half as dark as it should be . He goes on a journey .
It's the story of a runaway .
It is the story of Colonel Sanders ; excessive sleep ; graphic sex ; Johnnie Walker ; love ; leeches ; murder ; mayhem ; a stone , an appendageless , long , thin , pale parasite as thick as a man's arm ; soldiers , etc . , etc .
It is the story of a lot of weird , wild , wacky things , twists , turns and surprises . And if , by reading through to the end , the reader were to be able to figure out how all of the characters and concepts were connected , it might be worth the read . Some things become clear . Most remains oddly cloudy . Having enjoyed ( but not entirely understood ) two other books by Murakami : The Upside-Down Bird Chronicle , and Blind Willow , Sleeping Woman , I thought I was up for the challenge . But this book takes the cake as the strangest book I've ever read . Skip it , and choose instead , either of the two aforementioned , both by Murakami . Also good : The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka .
090 4 Despite what some people are saying , Murakami is no Kakfa , Camus , Sartre , Mann , Hesse , Beckett , etc . He tries to grapple with some of the same issues as these literary greats - - i.e . the subconscious , other Freudian and Jungian concepts , absurdism , fate , free will , responsibility , the nature of morality , etc . - - but he does so at a level that is really not that deep or complex . Which probably accounts for the his wide popularity and acceptance . . .
My take on Kafka on the Shore is that the book is sort of like Harry Potter for adults . Its plot is interesting enough , bizarre enough , and clever enough to keep you hooked . Murakami deserves credit for that . The book , as John Updike said in his review in the New Yorker , is a real page-turner .
But I really doubt that the book is also , as Updike puts it , a metaphysical mind-bender . Murakami deals with issues from philosophy and psychology that are in fact very interesting ( if somewhat outdated ) . But his writing doesn't take us much further or deeper into these issues than , say , a pretty good undergraduate paper would . By contrast , truly great works of literature do , I think , grapple with philosophical and psychological issues with the same level of insight , complexity , and sophistication that the great works of philosophy and psychology do .
Sure , Murakami is an entertaining writer . But let's not get carried away in comparing him to some of the greatest writers of all time . He writes , plain and simple , what some critics are calling pop literature . Certainly , there's room in the publishing world for all sorts of writers , especially in this day and age when there is a growing demand for literature that is highly entertaining and easily accessible . And it doesn't hurt that Murakami's work ( like so many of Charlie Kaufman's movies . . . ) leaves a lot of readers feeling smart , philosophical , and deep for having read his work . Just because his work can engender such feelings in the reader , however , doesn't mean that the work itself possesses these characteristics .
So Murakami is no intellectual giant . Big deal . This book is still entertaining , and if that's what you're looking for , Kafka on the Shore will take you for a pretty fun ride . If you want deep philosophical insights or complex psychology , you won't find it here .
In summary , Murakami is to real philosophy / psychology as McCullough is to real history . But , hey , the masses love McCullough . And they seem to love Murakami , too . And in the publishing world , that's what really matters , not what a few intellectual snobs up in the Ivory Tower think .
091 4 Author of acclaimed works The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood , Murakami is Japan's leading writer of fiction . He is an original , offbeat writer with a wild and uninhibited imagination . In his latest work , Kafka on the Shore , the 15 - year-old Kafka Tamura runs away from home on a quest to find his long-lost mother and sister-and to be rid of his father's prophecy . As he flees , so too does the World War II veteran Nakata , an older , retarded man whose quiet life has been turned upside down by a murder . Nakata suffered an unstated injury during the War that left him unable to read or write but able to talk to cats . This double odyssey brings Kafka and Nakata metaphorically together , as they both struggle to understand their respective journeys and what life has in store for them .
Murakami has never been shy about blurring the line between reality and , for lack of a better word , the oddly unreal . And true to form , in Kafka the reader is treated to the following : fish raining from the sky , a pair of Imperial Army soldiers unaged and still in the forest , and even a brief appearance by the characters Colonel Sanders ( as a pimp ) and Johnnie Walker .
Murakami is that odd writer who manages to pull off postmodern , biting work that says something-and is at the same time fun to read . Both in Japan and abroad , he has been dismissed by some as lightweight-in part no doubt because of his popularity . However , mixing high - and low-brow , Murakami blends and spins wonderful and wild tales . There are references to fashion , jazz , popular music , Truffaut , Natsume Soseki , and many more . In Kafka , a prostitute quotes Hegel ; Greek tragedy and Plato put in an appearance ; and then , of course , there is the talking cat . It might feel Lite , but Murakami is deep .
Nakata and Kafka converge though never meet in rural Shikoku , both on a metaphysical quest for an entrance stone that Nakata must open and close . For the younger boy , this is a passage into adulthood ; for the older man , a search for a soulmate .
For Murakami fans , this is a must ; for those yet to experience Murakami's world , Kafka on the Shore is an excellent place to start .
092 4 I cannot recall the last time when so little was demanded of me through out the course of a novel . I have read a handful of Murakami's novel and for the most part they were thoroughly enjoyed . And I must say that Kafka started off in very much the same vein - typiocal hooky Murakami enroute to an obvious existential awakening . Beat the horse to death and then beat it some more just to make sure ! Turning a corner ? Where ? Into a supposed transcendence of the surreal and the metaphysical ? Does that make one an above average spinner of yarns ? This is Murakami once again presenting us with his typical portrayal of benign and inconsequential'characters ' . The only true character in the entire story being Nakata . I kept thinking as I got into the second half of the novel , ' Is he really so blatantly obvious with everything , not leaving an ounce of subtlety for us to decipher and play with ? ' He leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination ! He fails to create this ' dream-like ' prose of of a story that I so often hear levied against this novel . The only scene that gets to within grasping distance of such a realm of writing would be the ' Johnny Walker ' scene that is referenced throughout several of these reviews . Other than that , the rest is almost medicinally sterile , not to mention largely predictable . I don't necessarily have an issue with that of the predictable when it is done well and has something worthwhile to say . Murakami evolving ? More like Murakami stagnating into a bit of long-winded atrophy . He merely placed a piece of parsley on the plate that is easily side-swiped into the garbage with the rest of the rubbish . If you want to read Murakami , I kindly recommend Sputnik Sweetheart . This is merely my impressions and tastes . . . to each his or her own .
093 4 Franz Kafka wrote of freeing the tremendous world inside his head and the fear that it would tear him to pieces if he tried to bury it within himself . For young Kafka Tamura , the protagonist in Haruki Murakami's magnificent new novel , KAFKA ON THE SHORE , the tremendous inner world is not literary but must be freed and explored all the same . In fact , for Kafka Tamura , coming to terms with this world is a matter of life and death .
Fifteen-year-old Kafka runs away from home , not sure of his destination , only certain that he must get away from his father . In the back of his mind is the idea that he may find his long lost mother and sister , even if it means fulfilling the strange prophecy his father cursed him with - - - that Kafka would kill his father and then sleep with his mother and sister . Kafka leaves Tokyo with the voice of the boy called Crow in his head telling him that he must now be the strongest 15 - year-old in the world . When he finally arrives in Takamatsu , he not only finds a strange and peaceful library to spend his time in but also awakens outdoors one night covered in blood with no memory of what has transpired . He soon learns that his father , back in Tokyo , has been brutally murdered , and soon he takes refuge in the library and with the kind librarians .
As Kafka begins his journey , so does Nakata , an elderly man who , after a violent incident when he was a schoolboy , has lost many memories and the ability to read and write - - - but he does have the ability to talk to cats . Nakata flees Tokyo after he kills a bizarre madman named Johnnie Walker , who has been murdering cats in order to create an otherworldly flute . Nakata eventually is joined in his travels by Hoshino , a young truck driver who at once guides Nakata and is guided by him .
If this all sounds strange and complicated , it is . But Murakami's story is also profound and beautiful - - - full of philosophy , metaphors , symbols and amazing characters . In a wholly unique style , perhaps best described as Japanese magical realism , Murakami's tale is both hopeful and heartbreaking - - - a story of grief , loss and memory .
Soon the police are looking for Kafka to answer questions about his father's death , and Oshima , the wise and mysterious librarian , lets Kafka stay and work in the library . There , Kafka falls in love with the sad and grief-stricken Miss Saeki , a woman old enough to be his mother . He learns of her heartbreak and the song she wrote called Kafka on the Shore , which translates to Kafka Tamura . What is the connection between Miss Saeki and Kafka ? If she is his mother , and lover , has his father's dark prophecy come true ?
Eventually Kafka must leave the library , and he stays for a while in a cabin in a deep and haunted forest where he finally must confront his loss and the hatred he felt for his father . At the same time , Nakata must close a mystical entrance he has opened to restore the world to the way it is supposed to be .
Throughout their journeys ( if indeed the journeys are separate and not in fact the same journey ) , both Nakata and Kafka are helped by various characters , and each must confront painful and confusing realities in order to complete the nameless mission they seem compelled to undertake .
Without the dark paranoia of Franz Kafka's work , Murakami's novel does share some characteristics with it , such as a horrible father / son relationship , a feeling of a secret and closed other world , and a life full of riddles . KAFKA ON THE SHORE also refers to Hegel and other philosophers , the life and work of Beethoven , the story of Oedipus , and Japanese spirituality .
KAFKA ON THE SHORE is brilliant storytelling , such an original and well-written novel . It is fun and interesting to read , but thoughtful and challenging as well .
Franz Kafka wrote that a book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us , and Kafka Tamura must destroy the frozen sea of memory and loss in order to , quite literally , live the rest of his life . Murakami's novel is successful in so many ways ( despite some slowness toward the middle section of the book ) and surely must be the type of story Kafka had in mind when he imagined books as axes , destroying the cold parts of our hearts and souls to allow in warmth .
- - - Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
094 4 Like a few reviewers have said , I thought the first half of the story was great but something was lacking in the second half . Perhaps it's the venture into the spiritual realm that got some readers , me included , frustrated in the second half . A big part of Japanese culture is the belief in the spirit of animate and inanimate objects - - every object has a spirit within and they can travel to multiple realms , including the one inhabited by humans . This perhaps could explain the wierdness experienced by non-Japanese readers when reading about the spiritual realm of things .
Many things , mostly the metaphysical , are discussed in Kafka on the Shore . But the one thing that was stressed on near the end of the novel is : memories . What defines us as humans are our individual memories and experiences . Our memories are what made each one of us different . For all of us , these memories can be painful to recall or bring sweetness to our lives . People with bad memories tend to view life negatively and question the meaning of their life : if life is bad and causing me to have painful memories , why do I go on living ? The answer is : To keep the spirits of our loved ones alive . The dead are gone and they have no memories - - it's like they never existed . By remembering them , even if it's painful for us , we keep them alive . Hence we must keep on living for as long as we can to keep our loved ones alive . This is what I think Murakami is trying to say .
095 4 I've been going through as many reviews of this novel as I can find . None of them take this book as seriously as I do , for one reason or another . I believe that Kafka on the Shore deserves serious attention . John Updike's in the New Yorker conveys the same basic view of the theme that I would like to , presenting it as a novel about existence in general . Other reviews complain about loose ends , but acknowledge the novel's force with phrases like sheer narrative punch . To me , though , Murakami pulled it off perfectly . In this novel , Murakami takes the courageous step of writing a book that is manifestly about the psyche . Some of its characters and conceits come directly out of Jungian psychology . It becomes a novel about integration of conciousness , and about how to live in an era that is to an extent aware of its own psyche . This is probably the most exciting book I've read from the last decade . It is also a lot of fun , and terribly beautiful in places . It moves through its surreal action with an admirable serenity . The writing is lucid , the dialogue memorable . Kafka on the Shore deserves to be read closely and remembered dearly .
096 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Hardcover )
Murakami asked his writing class to submit plot twists and characters for a novel , daring them to be as outrageous as possible . The following list materialized :
A retarded man who can interview cats
A 15 - year-old who has an affair with a 55 - year-old
Johnnie Walker , as a murder victim
Colonel Sanders , as a pimp
Leeches falling from the sky
A child who kills his father and marries his mother
A transvestite librarian
A magical stone
A pop song named Kafka on the Shore
He assured the class that he would incorporate them all into a seamless , compelling narrative . And he did .
Of course that isn't how Kafka on the Shore was written . But it reads like it , just as The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - - my other dip into Murakamania - - reads like another continuous , illogical but convincingly vivid hallucination .
This is Murakami's gift . He is a vivid realist , describing the sensory and psychological realities of everyday life . He writes without irony - - at least any that can be discerned . Thus he can make the reader believe , stay attentive and tuned in . Comparable to Salvador Dali , whose command of 19th century realist devices enabled him to paint convincing melted watches , flaming giraffes and floating crucifixions , Murakami's realism can make the most unlikely events vivid and palpable . However , the multiple surreal and supernatural elements recall Stephen King - - not a good association - - in the way King could never seem to confine himself to one supernatural device when three or four could make the plot so much juicier . And Murikami's elements , like King's , are often unrelated , seemingly trotted in without rhyme or reason . There is no attempt to define a coherent world beyond the physical one , no supernatural cosmology ; we are given only various hints that reality is porous , and that physical laws can be interrupted in various ways at various times , at the whim of the gods - - or the author . These supernatural events don't build toward any one revelatory or climactic event , however , but are strung together like a necklace . This , I am inclined to argue , is Murakami's weakness . But then I had the same trouble with Halldor Laxness ' Under the Glacier , which for me seemed eventually to disintegrate - - melt ? - - into a dreamscape . Kafka , Beckett-even T.C . Boyle in Descent of Man - - could build and sustain haunted quasisurreal worlds .
But I am not sure of this criticism , that these comparisons are fair . I would suggest that everyone who is an audience for serious literature take a dip into Murakami . A singularity in the Modernist tradition , he represents the non plus ultra in a certain direction . As with Proust , Joyce , Gertrude Stein , etc . and more recently Handke and Sorrentino , reading him thus allows one to test one's assumptions about reality , literary limits , narrative expectations , emotional involvement , the human willingness to be enthralled by an obvious travesty . Wallace Stevens once made a statement :
The final belief is to believe in a fiction , which you know to be
a fiction , there being nothing else . The exquisite truth is to
know that it is a fiction and that you believe it willingly .
Murakami takes us to that level of self-conscious complicity . He succeeds in giving us the sensation that we are creating the story with him . By its very meandering , seemingly unfettered outlandishness , his story keeps us self-conscious about our suspension of disbelief , and thus of our active participation in the fiction . In my experience no one has done that to this extent . So I can say to the worldly reader : read Murakami ; you may discover something new about yourself , the mind , the imagination and maybe the possibilities of literature . And have an enjoyable ride , perhaps , in the process .
Murakami knows well what he's about , and he shares it with us . He plants clues . The name Kafka is one . More to the point , early on the 15 - year-old Kafka Tamura himself reads The Thousand and One Nights . Sheherazade's gift was to keep her auditor enthralled and expectant above all , and this is the author's forte . This book , like Chronicle , is outrageous , self-indulgent , whimsical , highly disciplined and tightly organized . It has the intense , insistent authority of optimal writing . Great literature or eccentric entertainment , I couldn't put it down .
097 4 Murakami asked his writing class to submit plot twists and characters for a novel , daring them to be as outrageous as possible . The following list materialized :
A retarded man who can interview cats
A 15 - year-old who has an affair with a 55 - year-old
Johnnie Walker , as a murder victim
Colonel Sanders , as a pimp
Leeches falling from the sky
A child who kills his father and marries his mother
A transvestite librarian
A magical stone
A pop song named Kafka on the Shore
He assured the class that he would incorporate them all into a seamless , compelling narrative . And he did .
Of course that isn't how Kafka on the Shore was written . But it reads like it , just as The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - - my other dip into Murakamania - - reads like another continuous , illogical but convincingly vivid hallucination .
This is Murakami's gift . He is a vivid realist , describing the sensory and psychological realities of everyday life . He writes without irony - - at least any that can be discerned . Thus he can make the reader believe , stay attentive and tuned in . Comparable to Salvador Dali , whose command of 19th century realist devices enabled him to paint convincing melted watches , flaming giraffes and floating crucifixions , Murakami's realism can make the most unlikely events vivid and palpable . However , the multiple surreal and supernatural elements recall Stephen King - - not a good association - - in the way King could never seem to confine himself to one supernatural device when three or four could make the plot so much juicier . And Murikami's elements , like King's , are often unrelated , seemingly trotted in without rhyme or reason . There is no attempt to define a coherent world beyond the physical one , no supernatural cosmology ; we are given only various hints that reality is porous , and that physical laws can be interrupted in various ways at various times , at the whim of the gods - - or the author . These supernatural events don't build toward any one revelatory or climactic event , however , but are strung together like a necklace . This , I am inclined to argue , is Murakami's weakness . But then I had the same trouble with Halldor Laxness ' Under the Glacier , which for me seemed eventually to disintegrate - - melt ? - - into a dreamscape . Kafka , Beckett-even T.C . Boyle in Descent of Man - - could build and sustain haunted quasisurreal worlds .
But I am not sure of this criticism , that these comparisons are fair . I would suggest that everyone who is an audience for serious literature take a dip into Murakami . A singularity in the Modernist tradition , he represents the non plus ultra in a certain direction . As with Proust , Joyce , Gertrude Stein , etc . and more recently Handke and Sorrentino , reading him thus allows one to test one's assumptions about reality , literary limits , narrative expectations , emotional involvement , the human willingness to be enthralled by an obvious travesty . Wallace Stevens once made a statement :
The final belief is to believe in a fiction , which you know to be
a fiction , there being nothing else . The exquisite truth is to
know that it is a fiction and that you believe it willingly .
Murakami takes us to that level of self-conscious complicity . He succeeds in giving us the sensation that we are creating the story with him . By its very meandering , seemingly unfettered outlandishness , his story keeps us self-conscious about our suspension of disbelief , and thus of our active participation in the fiction . In my experience no one has done that to this extent . So I can say to the worldly reader : read Murakami ; you may discover something new about yourself , the mind , the imagination and maybe the possibilities of literature . And have an enjoyable ride , perhaps , in the process .
Murakami knows well what he's about , and he shares it with us . He plants clues . The name Kafka is one . More to the point , early on the 15 - year-old Kafka Tamura himself reads The Thousand and One Nights . Sheherazade's gift was to keep her auditor enthralled and expectant above all , and this is the author's forte . This book , like Chronicle , is outrageous , self-indulgent , whimsical , highly disciplined and tightly organized . It has the intense , insistent authority of optimal writing . Great literature or eccentric entertainment , I couldn't put it down .
098 4 This is a very good read - literature wise , that is . This is not something for everyone , especially those looking for a light read . I do think the book could have been about 100 pages less without damage being done , however . In any case , its writing style is excellent and the characters are developed to quite an extent . I like Mishima and Kawabata a bit more than Murakami , but that says nothing against Murakami - just a personal preference .
I did not like the Oshima character because this character just tends to have too much knowledge . . . a know-it-all of sorts . A character that seems to be there just to give the writer a method to lecture or to be a device for explanatory necessities . Oshima is annoying . The main character , Kafka , is 15 years old , but has more intellectual knowledge than most 25 year olds . I can accept a bright 15 year old , but this kid is beyond genius , and thus it is easy to forget , as you read , that he is 15 .
The sexuality typical in Murakami is , again , present here . Which is fine if you are familiar with Murakami - after all , this novel is about an oedipal sort of tale .
I liked this one more than Norwegian Wood and I recommend it to anyone who can handle a lot of esoteric / psychology instead of an action / thriller plot .
099 4 I'm not sure what to make of this novel . Murakami's a favorite of several friends of mine whose opinions I respect . Perhaps I should have heeded one friend's advice and read THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE as my introduction to Murakami .
KAFKA ON THE SHORE follows two basic plotlines . The first is of a 15 - year-old runaway , Kafka Tamura , who finds a home and an education in a small-town library . The second is of an elderly man , Nakata , who lost his memory and his ability to read in a strange , X-files-esque wartime incident when he was a young boy . He lives on government subsidy and supplements his living finding runaway cats . He's uniquely suited for this job because he has the ability to talk to cats .
It gets stranger from there . Characters from modern marketing , a transsexual , an indestructible worm blob creature , and a former pop music icon turned librarian populate what is one of the more bizarre novels I've read in awhile . I don't know enough about Japanese or experimental literature to know to which tradition KAFKA owes its lack of closure . I don't mind that so much as I mind the ever-changing rules of the story , or at least the unclear rules of the story . The randomness of things is fine , but it's hard to feel a sense of tension when things happen and the reader doesn't know if those things are good or bad . Am I supposed to be afraid ? Amazed ? Happy ? Sad ?
I certainly found the book interesting and kept reading if for nothing else to find out what insane thing happened next . High marks for originality , but I needed a better understanding of what was going on , or why things were going on , to be fully drawn into the story and care about the characters .
100 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Paperback )
. . . and weird is what you get , with Haruki Murakami . But this novel is not merely full-blown weird ; it ' s about the meaning of Weird , not just in the modern sense of ' bizarre ' but in the root sense also . ' Weird ' is an Old Norse word meaning something like the uncanny ability to influence Fate . The root of the word will has the opposite meaning : the canny ability to resist Fate . While I doubt that Murakami had any reference to old Norse cosmogony in mind , this novel Kafka on the Shore can be read as a contest between Weird and Will , as they relate to Fate .
But don't think it's not ' weird ' in the contemporary sense also ! Any novel where cats talk , ghosts co-exist with their living personae , and Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker make appearances in odd corners of Japan has to be accepted as bona fide weird . What saves Kafka on the Shore from mere literary contrivance is the sense one has that all this weirdness is integral to Murakami's mentality , that he's not just trying to diddle the reader's weirdness tastebuds but that he has genuinely weird but pertinent perceptions to report .
Murakami fits into a tradition of phantasmagorical writing in Japanese . His obvious literary forefather is Soseki Natsume , author of I Am a Cat . In fact , Kafka spends several afternoons reading Soseki Natsume , as well as Tanizaki and Lady Murasaki , during the course of the novel . I suppose this notion of Murakami as part of a specifically Japanese literary tradition is utterly insignificant to English readers , but it does matter to anyone who wants to get to the core of Murakami's sensibilities . Like Yukio Mishima , Muarakami seems curiously unskillful at elements of Japanese literary style ; his vocabulary of kanji ( Chinese pictographic characters ) seems spotty , while his inclusion of ' outside ' words will strike Japanese readers as impure . The English translation conveys some of this stylistic awkwardness by its choice of odd American slang to express items that are squarely Japanese .
In the end , I read novels chiefly for diversion . For enjoyment . Don't you ? I found this freakish novel quite diverting . Engrossing . I could hardly put it down to fall asleep at night . Whatever you might make of its content , you'll find yourself dragged into its weird unreality .
[ Postscript , two days later : If you are the kind of reader that judges a book by its ending , you'd better knock two stars off my rating of Kafka on the Shore . The last 30 pages of the book are utterly unworthy of the imagination that created the earlier scenes . But you might say the same thing about the endings of almost every Dickens novel . ]
101 4 . . . and weird is what you get , with Haruki Murakami . But this novel is not merely full-blown weird ; it ' s about the meaning of Weird , not just in the modern sense of ' bizarre ' but in the root sense also . ' Weird ' is an Old Norse word meaning something like the uncanny ability to influence Fate . The root of the word will has the opposite meaning : the canny ability to resist Fate . While I doubt that Murakami had any reference to old Norse cosmogony in mind , this novel Kafka on the Shore can be read as a contest between Weird and Will , as they relate to Fate .
But don't think it's not ' weird ' in the contemporary sense also ! Any novel where cats talk , ghosts co-exist with their living personae , and Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker make appearances in odd corners of Japan has to be accepted as bona fide weird . What saves Kafka on the Shore from mere literary contrivance is the sense one has that all this weirdness is integral to Murakami's mentality , that he's not just trying to diddle the reader's weirdness tastebuds but that he has genuinely weird but pertinent perceptions to report .
Murakami fits into a tradition of phantasmagorical writing in Japanese . His obvious literary forefather is Soseki Natsume , author of I Am a Cat . In fact , Kafka spends several afternoons reading Soseki Natsume , as well as Tanizaki and Lady Murasaki , during the course of the novel . I suppose this notion of Murakami as part of a specifically Japanese literary tradition is utterly insignificant to English readers , but it does matter to anyone who wants to get to the core of Murakami's sensibilities . Like Yukio Mishima , Muarakami seems curiously unskillful at elements of Japanese literary style ; his vocabulary of kanji ( Chinese pictographic characters ) seems spotty , while his inclusion of ' outside ' words will strike Japanese readers as impure . The English translation conveys some of this stylistic awkwardness by its choice of odd American slang to express items that are squarely Japanese .
In the end , I read novels chiefly for diversion . For enjoyment . Don't you ? I found this freakish novel quite diverting . Engrossing . I could hardly put it down to fall asleep at night . Whatever you might make of its content , you'll find yourself dragged into its weird unreality .
[ Postscript , two days later : If you are the kind of reader that judges a book by its ending , you'd better knock two stars off my rating of Kafka on the Shore . The last 30 pages of the book are utterly unworthy of the imagination that created the earlier scenes . But you might say the same thing about the endings of almost every Dickens novel . ]
102 4 I've read a number of Murakami's work and I must say this is his best outing to date ( over-shadowing the wonderful and expansive Wind-up Bird Chronicle ) . What amazes me most about his writing is the clarity with which Murakami brings some of the most bizarre and off-putting stories out there . Kafka on the Shore is the perfect example of a writer who continues to push and to improve his writing and the final product is some of the best fiction I have read in a long time .
This novel is filled both with the bizarre and the familiar . The novel alternates between the story of a young boy who runs away from home and an old gentleman who can't read but can talk to cats . The connection between the two seems constantly about to be revealed and it is this drive to find out what links te two of them that made me race through this book in less than two days ( what else am I going to do on my break but read great fiction ? ) .
The novel resonates with much of what Murakami has written in the past - weird connections and happenings that within the context of the story seem both strange and common even to the characters that experience these things . Leeches falling from the sky , ghosts , and gateways into different worlds are met with a shrug of the shoulder as if this is something to be expected . I want to go so far as saying this is a new form of magical realism , but it works differently from what we see in Marquez and some of the other popular South American writers . The things that happen in Murakami's novels are more central to the text and are in fact represenative of turning points in the novels rather than details that flesh out or make a character more interesting as I've seen it used in the past . It borders on fantasy , but fantasy grounded in today's reality with references to the Beatles and Led Zepplin as common as a guy who cuts off the heads of cats to construct a magical flute .
I love this book and I think Murakami is the best storyteller out there today ( even better than McEwan , Zadie Smith , and Didion ) .
103 4 I really liked the first half of this book . In the second half , it got needlessly weird , characters went away and / or completely changed personality for no good reason , and it just plain got difficult to WANT to read it . Don't get me wrong , I got completely wrapped up in the story - - which is why I think I'm disappointed with it . In a trend common to today's writers , the ending is vague and doesn't wrap up all the loose ends - - obviously the author hoping for a sequel - - and the proverbial gun in the story never seems to be fired . ( A common quote actually USED in the book , If there's a gun , eventually it will be fired . Let's just say there's a whole , metaphorical , non-loaded arsenal here . ) It's a good read , but not worth a re-read . . . and the ending is disappointing .
104 4 A good way to judge a book is to consider if it inspired feelings you will always remember and in this regard I am fairly sure that this truly remarkable book will stay with me forever . Being my first Japanese book I had no idea of what to expect but what a surprise ( a pleasant one that is ) . I found this book - on love , life and growing up - to be a real page turner . The novel is difficult to get into but once inside you are treated to a magical mystery tour of a young boy's first step into adulthood .
Murakami may at some points be going a bit off the limb with his metaphors and allegories ( he is no Fitzgerald in this area of writing ) and one could even argue that the book is 100 pages to long but it doesn't matter because the scene , the characters are so exiting that it is hard to put down .
To put it the same way one of the books main characters : I want you to remember me . If you remember me , then I don't care if everybody else forgets . - and yes I will remember and I will read more works of this strange , mystical author .
105 4 Kafka on the Shore is an incredibly clever book . Those not familiar with Japanese Literature will find this to be a very good place to start . The characters are likeable and difficult to forget . The one complaint that I have with it is that the book seems cautious of its own brilliance and presents its resolutions to bluntly to show a proper amount of trust towards the readers abilities .
106 4 This is my favorite book that I have read in several years . I truly stumbled on it by accident , as it was mentioned on a mailing list that I recieve , and was getting fantastic reviews . When I was at the library the next day , I saw the book in the New Arrivals section and took it home with me . Not long after I got home , I had fallen completely in love with the book , and shortly after finishing the book a few days later - I ordered a copy for my own library .
I am an avid reader , and Kafka on the Shore is much different than most books you'll find out there today . Murakami dances through the plot with a whimsical sense of mystery , and the book is a joy to read . The story follows two seperate plotlines , giving the most attention to a young runaway , Kafka , who follows his intuition to a town in Southern Japan . Kafka is charming , witty , and very intellegent . Throughout the story , he is wrestling with his own adolescence , and at the same time trying to figure out why strange things keep happening around him .
The second storyline in the novel is about an older and possibly autistic man named Nakata . He is a simple , but extraordinary man , and is without a doubt , the star of the book ( and one of my all time favorite characters ) . Nakata is also following his intuition , and listening to the advice of various cats around the country , with whom he makes regular conversation .
The two storylines weave in and out , and play off of each other in a way that could only be done by a master storyteller . There are elements of the supernatural that eventually come into play , but the story never slips into silliness . Murakami's imagination is a fantastic place to play , and you'll love every minute that you spend there . And believe it or not , the very best parts of Kafka on the Shore , are the parts where Kafka is in the woods by himself , far apart from the rest of humanity . Something about the way that the author describes solitude , is just beautiful .
This the first book that I have read by the famed Japanese author , but it definately wont be the last . I cannot recommed this book enough .
107 4 My girlfriend gave me this book as a gift . She told me the bookstore where she picked it up kept Murakami books behind the counter due to shoplifting issues . This should give you some indication of how good it is . If kids want to shoplift your book I bet it's freaking great . And you know . . . it really is . Magical , Compelling , Simple , Surreal . It's all of those things . Prior to reading this book I wasn't a real big surreal fiction fan , but Murakami is a true artist and master of the genre . The translations are spot on . The writing is smooth . The descriptions are vivid . I highly recommend this book to anyone open minded enough , courageous enough , bored enough , interested to read it . You'll like it .
108 4 The brilliance in Kafka on the Shore is the author Haruki Murakami's ability to fully expound by story's end his answer to the question he poses at the start of the book : is life pure coincidence , or is there a greater force that causes lives to , sometimes unknowingly , parallel each other ? The answer to this lies in the double-meanings and irony scattered throughout the novel , but I believe that Murakami's answer is not definite . By the conclusion , I feel Murakami wants to convey that although fate can sometimes determine the course of one's path in life , a human has the capacity to be able to distinguish when his / her life has fallen into the hands of fate , and when he / she can choose their direction in life individually . Furthermore , this philosophy is flexible and malleable enough to connect to readers , allowing each one to take from the story an even more personal meaning from this idea of parallelism and coincidence .
For the most part , I never read fantasy novels , and although the preternatural elements of this book , mostly found in parts of the story concerning the character of the elderly Nakata , were a pleasant shift from the realistic storylines in the novels I habitually read , I felt that the meanings of fate and choice behind them were significantly more powerful . However , these supernatural occurrences supplement the book precisely enough that they never seem too unreal to be acceptable in conjunction with the storyline of the novel , another great accomplishment on the author's part .
My only issue with this novel was the character of Kafka Tamura , the protagonist of the book . I felt that he acted too old for his age , passing the point of maturity , more towards the point of possessing unrealistic qualities of a boy that is only fifteen-years-old . Regardless , I was able to , upon finishing the book , appreciate the bildungsroman aspects of Kafka's story . I loved that Kafka's journey was more than just trying to find his place in the world , as is the journey of many protagonists of coming-of-age novels . Kafka also came to his own understanding of the concepts of coincidence and choice , a journey that people of all ages participate in , and a journey that the reader also takes with him , simply by reading the novel .
I ended Kafka on the Shore with a feeling of overall satisfaction , most likely attributed to having had all the double-meanings explained and parallel storylines of Kafka and Nakata finally converge . This story has a delicate balance of the imaginary and the real , and if you are not one for the chimerical novels of this world , then I suggest you give fantasy a second chance with this book .
109 4 Warning : spoiler , skip this review if you haven't yet read the book .
First , some general impressions :
Nakata , Hoshino , cats , stone , Colonel Sanders : fantastic , genius , at times laugh at loud funny , very fresh .
Miss Saeki , Kafka on the Shore painting : yawn
Johnny Walker : whatever , this is the empty point used to move the plot
Kafka Kamura - in the cabin , in the forest , on the move , with Sakura : compelling
Kafka Kamura - when absorbed into the Kafka on the Shore theme : sigh , yawn
I liked how much all the themes interlace . This seems to be one of Murakami's most tightly constructed novels . Kafka Kamura and Nakata ( Kafka goes to a library just as Nakata longs to become normal ( be able to read again ) , Nakata kills JW as avatar for Kafka ) . Kafka Kamura and Miss Saeki ( as her lost lover , as his lost mother ) . Nakata and Miss Saeki ( no past vs . no present ) . The idea of a dream circuit , mentioned in passing , is realized in terms of the interconnections between these characters , the action at a distance ( what I call avatars ) is referred to the examples of living spirits ( Tale of Genji cited , etc . ) . Sure some things are never explained , but they're the sorts of things better left unexplained ( any explanation would've been a letdown ) - sculptor dad / oedipal prophecy / Johnny Walker / labyrinth / intestines / soul flute , etc . . . that whole line is best left unexplained , no ? Likewise , exactly why all those kids got hypnotized : isn't it better having that remain a mystery ? I think so .
I found the book sort of bogged down for me at around the halfway point , just as the Kafka on the Shore painting plotline begins to unfold . The scenes in which Kafka's living in the library , getting absorbed into the role of avatar for Miss Saeki's dead lover , were the dullest for me . Fortunately the action keeps alternating with the Nakata / Chohino storyline , so it never got too static . And then , past that speed bump , so to speak , things pick up again .
110 4 This is the first time I've read Murakami . I'll give him another chance , as there are parts of this novel that were brilliant . A good chunk of it , unfortunately , was exceedingly pedantic .
The first third was interesting enough , and though I've learned to avoid anything that smacks of ' magic realism ' I found that my favorite character was the Siamese , Mimi . I got caught up in the author's dream-like imagery . Murakami builds tension and mystery . . .
. . . and then drops it all unexpectedly . A good third of the book consists of characters trading monologues on metaphor , the nature of genius , the nature of the soul , the nature of identity , et cetera and ad nauseam . The latter part is one soliloquy after another . None of these speeches were even in character - a fifteen year old runaway , a disembodied spirit , a truck driver , a fifty year old woman , and a mentally disabled old man all spoke with the same dull academic voice . It was maddening . I would have quit the book if the first half hadn't been so well written .
Murakami recovers in the final chapters , but the novel would have been stronger with a good 100 pages shaved off .
111 4 The author makes magical realism seem logical . There is the interrogator Crow , ( an inner voice ) , and the narrator , a fifteen year old boy , Kafka Tamura . In Japan during the war people scrounged for food . Everyone was hungry . A man wants to talk about a cat so names him . The cat protests that cats can get along without names . The man naming the cat went into a coma for two weeks when , as a school boy , he was foraging for food in the countryside . Now the government pays the man , Nakata , a subsidy .
The fifteen year old , Kafka , has run away from Tokyo and is spending his days at a private library open to the public . The library specializes in poetry . While at the library he reads Burton's ARABIAN NIGHTS . He learns that his stay at the hotel at a reduced rate has been extended through the efforts of the YMCA . Later he is permitted to stay at the library .
Miss Saeki from the library once wrote a song called ' Kafka on the Shore ' . When her boyfriend died in the student revolt she vanished . When Kafka's father is murderd he learns irony . Man doesn't choose fate , fate chooses man . Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker are people , or at least spirits , in the story . The author's technique is one of sampling . The Oedipus tale underpins much of the action .
Mr . Nakata attracts a follower . A young man , a truck driver , who wears aloha shirts , decides to assist him in his journey . Since Nakata and Kafka started in the same place and ended up in the same place , the police think they are connected . ( It is a police matter because there have been two unexplained deaths . ) Of course there isn't a connection , seemingly . Nakata's companion believes the police are worse than the yakuza .
Readers will find all of this both confusing and delightful .
112 4 This is my first encounter with Haruki Murakami-a popular writer of many bestselling page turners where facts and fiction skilfully intermingle
. I like the imaginary world of Chagall or Gabriel Garcia Marquez , but Kafka on the shore , even if entertaining , disappointed me.The plot and the characters have to be believable even in the supernatural world , and here the vagaries of the plot and the wild actions of the protagonists peppered with unnecessary pornography ( yes , not eroticism ) turned me off , but I can think of many readers who will find the swift action and the wild imagination of the author quite enjoyable . I may even try another sample of Murakami on a long airplane trip .
113 4 It is a piece of surrealist art , kind of Dali paintings . You will sense full of sub-consciousness , omen , prophesies and instinctual energies . Characters are genuine and natural . Murakami is powerful and has an incredibly vast imagination .
114 4 A motley crew of characters including talking cats will pull you into Murakami's rich novel . It's a difficult novel to categorize but he weaves large , life themes into a complex story that ping-pongs between two story lines , one following a fifteen year old runaway and the other focusing on an elderly man of limited mental capacity . A novel that will stimulate intriguing questions and conversation !
115 4 I found this title in Times magazine covered with superlatives , so I thought I should give it a try .
The book spun some deep waters from the back of my mind ashore . I am not the same person anymore .
116 4 Like some other reviewers here , I thought this book started off amazingly . The dark mood , the crow character , the two protagonists , the amazing Johnny Walker scene . . . . it looked like it could easily be Murakami's best . However , it just went downhill ( albiet slighly ) for the rest of the book .
The end of the book was both to predictable and too unexplained ( what was Crow ? what did the battle between crow and that corporate icon have to do with anything ? How was it resolved ? etc . )
Still a worthwhile read , to be sure , but it is not the best book my Murakami by any means . If you are new to Murakami I'd suggest these three above Kafka on the Shore :
The Elephant Vanishes ( stories )
Wind-Up Bird Chronicle ( his best , but very long )
Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World
If you read those and like them , then try Kafka on the Shore .
117 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Kindle Edition )
This is the second book I've read by Haruki Murakami ( The first being
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running ( Vintage International )
which is entirely different ) so I didn't know what to expect . From other reviewers and the synopsis available here I gathered that it would have a philosophical bent , which it did , however many of the philosophy references were completely over my head not being well versed in philosophy myself . Even without getting every reference the novel was still a beautiful read .
At times Murakami telegraphs what will happen next but the structure of the novel still allows for a great deal of suspense as the chapters alternate between Kafka , a runaway fifteen year old from Tokyo , and Nakata , an elderly man beginning a journey of his own . The storytelling becomes very sweet towards the end of the novel which contrasts nicely with the raw realism from the earlier chapters .
This book is certainly not recommended for everyone . Some might find it too abstract or outlandish . It combines traditional literary storytelling with elements of fantasy and science-fiction without truly being a genre work . It's also a compelling story full of literary and philosophy references that enrich the narrative . With that in mind I would recommend the book to current and former college English and / or philosophy majors , fans of Plato , and readers looking for a very different work of fiction to read . It does have some cursing and explicit material so I would not recommend it for children or students , although high school juinors and seniors may enjoy it as an extracurricular read .
118 4 This is the second book I've read by Haruki Murakami ( The first being
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running ( Vintage International )
which is entirely different ) so I didn't know what to expect . From other reviewers and the synopsis available here I gathered that it would have a philosophical bent , which it did , however many of the philosophy references were completely over my head not being well versed in philosophy myself . Even without getting every reference the novel was still a beautiful read .
At times Murakami telegraphs what will happen next but the structure of the novel still allows for a great deal of suspense as the chapters alternate between Kafka , a runaway fifteen year old from Tokyo , and Nakata , an elderly man beginning a journey of his own . The storytelling becomes very sweet towards the end of the novel which contrasts nicely with the raw realism from the earlier chapters .
This book is certainly not recommended for everyone . Some might find it too abstract or outlandish . It combines traditional literary storytelling with elements of fantasy and science-fiction without truly being a genre work . It's also a compelling story full of literary and philosophy references that enrich the narrative . With that in mind I would recommend the book to current and former college English and / or philosophy majors , fans of Plato , and readers looking for a very different work of fiction to read . It does have some cursing and explicit material so I would not recommend it for children or students , although high school juinors and seniors may enjoy it as an extracurricular read .
119 4 Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors , and this is a difficult book to explain . It has elements of myth ( both Greek and Japanese ) , existentialism , magic , reincarnation , and romance . I think it can be classified as magical realism . . . but it is definitely a Japanese take on the genre , as is most of Murakami's work . The story focuses on an adolescent boy who runs away from home , and the narrative alternates between him and his counterpart of sorts , a mentally disabled old man who has strange abilities , such as being able to talk to cats . The talking with cats bit was one of my favorite parts of the story . It wasn't as corny or cutesy as it might sound , but was an interesting and ( oddly enough ) authentic element of the story .
The foundation for the story is the myth from Plato's Republic about how people were originally joined in twos , and the gods split them , and now we spend our lives searching for our other half . The story's use of myth is excellent - it follows the structure of a classic Greek tale , but operates on a simpler , more everyday level . It doesn't have the grandiose feel of an epic , though in fact it really is one .
120 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Paperback )
One of the reasons many fans of science fiction favor Star Wars over Star Trek is the overt spirituality found in the story . There is the force , which holds a mysterious presence over all the jedi do , and manages to hold the audience in rapture as its sages explain its workings . Obi Wan teaches Luke how to use a light saber , and as an example of the force , tells him to lower the blast shield so he can't see his opponent and must feel his way in the fight .
Since humanity began telling stories , the world of fairies , genii , gods , and otherworldly heroes have walked with us to impress and leave in their wake mystery and awe over what they take for granted as everyday life . I've found that in South American and Asian literature the world of fairies and creatures we can only imagine what strange creatures the characters describes are , and amazingly show themselves in stories that would otherwise seem ordinary . Visions of the future in dreams , visits from dead relatives , crossing the boundary between the living and the dead , all are examples these authors seem comfortable telling . This is one of them .
Murakami tells the story of Kafka , the fifteen year old who never knew his sister or mother and despises his father , forcing him to leave home with a hefty bit of cash and go in search of something he couldn't identify at the time . He goes to an anonymous town , meets a girl a few years older than himself , has a sexual encounter with her , and leaves to find himself living at a library owned by an older mysterious woman he is later attracted to . The story is charged with human sexuality and in places becomes nearly gratuitous in the description of what happens .
If it sounds a lot like the story of Oedipus , then you are right . It is the story of Oedipus told in modern day Japan with an overlay of Japanese culture and a fluid transition between what is real and unreal , life and death , and what is natural and supernatural . Like much of the animation coming from Japan , two worlds mix and the reader floats back and forth until each is indistinguishable . Anime seems obsessed with the relationship of the spiritual world to the digital one and how they two relate to each other in a way that can make sense with what came before .
What Murakami does well is his telling of the world of spirits where time stops and people are at the mercy of those who are familiar with the otherwise unfamiliar . He incorporates mystery into his story where it is obvious that a door to another world has been opened , and all the reader can do is stand and wonder along with the characters . The explanations of this other world are lacking , which works in the story to make it even more appealing and interesting . The story moves nicely , and each chapter ends with the reader wanting to know what happens next . Wonderful pairings occur . One is reminiscent of the pair in the movie Rainman where one is dependent on the other to survive in the world and seems to belong to another place , yet has so much to teach the person who seems wise to all around . Characters are strong and vivid in the story , and when they meet it is a task to imagine what the two would say to one another .
The story , however , lacks in contrast to what happens with Kafka and conclusions the story comes to in the end . The dialogue in the more dramatic parts is overly sentimental and predictable , which doesn't fit well with the wonderfully vivid and interesting descriptions of what happens to its characters .
Overall , it is a compelling read with interesting characters that are easily known . Certain conversations serve as an entrance to the mysterious world created , while others seem to serve as filler where characters can't seem to transcend the ordinariness of everyday interaction . He does well with showing the extraordinary in the extraordinary , but the extraordinary in the ordinary is still a mystery .
121 4 One of the reasons many fans of science fiction favor Star Wars over Star Trek is the overt spirituality found in the story . There is the force , which holds a mysterious presence over all the jedi do , and manages to hold the audience in rapture as its sages explain its workings . Obi Wan teaches Luke how to use a light saber , and as an example of the force , tells him to lower the blast shield so he can't see his opponent and must feel his way in the fight .
Since humanity began telling stories , the world of fairies , genii , gods , and otherworldly heroes have walked with us to impress and leave in their wake mystery and awe over what they take for granted as everyday life . I've found that in South American and Asian literature the world of fairies and creatures we can only imagine what strange creatures the characters describes are , and amazingly show themselves in stories that would otherwise seem ordinary . Visions of the future in dreams , visits from dead relatives , crossing the boundary between the living and the dead , all are examples these authors seem comfortable telling . This is one of them .
Murakami tells the story of Kafka , the fifteen year old who never knew his sister or mother and despises his father , forcing him to leave home with a hefty bit of cash and go in search of something he couldn't identify at the time . He goes to an anonymous town , meets a girl a few years older than himself , has a sexual encounter with her , and leaves to find himself living at a library owned by an older mysterious woman he is later attracted to . The story is charged with human sexuality and in places becomes nearly gratuitous in the description of what happens .
If it sounds a lot like the story of Oedipus , then you are right . It is the story of Oedipus told in modern day Japan with an overlay of Japanese culture and a fluid transition between what is real and unreal , life and death , and what is natural and supernatural . Like much of the animation coming from Japan , two worlds mix and the reader floats back and forth until each is indistinguishable . Anime seems obsessed with the relationship of the spiritual world to the digital one and how they two relate to each other in a way that can make sense with what came before .
What Murakami does well is his telling of the world of spirits where time stops and people are at the mercy of those who are familiar with the otherwise unfamiliar . He incorporates mystery into his story where it is obvious that a door to another world has been opened , and all the reader can do is stand and wonder along with the characters . The explanations of this other world are lacking , which works in the story to make it even more appealing and interesting . The story moves nicely , and each chapter ends with the reader wanting to know what happens next . Wonderful pairings occur . One is reminiscent of the pair in the movie Rainman where one is dependent on the other to survive in the world and seems to belong to another place , yet has so much to teach the person who seems wise to all around . Characters are strong and vivid in the story , and when they meet it is a task to imagine what the two would say to one another .
The story , however , lacks in contrast to what happens with Kafka and conclusions the story comes to in the end . The dialogue in the more dramatic parts is overly sentimental and predictable , which doesn't fit well with the wonderfully vivid and interesting descriptions of what happens to its characters .
Overall , it is a compelling read with interesting characters that are easily known . Certain conversations serve as an entrance to the mysterious world created , while others seem to serve as filler where characters can't seem to transcend the ordinariness of everyday interaction . He does well with showing the extraordinary in the extraordinary , but the extraordinary in the ordinary is still a mystery .
122 4 In Kafka At The Shore there is an interplay of many elements : metaphysical , spiritual , aesthetic , emotional . There are beautiful sexual fantasies , and clinical descriptions of Kafka's penis . Like a well constructed symphony , there is a great range of voices . The novel is nicely paced , and well plotted . Murakami is adept at imagery , and does not hesitate to bring the metaphorical and impossible into the real world .
At the same time , the novel does not have the emotional impact that it might , given its subject of a teenager trying to surmount the effects of a childhood without love . I also thought some parts could have been edited and tightened up such as the journey through the forest .
123 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Kindle Edition )
I had so much hope for this book , but it never really panned out . One can tell from the very beginning that Murakami is obviously a good writer , that's what held my interest to the end of the book . In anticipation of some great tie-in or genius event closures for all the weirdness , I was vastly disappointed in the lazy way he wrote Kafka's re-entry into his old life , and let the other characters just sort of drift off the page after nonessential drivel page after page . Too bad . Had heard such good things about him .
124 4 I had so much hope for this book , but it never really panned out . One can tell from the very beginning that Murakami is obviously a good writer , that's what held my interest to the end of the book . In anticipation of some great tie-in or genius event closures for all the weirdness , I was vastly disappointed in the lazy way he wrote Kafka's re-entry into his old life , and let the other characters just sort of drift off the page after nonessential drivel page after page . Too bad . Had heard such good things about him .
125 4 A very haunting resonant read . Murakami creates a dreamscape that grabs the reader and doesn't let go .
126 4 I don't have the history of having read Murakami at all before this book so my review will clearly not compare this to any of his other works . Likewise , I'm not going to write much more than a token review here as many of the reviewers have already covered much more ground than you need to weigh the pros and cons of this book . What I will say is that I was blown away . This will go up on my bookshelf next to Life of Pi , various Rushdie novels , Vonnegut , and so on . It is one of the best books I think I've ever read .
This is not a book for everyone , at every stage of life . If I had picked up this book 6 months ago it wouldn't have worked for me . Call it part of the magical realism or metaphysical allure of the book itself , or more practically call it good timing . I'll go with the later and say that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good . The hints of plot itself you can glean from the print reviews above or other reviews posted here . What I will say is that the book is extremely well written ( and really , impeccably translated ) and is steeped in easy-to-read culture . It is alluring , and creates a sort of mystical world than one might get if you were to cross a Rushdie novel and Jonathan Carrol . In short , nothing short of remarkable .
I don't know what his other books hold but if this is not on par with some of the others , as some reviewers suggest , then I simply cannot wait to pick those up , as they must be nothing short of remarkable .
127 4 A wonderful novel , light enough to be relaxing yet simultaneously it is insightful and thought provoking . The characters feel real , and the experiences they live , though fantastic , seem somehow plausible in this lyrical and imaginative universe .
128 4 what a very complex concept , set in a complex environment but he's such a good writer that it really allows even the simplest of thinkers to identify well with the characters . There are consistent themes of love , lust , wonderment and a sense of belonging . Seriously , it's like it was written just for me . I struggle so deeply and much of kafka's troubles in dealing with the past almost help me see things differently in my life . even though the story twists around the idea of the oedipal complex , i feel like it was way beyond that into the intangible and into the sea of emotion and memories . dreaming for me has also been a lot more profound . the thoughts you are left with after reading this book are stuck with you for days moving into your sleep , just thinking and thinking about life and everything ! my dreams are waking , but not as they used to be . I can't describe it really , but this story has touched me very deeply
this was my first time reading murakami and I couldn't put this book down from the moment I started reading it . not even the same idea , really . he's such a fantastic writer and thinker , I want to read everything he's ever written .
129 4 One of my favorite books of all time . Reading it may make you feel very random at parts and it may make no sense to some readers but Murakami's ability to keep you interested and turning to the next page is truly remarkable . I do highly recommend this book and some of his other works as well .
130 4 Now I know why this book is on the 1001 books to read before you die list . It is an amazing and vivid book that explores how one finds oneself when all is perceived lost .
In this book , a 15 year old boy who calls himself Kafka runs away from home , and perhaps through fate or destiny , finds himself at a privately owned library with its own secrets . He is running from something that it is very important he avoids , but no matter how far you run , can you really escape fate ?
Meanwhile , an aging man who had an accident when he was young that left him a blank slate makes his own journey . Strange things have a habit of happening when he is around , but he is compelled to make his journey , although he doesn't know where it will take him and exactly why he has to make it .
These two stories interweave each other with rich descriptions , a bit of magical circumstance , and lots of music . Classical music is described throughout this book while the characters are learning more about themselves and their capabilities . It made me want to listen to Schubert's piano sonatas and Beethoven's Archduke trio very much .
This is my 3rd Murakami , and it didn't disappoint . It is very deep reading in places because so much of it is introspective , but I loved going on the journey with these characters . A wonderful read .
131 4 Great book and Murakami seemingly leads you down two different roads , that of a lost young man and and elderly mentally challenged eccentric . Over time we see how their stories interweave but Murakami is so skillful its like a stream of consciousness dream . You're there before you even realize it and like the soft edges of a dream it passes you by as you attempt to hold on . A wonderful novel for anybody interested in superior writing and a great story but I warn you its a slow one . Don't expect action packed adventure and don't press it for too much too soon or it will just frustrate you . Rather , let it carry you .
132 4 Kafka on the Shore is what I think a bestseller book list should be made up of : the stuff of light metaphysical worlds and magical realism . The plot is well-designed and amazing , the characters real , but my only qualm is that throughout the book it seems that Murakami is trying too hard to , i don't know , push his ideals onto you ? It's really obvious when the writing becomes completely off topic and mentions something like how Beethoven is good or the Edo period . Basically , the book flows but that makes it disconnected . Also , I've read Wind-Up Bird , in response to the other reviews , and they're too different to compare . . . two entirely different worlds with a slightly different style . But this is good . Definitely buy it .
133 4 Many thought provoking references and as much symbology . A little transparent but exciting and enjoyable .
134 4 Some authors hold unique values which caress readers , even if the magic is a refrain from previous novels . Murakami , like Rowling or Tolkien or King , delivers us to worlds derived from his highly imaginative mind's depths - a journey which we gladly seek to follow .
One recurring theme we see is the even versus odd chapter braiding . As the pages and plot progress , the seemingly unrelated tales enclose and eventually converge . There was a reason for the even chapters tales of Nakata to be related to the odd chapters of Kafka - in fact the relation is deeply rooted . Fatalistically or otherwise , the seemingly small world overlaps in boundless ways . The back and forth of stories remind us of
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
.
The even chapters are about Nakata - a boy traumatized during WW II who in today's world converses with cats , creates rains of leeches and fish , and has mystical powers with a stone . His cat work reminds us
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
.
Nakata's sleep marathons remind us of the almost comatose Eri of
AFTER DARK
. These sleeps make me wonder if Murakami personally has encountered deep depression wherein your body lies dormant or victim to the illness's demands .
Ultimately , opposites attract - Nakata and a truck driver become best of friends . In
AFTER DARK
, pimps befriend a suburban teenager staying out after her parents ' proclaimed curfew . Perhaps the strangest couple are in the odd chapters . The odd-chapter narrator - 15 - year old runaway Kafka Tamura - befriends the young and socially unaccepted Oshima : a transvestite or transgendered hemophiliac androgynous woman who appears as a man and sexually lives a homosexual man's life . Sexual deviance is something also addressed in
AFTER DARK
.
Book worms Kafka and Oshima have great readers-digest talks wherein Oshima's boiled down versions of Greek tragedy depict or symbolize Kafka's issues : most importantly his Oedipal doom pronounced icily by Kafka's father to the young man when he was of elementary school age . To avoid that prophecy , he runs . But , is it the running away that ignites the prophecy's fate ?
In the end , Kafka's life inevitably collides with Nakata for what appears to be a cleansing . Getting there may have been prolonged , and the inevitability of this collision may have been too many pages known - and such truncated detail of their convergence may be what lowers this review from 5 stars to 4 . Otherwise , it was fun , and in a truly Murakami bizarre manner .
135 4 I made it to about 50 pages from the end , but there just wasn't enough to sustain my interest . For the last half of the book I found myself losing interest in the characters and their fates . This is the fifth book of Murakami's that I have read , and the first that I could not finish . Obviously he has the skill and creativity to engage a reader's interest , and I was fascinated by aspects of the story , such as Johnny Walker but towards the end I just didn't care .
136 4 In Kafka on the Shore , Murakami blends pop cultural references like Colonel Sanders and Johnny Walker with two overlapping stories - one boy's Oedipal search for his mother and one slow man's quest to rescue the neighborhood cat . This is one book that may tease your mind a bit .
137 4 May contain SPOILERS
Murakami is a daring writer . Not only because , in his novel , a 15 - year-old has sex with a fifty-year old woman , that is almost certainly his mother , or because a character , dressed as Johnnie Waker , slices cats open and eats their hearts , it's not because of the explicit sex or the talking cats and raining fish , it's because he never explains his novel , leaving more loose ends than you can possibly imagine , he never attempts to put some sense in his dreamy , trippy world , leaving a lot to be guessed . Not that I was frustrated by it , in fact , I think that it couldn't have ended in any other way , if more was answered the whole dreamy aspect of the novel would have gone down the drain , which would pretty much ruin the whole thing .
The story is amazingly interesting , specially because of it's weirdness , the only major problem is that the characters felt a little unrealistic , maybe it's because of all the absurdities that happened to them and around them or maybe is the way they talk , the dialogue , altought I did enjoy the small pieces of philosophy in it , gets a little stilted at times .
138 4 Kafka on the Shore is one of Murakami's best novels . Following the stories of two completely different characters , Murakami mixes strange things with the norm , such as raining fish . If you are a fan of books that are simple to read , yet make you think , this is definately a book you should read . This book has many hidden meanings that suck readers into the novel . I also found it to be a very honest novel , with nothing sugar coated . Murakami's novel is definately a book to read if you want to get completely sucked into a book . It is also a great read if this is your first time reading something by Murakami .
139 4 This was certainly a compelling read though , upon reaching the end , a significant source of disappointment as the various lines of surrealism are never reconciled with each other and with the overall plot . In this sense the novel is much like an extended dream sequence , with magical elements that are unexplained and don't follow the laws of cause and effect ( Nakata must get to Takamatsu , but when he does his task upon arriving there is rather pedestrian and the novel is not at all clear as to why he is the one who needs to complete it . And whatever happened to Nakata in his childhood , anyway ? And who killed who ? ) . Reminiscent of David Lynch's Lost Highway .
On the other hand , certain characters hold forth on the philosophy of life as though reading from their graduate school essays .
Despite these complaints , the novel is quite enjoyable , particularly if one doesn't hope to understand it all by the end .
140 4 This story doesn't really hold up in my opinion . It's also a little silly in its style here and there , but I like it still . I love the local feeling conveyed , and I do enjoy the outlines of the story . Just a little too pieced-together .
141 4 It has been quite a long time that I have been interested in reading a Murakami novel , just never got around to it until now . Wow , I just finished Kafka on the Shore and immediately began reading After the Quake . This book left me mesmerized , lying awake at night thinking about the real and surreal events that I just read .
I've read most of the reviews about Kafka and many of them compare it less favorably to other Murakami novels . Fortunately , I cannot bring that comparison to my view of the book . As I move to other Murakami novels , I'll be better able to assess how Kafka on the Shore compares to his other novels .
The story focuses on two primary characters . Kafka , a 15 year old boy from Tokyoruns away from home ( and his father ) and winds up in Takamatsu , educating himself by reading books on a variety of subjects . Ultimately , he befriends the library clerk and learns of the head librarian , Miss Saeki and her tragic past .
Nakata is an elderly Tokyo resident who was permanently disabled by a bizarre WWII incident . While he doesn't function well socially , Nakata's unique ability is to talk with cats and cause fish to rain from the sky .
Kafka on the Shore has some of the most hilarious and inventive scenes in modern literature . Hoshio , Nakata's traveling companion , encounter with Colonel Sanders continues to keep me smiling .
The only thing preventing me from giving the book 5 stars is the final 50 pages . I felt Murakami veered a little too far into the metaphysical over the last 50 pages and could have more tightly wrapped up the ending than he did .
All in all , this is one of the more satisfying books that I have read recently and I look forward to enjoying Murakami's other novels .
142 4 Between shifting plot lines and interesting characters , I found this book very entertaining . I didn't give it a 5 - star rating simply because the ending left me feeling a little out of touch . While I know this is common for Murakami novels ( from the 6 or so that I have read ) , I still found the message behind the ending a little opaque and it left me feeling a tad empty ( or perhaps that was the point in the first place ) . Aside from the ending , I really liked the book as a whole and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Murakami's strange stories and unique delivery .
143 4 This was my second Murakami book , after The Wind up Bird Chronicles - which I really liked . Kafka on the Shore was a good read , but I didn't love it . I kept waiting for it to get better , but it stayed a constant good . . . i'd recommend this book though , as it was pretty enjoyable . There are multiple story-lines going on in this book , which are all related in some way . I liked this aspect because it made the book more interesting and had me constantly turning the pages .
144 4 As my first Murakami novel , I didnt quite know what to expect . . . .
but it truly was a good novel , at times i found myself rivited . . . at other times i felt like i was reading a . . . little too much philosphy that had nothing to do with the story . I really like Oshima , but i felt like that was his main reason for being there . To talk about philosphy . The ending also left a little to be desired . . . but wow look at all the negatives ive said ! !
THIS WAS a great novel , incredibly well written , much deeper that the average novel and therefore more worthwhile to read . Beautifully written . Check it out !
145 4 Haruki Murakami can write and think with the best of them , add his musician's gift for timing and irony and you have a pretty good read , good enough to get me to pick up a couple of his other efforts for future escapes .
146 4 John Updike has called this book a metaphysical mind-bender , and I think that pretty much sums it up . The chapters alternate between the seemingly unrelated stories of Kafka Tamura ( and his alter-ego , Crow ) , a 15 - year-old boy who runs away from home to find his mother and sister ; and Satoru Nakata , an older man who lost the use of much of his mental faculties during an incident as a boy ( a story in itself ! ) , but gained the ability to speak with cats . In my opinion , any novel that features speaking cats ( each with their own personalities ) automatically gets points .
Soon it becomes clear that the two plots are interrelated , in a fantastically surreal , and sometimes confusing , plot . Music , sexuality , Oedipus , fate , self-sufficiency , friendship , and nature all play supporting roles to Kafka and Nakata's leads . It's definitely a fun , sometimes challenging read that requires you to piece together riddles without solutions and take your imagination to a different plane .
It would be hard to try to summarize the plot or meaning behind the book , because I have a feeling that it could be interpreted in many different ways . No matter what you take away from this book , you will undoubtedly enjoy the rich characters and elegant writing , as well as the truly fascinating idea that the planes of existence aren't as separate as you may think .
If you are on the lookout for a beautifully-written novel that will requires you to stretch your imagination to the limit , I say look no further .
147 4 Kafka on the Shore is my first Murakami read , and I was very impressed . The characters in the novel were rich and well developed , each having their own unique qualities , but bound by being outcasts from society . The fantasy and mysticism blends well with the social commentary . One disappointment was the fact that the novel made connections for you without letting you figure them out on your own . Despite this , I found myself thoroughly engrossed , entertained , amused , intrigued , and disgusted . . . sometimes at the same time . Definitely , pick this book up and give it a read . You won't regret it .
148 4 Despite what another official review on this page says , I was very bothered by the loose threads at the end of this novel . Kafka is a great story , by turns realistic , fantastic , touching and gruesome . Murakami puts out many ideas and concepts here , such as time , space , identity , life after death , and some Stephen King-like creepiness . But by the time the reader reaches the end of this very imaginative work , everything ends up on a limp , flat note , as if Murakami did not know how to pull together all the various aspects of his story . It's a wonderful book , but prepare for a possible letdown at the finish .
149 4 I have read a few other books by Murakami ( Norwegian Wood etc ) , and this book is just as compelling and moving . The state is dreamlike and captures the reader immediately . It's sad , bittersweet , frustrating , lamenting & hopeful all at the same time .
It takes the reader into another world . I couldn't put this book down !
I highly recommend this book .
150 4 This novel follows Murakami's tradition of using disparate storylines which eventually run together in magical ways . Much like _ The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles _ and _ Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World _ , Murakami sets up two very different storylines and lets them slowly merge together over the course of the novel . First , we're following a student who runs away from home after being told of a heinous fate ( a youth who is , in Murakami style , very disaffected and lacking outward emotion but who has great taste in literature ) and then an old man who talks to cats ( and they , of course , talk back ) .
The way these storylines converge is , of course , the drive of reading the novel , but just like in other Murakami works that deal in magical or absurd elements , the novel always focuses on the reactions of characters who are immersed in situations that are beyond them . Murakami can be frustrasting to some in using this method , for magical elements often go unexplained and remain mysterious to the end , but this is simply because the meaning or rationale of the magic is not as important to the narrative and the exploration of the characters , who often have to make choices that will define their fates and themselves . Since Murakami's protagonists are often on a search for identity or emotion , explanation of the elements that bring them there often fall by the wayside .
It is fitting that Kafka should be a central element of this book , for Murakami's writing style is very akin to Kafka's in that he demands your attention on his characters rather than on his situations . The classic question asked of The Metamorphosis is Why did he turn into a bug ? Though I think the answer is provided in the entirety of the work , the more pertinent answer is , He just is - - what's going to happen next ? Murakami is the same . A man who can converse with cats , or who searches for a flat stone that will open a portal at the proper time , is secondary to how these events affect the characters of the story , and in that respect , Murakami is wonderful .
I would still recommend books like _ A Wild Sheep Chase _ and _ The Elephant Vanishes _ over this one , for it does drag on a little midway , but this is still magnificent work .
151 4 Kafka is a teenager who runs away from his single parent home . A simple premise , but the journey he takes is far from simple . He ends up holed up in a private library , then discovers he is not as alone as he thinks . A surreal trip out of day to day reality ends with Kafka coming to terms with himself and with the world . And don't forget the man who talks to cats and the Entrance Stone .
It's engaging , spellbinding and a delight to read . If you haven't read Murakami yet this is a great place to start - and then you're on a slippery slope to enjoying the rest of his works .
152 4 This is a stylish and compelling thriller full of mythic symbolism , classical music and talking cats . Our 15 year old hero runs away from home and across Japan with nothing but a backpack full of emotional baggage and an Oedipal complex that would kill a horse . His coming of age , living in a small library , triggers a psychological fantasy where memory , desire and reality battle it out . This novel is quite creepy in parts but unputdownable . It's like a Stephen King novel produced by Studio Ghibli . A mesmerising ride .
153 4 This review is from :
Kafka on the Shore ( Hardcover )
Read through cold winter nights , I found this book very moving . It is worth time and not at all a difficult read .
154 4 Read through cold winter nights , I found this book very moving . It is worth time and not at all a difficult read .
155 4 Haruki Murakami again employs his musical narratives to tell a story of a youth in search of lost innocence . The story is engaging , and the characters complex yet easy to relate . Definitely a worthwhile read !
156 4 Kafka on the Shore is what would happen if Franz Kafka and Chuck Palahnuik got together and had a baby .
This novel is about Kafka Tamura , a fifteen-year-old runaway , and the elderly Nakata , who never recovered from a mysterious coma when he was a child . It is hard to become taken immediately with Kafka ( if at all ) whom has no recollection of his mother or sister ( but definitely has some sort of oedipal complex ) , however it is easy to fall instantly in love with Nakata . I rarely become involved with characters , I am merely an observer , but when confronted with the brilliant portrayal of Nakata I couldn't help but feel for him .
We are presented with both their stories on their journey to one another , or to themselves as the case may be . Kafka is nothing more than a boy who has suffered through the abandonment of his mother , he mental abuse from his father and his terrifying prophecy . He runs away from home and finds drawn to a private library and things begin to fall into place .
Nakata on the other hand is an illiterate elderly man living on a sub city , earning some extra money finding cats ( because he can talk to them ) and finding himself on a journey that he doesn't understand . Fish and leeches fall from the sky , Colonel Sanders is embodied and books are read .
The characters all seem a little too erudite , talking like they have all the knowledge in the world and as though the only way that Murakami could get his point across was having someone explain it directly . But that doesn't make it any easier to understand , the book is rife with existentialisms ( a subject I will admit to not caring for ) , hidden meanings and some pretty strange themes that I wasn't all that comfortable with . At times it became a little convoluted .
The books starts off magnificently but starts to slide off into a tangent that is little more than predictable , trying to make sense of everything and tying it into a little bundle but in the end leaves many things inadequately explained . The novel has so much potential such as brilliantly written characters and an interesting scenario , but falters towards the end . This is my introduction to Murakami and certainly will not be the last .
157 4 Murakami's ninth novel starts off with one foot set in a deep dream state . It is such a deep dream everything feels real . Even the emotions are real or perhaps stronger than real . Then , he leads the next step with a realistic , post-modern account of the toughest fifteen year-old in the world , named Kafka Tamura , packing his backpack preparing to run away from home . Effortlessly taking us from dream world to contemporary reality , Murakami's bold , maverick story telling has no boundaries .
From there , the novel uses a captivating labyrinth of metaphors to achieve a greater poetic truth . The next character , Nakata , a sixty year-old man who because of some mysterious incident in his early child woke-up weeks later with no memories and illiterate a , tabula rasa . However , . . . Nakata not so bright , finds he can communicate with cats . Nakata's unwittingly finds his fate and travels are intertwined in some phenomenal way with Kafka's Oedipal adventure . But Nakata's not a mere foil of a character . His endearing actions and dialogues combined with his vivid encounters , transcends his simpleton role and becomes more like Dostoevsky's Idiot . Murakami gets to the heart of his characters . Even the smallest of roles fill you with empathy .
His efficient style and compelling descriptions allow , with out hesitation , fantastic occurrences like fish rain from a clear sky to ghostly characters . He deftly uses incredible phenomena to describe a deeper truth . Character dressed like Johnny Walker , ( I'm guessing the Black Label ) World War II U.S . army reports , Colonel Sanders of KFC , articles in newspapers , and even Prince's Little Red Corvette are just some of his metaphorical arsenal . But it is not just these modern and pop culture constructs he uses so well to pull you tightly in to his universe .
Latter in the novel , Hoshino , Nakata's truck driving companion sits at a coffee shop and listens to Beethoven's Archduke Trio . We are not only vicariously given precious , historical knowledge of the work but also a spiritual understanding of the piece even if one never heard it before . Murakami is a true erudite . He uses his impressive knowledge of classic literature , music , history , philosophy , and mythology in both eastern and western vain in such a visceral style it gives greater understanding of the works themselves . The sexy , dream / spirit prostitute quoting Hegel is both appropriate and insightful . Murakami's clear and efficient style never talks over us but rather so clearly it is as if we are hearing him from within our head .
Kafka on the shore keeps you in a spell that is hard to break . Intellectually stimulating yet an effortless read . Murakami moves past Logic of the mind and in even beyond the past , present and future in to the illogical emotions and in to a metaphysical realm . Murakami makes this a true labyrinth as he eruditely writes :
. . . Do you know where the idea of a labyrinth first came from ?
I shake my head .
It was the ancient Mesopotamians . They pulled out animal intestines - sometimes human intestines , no doubt - and used the shape to predict the future . They admired the complex shape of the intestines . So the prototype for labyrinth is in a word , guts . Which means the principle for the labyrinth is inside you . And that correlates to the labyrinth outside . . . ( 326 p . )
Murakami once more metaphorically pulls his guts out on his ninth novel . While it is up to the reader to divine their fate
158 4 As a word of caution , if you read novels for beautiful prose , avoid this book like the plague ! It's written like a vampire novel off the young adult fiction rack . I don't know if it's Murakami or the translation ; but reading Marakami's prose is like wading through sludge . Each inelegantly constructed paragraph is filled with cliches , mundane adjectives , and superflous intensifiers . If Murakami wrote like Pynchon , maybe this story would be bearable , but unduring 400 plus pages of prozaic writing in a book requiring the reader's imagination to find a point is beyond tenable . At least offer some pleasing paragraphs to entice the patient reader while he waits for a story to emerge . I'm curious how others who enjoyed this novel so much were able to get beyond the prose , because I really wanted to enjoy Marakami but couldn't .
159 4 Kafka on the Shore is a dream voyage to another land that is nevertheless familiar . It is gentle , violent , abrupt and entrancing . Murakami's worlds take you through the Looking Glass . Sometimes , the world you enter seems strange , disconnected and totally unrelated . But at other times , you feel like you've been offered a glimpse of your personal space of awareness that is typically hidden , but now , suddenly revealed . This novel feels like an invitation to revelation and the unknown . It is brisk , awakening , and warm . Totally unique .
160 4 The brilliance of Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore appears to me more in what is unexplained than what is evident in the literal text . Although I am initially drawn to books that contain a rich and unique plot , a quality that Kafka displayed throughout the entire novel , I was actually more fascinated by the ever present notion that the story would ultimately reach a definite climax yet without truly knowing how it would attain this goal . The story is driven by surreal events , intentionally left unexplained such as the true cause behind the school children fainting or two characters ability to converse with cats . What compelled me to continue to read the book was Murakami's capacity to mislead the reader and never allow him to see how the story would conclude ; yet despite the constant supply of metaphors , symbols , and stories I never lost sight of the plot nor misread the characters thoughts and feelings , a rare instance in a book such as this . Another aspect that drew me in was the author's occasional remarks directly to the reader through his characters . There are times when I was literally told over and over that the character Colonel Sanders was a concept , a narrative device of Murakami's that could address the reader himself . Most important to me as a reader however , is a story's ability to bring together all the details from throughout the novel and gave each a purpose in the conclusion , very much like how the shot in A Prayer for Owen Meany is ultimately the action that saves the children in Owen's dream . Kafka succeeds so well in this area that I feel compelled to read it again just to see how each piece fits into the conclusion .
Kafka in the Shore surpassed all my expectations and changed the way I read surreal books such as this ; the characters were all unique and enjoyable to analyze and connect with , while the bizarre occurrences throughout the story made for a spectacular plot and leave plenty of room for interpretation . I look forward to an opportunity to discuss it with anyone I can and explore the deeper meanings and metaphors in this incredible story .
161 4 Being a big fan of magical realism , I was greatly excited to read my first Murakami novel , Kafka on the Shore . People have been telling me that Murakami is a master of the genre , that his prose are beautifully simple , his plots wonderfully imaginative . And at the start of the novel , I didn't fully agree with them .
I'm not sure if it's a style of Japanese writing or the subsequent translation , but with both Kafka and Kokoro ( by Soseki , and nicely referenced in the text ) , another Japanese novel I read last year , the prose have been simple , almost to the point of boring . It is hard to get through the beginning because of the sheer lack of emotion and story . Once the story switches to the accounts of a strange incident in WWII Japan , however , the plot starts to flutter and eventually starts to grab as the book splits off into two distinct but parallel storylines , one following Kafka Tamura as he leaves his home in Tokyo to try and escape an Oedipal prediction , and the other trailing Nakata , an elderly man who can talk to cats , as he is drawn along a mission of his own . For me , it is Nakata's storyline that truly drives the novel , lending the inventive and magical qualities that Murakami is famous for . He is an excellently drawn and amazingly realized character , almost playing the good cop to Kafka's admittedly necessary but almost uninteresting bad one . Yes , he is the book's emotional center , but I found my attention drifting whenever it would switch back to his narrative . Only when Kafka embarks on his climactic journey through the forest in the last fifty pages does the book begin to even out , building towards a moving , worthy conclusion .
Although I didn't enjoy the book as much as I thought I would before reading , I think that might just be a case of hugely high expectations . Upon turning the last page I truly did feel satisfied with the story and the way the author had woven everything together to create a parallel world full of miracles , awe , and imagination .
162 4 This is my first Murakami book . Prior to reading Kafka on the Shore , i was told that he has written better books . Obviously , I have nothing to measure it against but I must say that if this is not his best book , I'm definitely in for a treat when I read his earlier ones .
Parallels between the two journeys or stories of Kafka Tamura and Mr . Nakata are underscored on several occasions . Actions in one story always affect the other and such a plot structure invariably compels the reader to draw intersections of the two stories on his or oher own . This , i would say , accounts greatly for the intrigue or addictiveness of the novel as it engages us and forces us to accept such dreamlike-ness as perfectly plausible . Given the title , I guess one can say anything less than such bizarreness would be a great disappointment .
The fact that many parts are left unexplained towards the end also compound the bizarreness . Either Murakami has ran out of steam here or simply refuses to tie the plot neatly together . Personally , i'm inclined towards the former cos I think a much better crafted plot ( even when that stresses on uncertainty ) would at least leave one with some suggestions to ponder over .
Overall though , the book is compelling and entertaining . Characterization , for one , is intriguing , especially because of the hermaphrodite , Oshima . In him / her , i think the novel seeks to epitomize the essence of its plot - - the overwhelming uncertainties , and blurring and impossibility of distinctions or dichotomies in the current world ; life is but a dream . Also , I wonder if the constant references to past , memories and war are a nod to the impact of Japan's militaristic past . In any case , this is a book i would recommend to friends . Definitely an interesting read .
163 4 Murakami has lived up to his reputation in my mind through Kafka on the Shore , but I have yet to be as satisfied as I was with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle .
It never fails to amaze me how Murakami can weave two stories together into a complex series of events . In Kafka on the Shore we see two stories unfold , one of a 15 - year old runaway and another of an extremely odd old man who can speak to cats and make odd things like fish and leeches fall from the sky . Following their paths as they unknowingly move toward eachother is extremely catching and , at times , quite suspenseful .
The way in which the two stories fall together is spectacular . The role of alternate realities ( for lack of a better phrase ) is at times somewhat confusing , but overall the story flows wonderfully . A surreal feeling was obviously intended in many instances , and often one feels caught up in a dream .
Like many Murakami novels , everything falls together at the very end , yet still leaves the reader with many questions .
