Kafka on the Shore in Around the World in 80 Books

Nov 19, 2018 Steve rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

It's been over a week since I finished this, and I still don't know what I think about it, or even how to rate it. Published in 2005, Kafka on the Shore is Murakami's 10th novel (I think), eight years after what is arguably his best novel, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. (I've not read all of of Murakami's books, but Wind-Up Bird Chronicle seems to be a consensus favorite.) I loved Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (though I thought it faltered a bit during the home-stretch). My own Murakami reading chronology It's been over a week since I finished this, and I still don't know what I think about it, or even how to rate it. Published in 2005, Kafka on the Shore is Murakami's 10th novel (I think), eight years after what is arguably his best novel, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. (I've not read all of of Murakami's books, but Wind-Up Bird Chronicle seems to be a consensus favorite.) I loved Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (though I thought it faltered a bit during the home-stretch). My own Murakami reading chronology had me reading Wind-Up within a few years of reading Kafka on the Shore. Such closeness left me feeling that the latter book is definitely the lesser of the two.

Oh, there are similarities, with various familiar elements (World War 2, pop culture, books, mythologies, demonic family members, etc.), but in this case I felt like the author was just basically going through the motions, giving the fans a Murakami novel. Colonel Sanders, talking cats, a cat killer in a top hat, etc. A major problem I had was that I never connected with Kafka Tamura, the 15 year old, iron pumping runaway. Unlike Wind-Up's appealing everyman, Toru Okada, Kafka just never seems all that real, and his journey is at times quite static. The far more interesting character is Nakata, but his story is not without problems. (I actually set the novel aside for a few days after Col. Sanders showed up.) In general, I found the flow of the novel to be off. After a very promising Picnic at Hanging Rock beginning, with a bunch of Japanese school children passing out after mysterious plane(?) flies over, the novel settles in to long dueling chapters phase between Nakata and Kafka. This structure doesn't add to momentum, with the chapters operating more as speedbumps. There is a love story. An unbelievable one (with an unbelievable song). It would appear that Murakami invested a lot into that portion of the novel. If so, it failed to move me much. Also, the bit about everything being a metaphor is kind of bullshitty way to paper over weaknesses in plot. For all of this complaining, you'd think I hated it. Not so. There are number of fine moments (and a lot of hot sex). The final hundred pages or so, it almost seems like the author woke up, and realized he needed to do something with this mess. And he does deliver with an elevated (but not entirely satisfying) ending. The most revealing passage shows up late in the book, when one character likens life and the fear of death (like surfing) to a giant whirlpool. That works, and it probably could have worked minus a hundred pages or more. (But keep the talking cats.) ...more

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