Kafka on the Shore

published	January 18th 2005 by Knopf
binding	Hardcover
isbn	1400043662 (isbn13: 9781400043668)
pages	448
description	The opening pages of a Haruki Murakami novel can be like the view out an airplane window onto tarmac. But at some point between page three and fiftee...more [close] The opening pages of a Haruki Murakami novel can be like the view out an airplane window onto tarmac. But at some point between page three and fifteen--it's page thirteen in Kafka On The Shore--the deceptively placid narrative lifts off, and you find yourself breaking through clouds at a tilt, no longer certain where the plane is headed or if the laws of flight even apply. Joining the rich literature of runaways, Kafka On The Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu, reminding himself at each step that he has to be "the world¹s toughest fifteen-year-old." He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days--continuing his impressive self-education--and is befriended by a clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother. Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger. An unforgettable character, beautifully delineated by Murakami, Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters. To say that the fantastic elements of Kafka On The Shore are complicated and never fully resolved is not to suggest that the novel fails. Although it may not live up to Murakami's masterful The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Nakata and Kafka's fates keep the reader enthralled to the final pages, and few will complain about the loose threads at the end. --Regina Marler [close]
date added	01-31-07 edit book

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Vanessa rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

08/26/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: Masochists

Few books have infected me with boredom-induced ADD, the desire to gnaw my own foot off at the ankle, and the state of mind you might experience if forced to sit upon a nest of hornets while watching your home being burglarized, but this was one of them. It took me until page 70 to stop wanting to hop up and rearrange the spice cupboard or my sock drawer every few sentences, but then the feeling returned at page 243. Only 224 pages to go! From then on, my hatred and resentment of this book prog...more Few books have infected me with boredom-induced ADD, the desire to gnaw my own foot off at the ankle, and the state of mind you might experience if forced to sit upon a nest of hornets while watching your home being burglarized, but this was one of them. It took me until page 70 to stop wanting to hop up and rearrange the spice cupboard or my sock drawer every few sentences, but then the feeling returned at page 243. Only 224 pages to go! From then on, my hatred and resentment of this book progressively grew like a dead cow bloating in the heat.

“Kafka on the Shore” is a mess. It is such a mess that it makes my six-year-old son’s post-playdate bedroom look like Buckingham Palace. Loosely based on the Oedipus myth, and taking some obvious inspiration from Catcher in the Rye, this book seems to be little more than a random hodgepodge of ideas held together with pipe cleaners and raspberry jam.

There was so much to hate about this book. Here are just a few things:
1. Boring, unnecessary descriptions – that do nothing to further the story – of what people are wearing, what Kafka likes to do during his workout, what he decides to eat, what he is listening to on his Walkman, and so on. I wouldn’t have been surprised to read a monologue from Kafka along the lines of: “When I wipe my arse, I like to use just four squares of toilet paper, no more, no less. I count them out – one, two, three, four. Then I fold the length over once, and again. Equipped now with the perfect, handheld quilt, I wipe in a single, expert, sweeping motion – front to back. Examine the paper to determine whether I need to repeat the process. However, I would add that this is only if the paper is two-ply. For one-ply paper, I need a minimum of eight sheets, but only if they are of high quality. If not of high quality, the boy Crow reminds me, ‘Remember, you’ve got to be the toughest 15-year-old on the planet.’”
2. The gratuitous cat torture scene. Johnnie Walker (him off the whiskey bottle) has to cut the hearts out of living cats and eat them so that he can collect cat souls to make a special kind of flute. There is no freakin’ point to this scene whatsoever – we never hear about Johnnie or his cat-flute again.
3. The annoying way characters – Oshima in particular – deliver sermons about philosophy, art, literature and classical music. It took me right out of the story (tangled mess though it was) and smacked of “Look at me – aren’t I clever?”
4. The screechy-preachy scene with the “feminist” caricatures in the library.
5. Hate to be ungroovy or whatever – but I just couldn’t stand any of the sex scenes, particularly with Miss Saeki, the 50-something librarian who gets it on over and over again with the 15-year-old protagonist even though he and she both know she might be his long-lost mother. Excuse me while I go mop the vomitus off of my living room wall.

After the first 100 pages I thought that I might end up giving this book three stars. Another 100 pages on, I decided two stars. By page 331 I decided one star, and by the end of this frustrating, pretentious, and completely unsatisfying book, I felt like I’d squandered so much of my precious life reading this pile o’ doo-doo that I didn’t want to give it even one star. However, since Mr. Murakami knows how to spell (or at least, I’m assuming he does since this is a translation) I will relent.

In the end, love or loathing of a book is entirely subjective, and scores of critics loved this one. As for me, I feel that if I’d wanted to find meaning in a random jumble of junk, I would have had more luck going to the thrift store and sifting through the bric-a-brac box than wasting time on Mr. Murakami’s brain-omelette.
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Martine rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

02/21/08

bookshelves: asian, magic-realism, modern-fiction

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: those who like their novels weird and poetic

I could write a one-sentence review of this book, saying that it features Beethoven, talking cats and obsessive love and that therefore I couldn't but love it. Or I could write another one-sentence review, stating that it's Murakami and that therefore it's inherently good and interesting. Both of these statements would be true and more or less complete, but all the same I think I'll go into slightly more detail.

Kafka on the Shore is a story about a fifteen-year-old bookworm who calls ...more I could write a one-sentence review of this book, saying that it features Beethoven, talking cats and obsessive love and that therefore I couldn't but love it. Or I could write another one-sentence review, stating that it's Murakami and that therefore it's inherently good and interesting. Both of these statements would be true and more or less complete, but all the same I think I'll go into slightly more detail.

Kafka on the Shore is a story about a fifteen-year-old bookworm who calls himself Kafka (as you do) and runs away from home, partly to look for his lost mother and sister, but mostly to get away from his horrible father, whose crimes against him are never fully explained. Fate draws him to a town where, among other things, he meets two women who may well be his mother and sister, which doesn't prevent him from having sex with them. His story, which is as Oedipal as they come, is intersected with that of Nakata, a sixty-year-old simpleton who, among many other unique gifts, can talk to cats. It quickly transpires that Kafka's and Nakata's lives are interconnected, but exactly how this is doesn't become clear until the end, if indeed it does then.

There is much to enjoy here. As always, Murakami's prose is supremely efficient; every sentence matters and takes you closer to the inevitable denouement. As always, the characters are tremendously likeable and off-beat. One could argue that they're not entirely three-dimensional, but who cares when they have such a story to tell? For theirs is quite a story. Like all of Murakami's 'weird' books, Kafka on the Shore is light on facts and heavy on metaphysical stuff. It's not a book for those who like straightforward stories; many of the questions raised are left unanswered, which I love but which will leave those who are of a slightly more literal bent unsatisfied. Nor is it a book for people who care about realism. What with its curses, entrances to other worlds, mackerel rainstorms, ghosts, concepts assuming human form and heavy emphasis on fate, destiny and reincarnation, Kafka on the Shore has a distinctly fairy-tale-like atmosphere, which is probably why I liked it so much (apart from it featuring Beethoven, talking cats and obsessive love, I mean). Parts of the story were clearly inspired by Japanese mythology. In its own turn, I can see this book being the inspiration for a very good Japanese movie. Maybe it has a little too much violence and incest in it to be turned into an anime film, but I can think of quite a few 'regular' Japanese directors who could do great things with this particular brand of mysterious magic realism. Which begs the question: how come the book hasn't been adapted to the screen yet?

Anyhow, to cut a long story short (and to prevent this turning into a panegyric on Japanese cinema), I loved this book. If I'm not giving it five stars, that's because it lacks the emotional resonance of Norwegian Wood (my favourite Murakami book so far) and because Philip Gabriel's translation is a little too American for my taste. If I could give it four and a half stars, though, I would -- for the skilful way in which Murakami weaves together his two storylines, for his haunting descriptions of the power of memories and longing, for the many matter-of-fact weird touches he adds (Johnnie Walker and Colonel Sanders, anyone?), and, naturally, for his throwing in Beethoven, talking cats and obsessive love. It doesn't get any better than that, does it?
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Olly added it (review of isbn 1400079276)

06/26/08

Read in June, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

So here goes:

For some reason I keep being drawn back to Murakami. With each new book that I read, I find myself wanting to like him more than I ever really do. I'm pretty sure I only started reading him after having read a couple of David Mitchell books. I think my problem is that I went looking for the Murakami that David Mitchell was emulating (or the Murakami to whom Mitchell was paying tribute) and apart from a few allusions that I now understand, I don't think I've found him yet. That's...more So here goes:

For some reason I keep being drawn back to Murakami. With each new book that I read, I find myself wanting to like him more than I ever really do. I'm pretty sure I only started reading him after having read a couple of David Mitchell books. I think my problem is that I went looking for the Murakami that David Mitchell was emulating (or the Murakami to whom Mitchell was paying tribute) and apart from a few allusions that I now understand, I don't think I've found him yet. That's not to say that I don't enjoy reading his books; I enjoy them for the most part but I definitely don't love them. I think my favorite so far is SPUTNIK SWEETHEART the first book of his that I read (a couple books ago) which felt a little like parts of THE MAGUS and LE GRAND MEAULNES.

I guess I enjoyed KAFKA ON THE SHORE in the end, even if I found it mostly frustrating. There were a number of things (not just dialogue) that really bothered me for the first three-quarters of the book. After that, I was able to let it go a little...I'd like to give the author the benefit of the doubt and blame the translator/translation quality...but I'm skeptical.

In response to the Kafka question: I don't think there's anything wrong with liking Kafka. I haven't read anything that recently (I reread THE CASTLE a year or two ago) so this commentary might not be too accurate. I'm not 100% sure how relate this book to Kafka. Kafka is clearly one (of many)influences for Murakami (SPUTNIK SWEETHEART had a character named "K"). The narrator tells us that Kafka means crow...and the Kafka in this book has a sort of imaginary counterpart named crow (who becomes a crow at one point...possibly in a dream(?)). But other than that, this didn't feel too much like Kafka (even, I suspect, where it was supposed to). What I like about the surreal or magical-realistic aspect of Kafka is that it's so grounded in reality, all of the details have been so thoroughly researched, that it feels real. But with Murakami, the surreal episodes feel like they've just been plunked in, on a whim and there's so many of them that don't seem at all related. Compared to THE METAMORPHASIS, the deus ex machinae of the fish and leeches falling from the sky (which as far as I can tell was never explained except by saying that one of the characters "made it happen") seems like just that...an easy out...a means of not having to explain or resolve plot holes or allow the story to progress organically.

It doesn't bother me that the Nakata character talks with cats...but does the dialogue have to be so bad (even with the character being mentally challenged)? And then there was the whole Johnny Walker, Colonel Sanders thing; which I guess could have been some sort of critique of western export...consumer culture or whatever which would have been fine)...but all I could think of was Murakami with writer's block over a half-eaten bucket of popcorn chicken and half-empty bottle of scotch trying to come up with something useful. Oh, I almost forgot the description of sex in his books that always seems so creepy, cold and generally off-putting.

To his credit: one of my favorite parts of the book was where the boy goes to the cabin in the woods and then on to the utopian limbo...I feel like I've read a lot of things like this lately that did what HM was trying to do (only better) but this was still good...and this section did feel intentional and deliberate...(and I guess just a little bit like an episode of Lost). Also, I should probably mention that I liked his essay on running in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago.

Sorry this review might be worse than before, but I don't have time (or probably the capacity) to make it any better.

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JDH rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

04/25/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in April, 2008

I bought this book used. Check out what was on the post-it note on the inside back cover...
--
started ~2am
3am - 5am -12 minutes apart

5:04
5:13
5:24
5:34*
5:49
6:09
*shower
7:08
7:55
8:07
8:55
--
I think Murakami resellers may do this kind of stuff just to mess with people. Anyways... the rest of this review will eviscerate the book for you if you haven't read it so fair warning.

3 stars mostly bc it got read after The Wind-Up Bird. Man I got stuck inside that o...more

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Naomi rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

11/28/07

bookshelves: воображение

Read in November, 2007

Magical! A beautiful weave of metaphysical, philosophy, and wonderful characters that are both 'global' and 'Japanese'. Oedipal theory put to music, Hegelian subject given a body, Beethoven symphonies come to life. Murakami is obviously someone who thought deeply and originally about his world and theories he comes in contact with. Much like Kafka and Nakata and many of those they meet including some of the kitties. This was one of those books that totally engulfed me. It was a trial having to p...more Magical! A beautiful weave of metaphysical, philosophy, and wonderful characters that are both 'global' and 'Japanese'. Oedipal theory put to music, Hegelian subject given a body, Beethoven symphonies come to life. Murakami is obviously someone who thought deeply and originally about his world and theories he comes in contact with. Much like Kafka and Nakata and many of those they meet including some of the kitties. This was one of those books that totally engulfed me. It was a trial having to put it down to go to work or sleep or feed the cats. This is the first Murakami book that I've read so I'm not familiar with his themes but I would love to know something about his biography.

^spoilers^
I obviously wrote the above review shortly after finishing the book! I have had time to think about it and attempt to describe it to others and I realised in the process that reading this book was very much like dreaming. Like a dream, the book has its own internal logic which makes perfect sense from within its pages. Yet, from without it appears very strange indeed and Murukami left many threads untied. I have some questions: firstly, was the father 'johnny walker' or did Johnny Walker appropriate Kafka's father's body to serve the purpose of being murdered? I certainly didn't get that impression, but then, according to the description of 'it' as 'nothing' having no presence and unable to touch or lift anything (when 'it' was Colonial Sanders), if Kafka's father was 'it' then how did Ms. Saike get pregnant etc? I forget the name of the girl he met on the bus, but though he imagined that she could be his sister, it appeared that she wasn't (by her own family history). Which raises my next question: What did Ms. Saike do with Kafka's sister? She took her away with her 11 years before but there doesn't seem to be any explanation for what happened to her after that. Why did Nakata loose his ability to speak to cats after killing Johnny Walker? And, why did Mr. Horoshino gain this ability once Mr. Nakata died? One last point: I speculated, when the school teacher admitted in the letter that Nakata had found her bloody towels, that the 'trigger' for hypnotising the children was blood. The pattern of blood recurs quite often - when Johnny Walker dies (and kills the cats), when Ms. Saike sticks her hairpin in her arm and Kafka sucks on it. Judging by the two solders who managed to 'enter' that half way zone, obviously somehow the entrance stone had been opened about the same time as Nakata went into his coma. Ms. Saike opened the stone perhaps 15 or 20 years after that. The stone glowed red when 'it' was crawling towards it. So was blood and perhaps sacrifice the key element in the entrance stone's operation? Also the teacher describes her dream of the night before, and considering Kafka's 'rape' of his 'sister', perhaps the event initially described was not as random it seemed. ...less

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Donna rated it:

(review of isbn 0099458322)

03/03/08

bookshelves: 1001-books, expanding-horizons, japan, new-york-times

Read in February, 2008

There is something so intriguing and mesmerizing about Murakami’s books. I can’t put my finger on it, nor can I fully explain it in simple words in a short review. Murakami isn’t just a book, it’s an experience. His characters are quirky, interesting, looking for answers, and wise beyond belief:

“That’s why I like to listen to Schubert while I’m driving. As I said, it’s because all the performances are imperfect. A dense, artistic imperfection stimulates your consciousne...more There is something so intriguing and mesmerizing about Murakami’s books. I can’t put my finger on it, nor can I fully explain it in simple words in a short review. Murakami isn’t just a book, it’s an experience. His characters are quirky, interesting, looking for answers, and wise beyond belief:

“That’s why I like to listen to Schubert while I’m driving. As I said, it’s because all the performances are imperfect. A dense, artistic imperfection stimulates your consciousness, keeps you alert. If I listen to some utterly perfect performance of an utterly perfect piece while I’m driving, I might want to close my eyes and die right then and there. But listening to the D major, I can feel the limits of what humans are capable of – that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.” [Oshima, p. 119]

The characters in a Murakami novel – in this case Kafka, a 15-year-old runaway; Oshima, who manages the library that Kafka lives in; Nakata, an old man who speaks to cats; and the elusively sad Miss Saeki – draw you into a story that is partly narrative, partly plot-driven, peppered with philosophical insights and linguistic manipulations, but mostly mythical in nature.

“The world of the grotesque is the darkness within us. Well before Freud and Jung shone a light on the workings of the subconscious, these two forms of darkness, was obvious to people. It wasn’t a metaphor, even. If you trace it back further, it wasn’t even a correlation. Until Edison invented the electric light, most of the world was covered in darkness. The physical darkness outside and the inner darkness of the soul were mixed together, with no boundary separating the two.” [Oshima, p. 242]

Kafka on the Shore is a most unusual coming of age novel. It’s a murder mystery, a love affair, and a magnificent example of seamlessly beautiful storytelling:

“It’s as if when you’re in the forest, you become a seamless part of it. When you’re in the rain, you’re a part of the rain. When you’re in the morning, you’re a seamless part of the morning. When you’re with me, you become a part of me.” [Miss Saeki, p. 472]

I preferred Norwegian Wood to Kafka on the Shore, but admittedly I didn’t give Kafka much of a fighting chance. I’ve been buried in academic reading, with little time for novels, and it took me over a month to read Kafka. I suspect that a re-read, conducted under different circumstances, would raise my rating to a perfect 5. In the meantime, I’ve added three more Murakami titles to my “must-read” list. :)
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Iris rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

12/06/07

Read in October, 2007

I can't say this book is one of my favorites, but I can't say I hated it. This wasn't one of the books that I would want to read in one sitting.

Murakami writes in many different points of view; he begins with first-person, then switches to third-person omnipresent, and sometimes even uses second-person narration. From the two protagonists of the novel, Kafka Tamura and Nakata, Murakami uses the different narration depending on which character he describes. When describing Kafka, he usually w...more I can't say this book is one of my favorites, but I can't say I hated it. This wasn't one of the books that I would want to read in one sitting.

Murakami writes in many different points of view; he begins with first-person, then switches to third-person omnipresent, and sometimes even uses second-person narration. From the two protagonists of the novel, Kafka Tamura and Nakata, Murakami uses the different narration depending on which character he describes. When describing Kafka, he usually writes with first-person narration, but occasionally he uses second-person. When describing Nakata, third-person is used. The way that he uses these narration makes sense; Kafka is able to think,(you could say, like a normal person), while Nakata, having been in an accident which left him "empty" has thoughts rarely related to how life happens to others. Although he is only fifteen, Kafka's thoughts are a learned person's thoughts while Nakata's are harder to understand because it may seem incoherent.

Kafka has a history of reading a lot, and from reading so much, it is gathered that he has learned a lot from these authors. When talking to Oshima, an employee in the Komura Memorial Library, their discussions focus on metaphors that can be found in books and/or in real life.
Nakata, on the other hand, had a lifestyle quite different from Kafka's. Unable to read, his way of learning differed from other people's. He didn't learn in school and he obtained his skills from life experiences.

The way the novel is written can be quite confusing at times; since Murakami writes about the two different characters with distinct writing styles, the timeline of both is different. The way the days pass by each character is baffling; take for example, a specific Monday in the book. when Kafka describes this specific Monday, it is a few chapters away from when Nakata experiences that same Monday. The days in the book pass by so quickly that it isn't mentioned what day of the week it is. (I can't really describe this writing style.)

Although I didn't love this book as I originally thought, I would want to try Murakami again. Perhaps my reasoning for wanting to read him is his popularity, but I have an urge to read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle....less

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Matthew rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

10/23/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: those detached souls in the universe who love the man

in the swirl of madness, i flew into this book with high expectations, and to a certain extent, they were not quashed. although, yes, you see but three lonely stars from me for this book. but wait, we're getting a head of ourselves. this was, and i suppose is, a murakami. i have only gone as far in as this one and the wind up bird, but somehow i feel like i may not be too far off by making sweeping statements about his view on the human psyche. one has to be prepared for metaphorical metaph...more in the swirl of madness, i flew into this book with high expectations, and to a certain extent, they were not quashed. although, yes, you see but three lonely stars from me for this book. but wait, we're getting a head of ourselves. this was, and i suppose is, a murakami. i have only gone as far in as this one and the wind up bird, but somehow i feel like i may not be too far off by making sweeping statements about his view on the human psyche. one has to be prepared for metaphorical metaphors, quirkily apt social commentary, and a character named johnnie walker, who may or may not be in my freezer right now. this dual narrative tale was quite engaging for much of the duration. it is rare for me when i enjoy, equally, mind you, both stories that are woven together, but at the end of each of the chapter i felt prepared and expectant at what lay ahead. it was, for lack of a better word, quite fun most of the time. you have kafka, a teenager who at the onset runs away from his dear old dad in search of a reason why. you also have a dear old man, who talks to cats, claims a hearty incompetence to the world because of a mysterious incident involving a field trip to pick mushrooms for wartime sustenance, and a propensity for bringing out the very best in people who are in need of something to do. the stories both leave the station with equal tenacity, and keep rolling to the end. eventually there are no more words in the book. it ends. it ends well, actually, which is more then one can say for most books.

nevertheless, which is still quite a long word, i had to give this one the three. a strong three, though, for those of you whom are still counting. and for you, goodreads, whomever you are...can we get on the whole half star thing, becuase that would be great - maybe iTunes could take a hint as well. sorry. anyway, overall, for first timers, i would stick with the wind-up bird, which overall has more to talk to its readers about. this book was almost content talking to itself and didn't mind that you, as the reader, were easedropping. it's a good conversation, don't get me wrong, but once in a while you just wish you could get a word in edge wise....less

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Kelly rated it:

05/10/07

bookshelves: favorites

Read in April, 2006

No wonder Kafka on the Shore was on the New York Times "10 Best Books of 2005" list. It's one of the most engaging and magical pieces of literature I've read. Reality is unclear. The book presses the boundaries of what exists around the characters versus what exists in their minds. Powerful forces guide the characters--some known, some unknown. Odd things happen within the context of everyday Japan. Mackarel rains from the sky. A metaphysical overseer appears under the guise of Colonel...more

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Jeff rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

01/07/08

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: The noble Samurai warrior, or that indie guy who works at the used CD shop

Really?
What just happened? Who? What? I’m sorry, what?

This is how it starts:
“You’re going to love this book.” Someone says to someone else. “I loved this book, and I know you’re going to love this book.”

Someone said this to my friend, and she read the book, and she thought, “eh.”

But there were more people out there. They love this book! This book is the book that will change everything! If they were to build a time machine and travel back in time with se...more Really?
What just happened? Who? What? I’m sorry, what?

This is how it starts:
“You’re going to love this book.” Someone says to someone else. “I loved this book, and I know you’re going to love this book.”

Someone said this to my friend, and she read the book, and she thought, “eh.”

But there were more people out there. They love this book! This book is the book that will change everything! If they were to build a time machine and travel back in time with several copies of this book, and if they were to give copies of this book to Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, and Ishmael then there would be absolutely no problems in the Middle East. There would be no homeless. Unicorns would run free through fields of grass. We’d all have universal health care.

“A friend of mine gave me this book. Matt really likes this book. Joe really likes this book. I thought it was ‘eh’. But maybe you’ll like it.” She said as she handed me the book.

So I read it. And I’m inclined to agree with the woman who gave it to me. It’s “eh”. Kafka is a young kid looking for something that’s been missing in his life. It maybe his mother, but that’s really just a metaphor. Then there’s this simpleton old man who can talk to cats. Then there’s this secret world in the mountains. Then there’s a magical stone. Then Godzilla, then a comet hits Mars and we all grow a third arm. I felt as if the story spiraled out of control, maybe. I think part of the problem is that Karuki Murakami doesn’t write in English, and I can’t read Japanese, and while I’m sure Philip Gabriel is a perfectly nice man, and can translate Japanese into English perfectly well, I still felt like there was something lost in the translation while reading the book. So, IF I were to suggest you read this book, I would first suggest you learn to read Japanese, then maybe spend some years in Japan. Then read the book. Then write me and tell me what you thought of it. Cause for me- it’s a little too metaphor-y, and at the end of the book, all I could think was, “Really?”
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Weems rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

07/11/08

Read in August, 2006

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 bu...more 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.
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ryan rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

06/07/07

bookshelves: fiction

Just finished this on the train ride into work and its now one of my favorite of Murakami's. Kafka on the Shore reads like a cross between the languid, repetative, dreamlike atmosphere of The Windup Bird Chronicle and the converging dual story narrative of Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

The main first-person story is that of Kafka Tamura, a 15-year-old runaway fleeing from an Oepidal prophecy, but by running away just sort of vaguely winds up fulfilling...more Just finished this on the train ride into work and its now one of my favorite of Murakami's. Kafka on the Shore reads like a cross between the languid, repetative, dreamlike atmosphere of The Windup Bird Chronicle and the converging dual story narrative of Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

The main first-person story is that of Kafka Tamura, a 15-year-old runaway fleeing from an Oepidal prophecy, but by running away just sort of vaguely winds up fulfilling it instead. The second story is that of Nakata, a simpleton who can speak with cats and follows in Kafka's path as he flees.

Like Mailer's An American Dream, the line between reality, dreams and the supernatural is nonexistant--things happen which seem beyond belief, but the story just keeps chugging along like they're real. Dream sequences become crucial plot points. Also like that Mailer book, Kafka implies other levels of reality, that unseen spirits on some other plain are manipulating the character's actions like puppetmasters. The surreal edge is livened up even more with some choice elements of David Lynch mindfuckery: corporate icons used as villains, slugs raining from the sky, eating cats' hearts to make a flute, a huge and evil white slug crawling out of the mouth of a dead body.

Much is made of symbolism and metaphor in the book--Kafka winds up working at a library where the characters discuss literature, in particular the books and authors that are direct influences on Murakami and the story (yes, including Franz Kafka) but much of the basic plot is left entirely ambiguous. Did Kafka really sleep with his mother? His father winds up dead, but did Kafka kill him? Just what was it that turned Nakata from a promising student into a dimwit? Connections are made and implied but never fully explained.

A wonderfully twisted and mindbending surreal roller coaster. I had my doubts about the book--particularly the slow pace of the begining, and some parts of the middle that seemed to drag on--but I wound up loving it. One of Murakami's best....less

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Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

07/21/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in July, 2007

Once again, Haruki Murakami introduces us to one of his weird and wonderful worlds. Only in a Murakami novel would you find raining fish, ghosts, people who are able to talk to cats, and Colonel Saunders (yes, of KFC) popping up as if it's completely the norm. I've always loved that about Murakami - the way his completely ordinary characters find themselves in completely extraordinary circumstances, and still rise to the occasion without batting an eye.

However, I do have to say that someti...more

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Max rated it:

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05/08/08

Read in May, 2008

Because I dearly love exquisitely precise prose, I have great difficulty reviewing translations. I am bothered by the inability to judge for myself whether Philip Gabriel or Haruki Murakami has coined, as an aspecific example, a grammatically incorrect colloquialism. It is difficult enough to determine whether such a colloquialism in a book unrendered from its native language is an artistic choice or an unknowing error; add in another layer of influence and the difficulty is even greater.

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Avital rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

06/29/07

bookshelves: japanese

It's excellent in many ways. Now, there is a metaphysical world in it, where several characters move in their dreams or in certain hours. There is also tension built up, some characters are caught in a whirle of violent acts they wake up from as if these acts were a dream. The characters' problems are resolved in this metaphysical world, and then they can face life or withdraw from it. But the solution within the metaphysical world hardly makes sense to me, and I miss the climax the redemption, ...more

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Melanie rated it:

(review of isbn 1400079276)

05/18/08

bookshelves: philosophy, scifi-fantasy

Read in May, 2008

I loved it. I loved the philosophical references, as a admirer of Eastern philosophy, philosophy in general, and religion.

This is a comment from a zen master to a pupil: "You said in your letter that you have read many books about Zen. That's good, but if you are thinking, you can't understand Zen. Anything that can be written, anything that can be said - all this is thinking. If you are thinking, all Zen books, all Buddhist sutras, and all Bibles are demons' words. But if you read wi...more

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Anna rated it: