false 4929 51 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 <I>Kafka On The Shore</I>--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. <p> Joining the rich literature of runaways, <I>Kafka On The Shore</I> 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 world's 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.<p> To say that the fantastic elements of <I>Kafka On The Shore</I> are complicated and never fully resolved is not to suggest that the novel fails. Although it may not live up to Murakami's masterful <I>The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle</I>, Nakata and Kafka's fates keep the reader enthralled to the final pages, and few will complain about the loose threads at the end. <I>--Regina Marler</I> 6191072 book 2005 Kafka on the Shore total:15041|5:5185|4:6164|3:2835|2:698|1:159| 15041 60641 21061 1874 1 33 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 15 15:12:39 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 26 14:51:05 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 10 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu May 10 09:06:40 -0700 2007 Thu May 10 09:06:50 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 10 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 14:53:44 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 21 14:26:29 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 5 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 02:16:32 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 28 04:49:29 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 6 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 08:31:49 -0700 2007 Mon Jan 07 11:57:43 -0800 2008 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 r...more...]]> 4 7 false false Sun May 31 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jan 11 18:34:45 -0800 2009 Mon Jun 01 01:00:04 -0700 2009 Search for the entrance stone, and more
Lifting the hem of her azure dress,
She gazes
At kafka on the shore

At beginning, reading this book just like we read two different and not connected stories. It’s about Kafka, a 15 years old boy w...more...]]> 5 4 false false Tue Oct 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 24 04:47:27 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 29 02:38:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 6 false true Thu Jun 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 06:22:56 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 11:22:16 -0700 2008
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...more...]]> 4 3 false false Fri Feb 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 02:03:33 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 02:49:50 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun May 27 15:01:39 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 07 09:20:03 -0700 2007 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 W...more...]]> 3 5 false false Thu Aug 02 19:12:55 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 22 10:16:10 -0700 2007 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, this is a book I wanted to like more than I ultimately did. The surreality adds up to very little here; if I'm going to get sick reading (spoiler!) about a guy eating the hearts of cats, there'd better be a very good reason. Male-ego-centered sexu...more...]]> 4 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 20 14:02:56 -0700 2007 Thu Dec 06 22:21:33 -0800 2007
Murakami writes in many different points of view; he begins with first-person, then switches to third-person omnipresent, and sometimes even use...more...]]> 3 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 14 23:10:18 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 23 21:18:33 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 30 08:19:34 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 13:13:01 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 06 03:06:56 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 21 09:05:18 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Apr 29 19:47:18 -0700 2007 Mon May 14 14:34:22 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 4 true true Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 12 13:10:18 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 01 13:44:37 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 2 true false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jul 14 16:19:28 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 25 08:29:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 4 false false Tue Feb 19 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 07 17:05:04 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 16:24:06 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 4 false false Fri Apr 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 11:28:57 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 26 06:39:01 -0700 2009 more...]]>