Kafka on the Shore

published	2006 by Vintage
first published	2005
binding	Paperback
isbn	1400079276 (isbn13: 9781400079278)
pages	480
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
date added	12-07-06 edit book

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Barnes & Noble | Abebooks | more...

discuss this book

topics	replies	last activity
Books being read	0	03/31/2008 11:03PM

new topic

groups with this book

view all groups »

friend reviews (0)

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

other reviews (showing 1-20 of 8622)

Vanessa rated it:

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.
...less

Like this review? yes (10 people liked it)

6 comments

Martine rated it:

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?
...less

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)