Kafka on the Shore in Read a book from each country

Sep 30, 2009 Julia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. "A lifetime worth of weird stuff packed into ten days. It's as if we've been doing test runs on a roller coaster or something.." That's what truck-driver Hoshino says after travelling with mentally retarded, but strangely wise Nakata to Takamatsu, looking for nobody-knows-what......and this quote quite well expresses my feelings towards this book. i felt never bored when reading it, i really loved most of the characters or at least found them interesting, and the story was well-delivered in a co "A lifetime worth of weird stuff packed into ten days. It's as if we've been doing test runs on a roller coaster or something.." That's what truck-driver Hoshino says after travelling with mentally retarded, but strangely wise Nakata to Takamatsu, looking for nobody-knows-what......and this quote quite well expresses my feelings towards this book. i felt never bored when reading it, i really loved most of the characters or at least found them interesting, and the story was well-delivered in a cool and smooth style. despite of all the magical things happening to the characters, Murakami did a good job in making them seem very real by giving exact descriptions of their surroundings, eating habits, clothes, etc. for me, the contrast between completely realistic passages in which one seemed to be in japan eating udon noodles or watching Oshima sharpen his pencil and others questioning the credibility of the narrator in which leeches or sardines are raining from the sky and in which paradise is depicted as a hidden place in a forest where time plays no role, is a big forte of the book.

Still, especially at the end i had the impression that Murakami had tested out many spicey ingredients or flashy devices, but abandoned some of them on the way. As this is my first Murakami, i can't judge if the not-matching ends of the story are typical for him, and i honestly don't even think they bothered me too much as this way the mystery's still there after finishing the book and probably the story would have suffered more from explaining every little detail of the riddle Murakami presents to the reader. Maybe i'll reread it in the future to see if i've overlooked some important clues for understanding completely the meaning of each character (like the boy named Crow, Colonel Sanders or Johnny Walker). But maybe Murakami wanted each reader to be able to see the story through their own eyes and find their own interpretation which would mean that the story exists as many times as it's found readers, an appealing idea for an author, i guess....besides, at the end the main character seems to finally wake up from the weird stuff that has been happening, and i had the notion that maybe all the oedipal stuff, the murder of the father and the sex with mother and sister plus staying in the lonely hut belonging to Oshima, gay man born into a woman's body is all just a metaphor for growing up, for different initiation rites and mythological interpretations of the age between kid and adult with all its insecurities and search for identity (not only sexually-wise....).

one thing i also found really interesting were the many intertextual references to Kafka, greek tragedy, classical music and of course Japanese authors. for me, Kafka on the shore is also a book about reading and the love of books: big parts of the story take place in a library and Nakata, who lost his ability to read in a strange incident in his childhood, longs dearly for recovering it. Also Hoshino, the truck-driver with a past of violence and boring sex, discovers his appreciation of libraries and even more of classical music. This sudden revelation changes him completely and makes his life much more meaningful.

i'll definitely read another Murakami, but i'll give it a break for the moment - i think that reading too much of that stuff can get as tiring and annoying as i found it refreshing and innovative this time. ...more

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Dec 08, 2009 Mary rated it it was amazing

Don’t know if I understand it, but the journey is as interesting as the destination in reading this book. I particularly like Nataka and his way of talking (“Eel is one of Nataka’s favorites”) and Hoshino, an everyman type who certainly goes through as much transformation in his life as Kafka, even if you just count appreciating Beethoven and don’t consider being able to talk to cats. I also like that the two facilitator characters in the book, Hoshino and Oshima, are so very different, Hoshino ...more

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Dec 17, 2009 And then the moon flew up....... rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have wondered many a times what a potrait should be like. I mean, I can potray anybody in colours or words, but can I be that anybody. I think this thought must have lingered along those 200+ pages.

What Kafka, as a posthumously celebrated writer, lacked was that poetry, No! it is not poetry, but the CURVE as people say. Whereas, Murakami with the Majestic backing of Japanese literature tradition (who can forget Mishima and Others) and sheer talent successfully and delibrately (though with a ti ...more

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