Kafka on the Shore in Pick-a-Shelf

Sep 28, 2011 Paul Perry rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: male-author, translation, read-in-2011, japanese, surreal, metaphorical

Kafka on the Shore finished. Definite spoilers

I have to confess that my attitude to this book while reading it was all over the place. At times I was certain it was a five star book, and there were others (although rare) when I found the writing positively clumsy. The scene where Oshima reveals his true gender when confronted by the two women's rights activists fell squarely into this category, and part of the reason for this may be that Murakami does seem to have a problem writing female charac Kafka on the Shore finished. Definite spoilers

I have to confess that my attitude to this book while reading it was all over the place. At times I was certain it was a five star book, and there were others (although rare) when I found the writing positively clumsy. The scene where Oshima reveals his true gender when confronted by the two women's rights activists fell squarely into this category, and part of the reason for this may be that Murakami does seem to have a problem writing female characters, at least in the books of his that I've read. Generally, however, I find Murakami's writing magical. The way he blends the everyday and the surreal is mirrored in his language (at least in how it is translated, which is all I have to go on); an oddly straight forwardly factual style peppered with some fantastical imagery.

This blend of the everyday and the highly metaphorical is distinctive of Murakami's work. While set in realistic situations they are highly metaphorical books, working on many levels of metaphor (meta-metaphor?), not all of which are readily apparent. Because of this I was tempted to give five stars for effort, but found the execution somewhat lacking. Partly this was because the two stories – Kafka running away from home and Nakata's quest – never really come together, either physically or in any meaningful way that I could see. The other main problem was that I found Kafka, who seems to be the central focus of the novel, to be neither engaging nor especially believable. I know that this is partly the point – Kafka is damaged and insular, but as a reader I never warmed to him in the way that the people he meets seem to do instantly. Then there is the rape. Some of Kafka's adventures are in many ways an adolescent porn fantasy – his first encounter with Takura and then his relationship with the older, beautiful and distant Miss Saeki – but his dream encounter with Sakura late in the book is increasingly disturbing, especially after all her protestations about it being wrong she obviously enjoys the act. This is a dream, of course, but dreams play a central role in the book – indeed, the phrase “responsibility begins in dreams” is repeated several times.

Okay, realism is not what this book is about. Any realism of setting is just to ground the metaphors, but for that to work relies on a certain transparency in the meanings and for me there was just too much in this novel that was opaque or didn't seem to gel together. It is easy to put this down to my lack of knowledge of the culture (and this may well be the case; my knowledge of Japan is pretty much restricted to the movies of Kurosawa and Studio Ghibli) but I still didn't get the connections and this left me feeling a little short changed. My other experience of Murakami was completely different. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was just as rich in metaphor and allusion, but the strands and surrealisms seemed to support each other and find some sort of resolution. Although not entire resolution, and there are open questions in that book that stay in the reader's mind long after it is finished. In Kafka... we seem to glimpse a closed circle, the resolution of which is in allowing time to continue, Kafka to begin to heal and grow up.

Many of the allusions seem to end up going nowhere. Early on there are lots of reference to Greek tragedy but, other than setting up the incest plot, these seem to peter out (although it did occur to me that Saeki, which I had been pronouncing “Say-key” could be pronounced “Psyche”). While Chronicle left me buzzing with thoughts, Kafka ultimately left me with more dead ends than Lost.

I don't mean to paint too negative a picture. There is much to admire and enjoy in this book. I found the other storyline far more interesting. Nakata's simplicity and honesty makes him engaging and likeable, and his relationship with Hoshino is perhaps the most satisfying in the book, perhaps because they are not directly connected to Kafka. Hoshino, indeed, is perhaps the only character we see who grows properly. ...more

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Jun 03, 2010 surfmadpig rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own-ebook

"Having an object that symbolizes freedom might make a person happier than actually getting the freedom it represents."

Throughout the first 400 pages, I was in love with this book. But then the ending was not all I hoped for. Still brilliant though, reminded me of the better films of David Lynch. Mr. Murakami just earned himself another fan.
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Oct 01, 2017 Marie (UK) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2017-reading-challenge

Ok so i enjoyed this book, it ket my interest throughout but I cannot really say what it was about. Murakami is one of my favourite authors but no two of his books are alike. In this we have murders, runaways, space shifting stones, rains of herring, mackerel and leeches and talking cats. The whole is much more than the sum of its parts but please don't ask me to tell you what that whole is ...more

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