Kafka on the Shore

by Haruki Murakami

Paper Book, 2006

Description

Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. HTML:NATIONAL BESTSELLER ? From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and one of the world??s greatest storytellers comes "an insistently metaphysical mind-bender? (The New Yorker) about a teenager on the run and an aging simpleton. Here we meet 15-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura and the elderly Nakata, who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder, in what is a truly remarkable journey. ??As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami ... is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.? ??The Chicag… (more)

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Publication

Vintage (2006), 480 pages

Media reviews

The weird, stately urgency of Murakami's novels comes from their preoccupation with . . . internal problems; you can imagine each as a drama acted out within a single psyche. In each, a self lies in pieces and must be put back together; a life that is stalled must be kick-started and relaunched
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into the bruising but necessary process of change. Reconciling us to that necessity is something stories have done for humanity since time immemorial. Dreams do it, too. But while anyone can tell a story that resembles a dream, it's the rare artist, like this one, who can make us feel that we are dreaming it ourselves.
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Maar net zoals in de rest van Murakami’s omvangrijke oeuvre blijft het niet bij het wegloop-realisme van de hoofdpersoon. Onverklaarbare wendingen, bovennatuurlijke verschijnselen, irreële toevalligheden en onwaarschijnlijke personages roepen bij de nuchtere lezer al snel de vraag op waarom hij
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in godsnaam maar blijft dóórlezen.
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Kafka Tamura se va de casa el día en que cumple quince años. La razón, si es que la hay, son las malas relaciones con su padre, un escultor famoso convencido de que su hijo habrá de repetir el aciago sino del Edipo de la tragedia clásica, y la sensación de vacío producida por la ausencia de
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su madre y su hermana, a quienes apenas recuerda porque también se marcharon de casa cuando era muy pequeño. El azar, o el destino, le llevarán al sur del país, a Takamatsu, donde encontrará refugio en una peculiar biblioteca y conocerá a una misteriosa mujer mayor, tan mayor que podría ser su madre, llamada Saeki. Si sobre la vida de Kafka se cierne la tragedia –en el sentido clásico–, sobre la de Satoru Nakata ya se ha abatido –en el sentido real–: de niño, durante la segunda guerra mundial, sufrió un extraño accidente que lo marcaría de por vida. En una excursión escolar por el bosque, él y sus compañeros cayeron en coma; pero sólo Nakata salió con secuelas, sumido en una especie de olvido de sí, con dificultades para expresarse y comunicarse... salvo con los gatos. A los sesenta años, pobre y solitario, abandona Tokio tras un oscuro incidente y emprende un viaje que le llevará a la biblioteca de Takamatsu. Vidas y destinos se van entretejiendo en un curso inexorable que no atiende a razones ni voluntades. Pero a veces hasta los oráculos se equivocan.
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”Hurra!”
”Et stort verk, men likevel lekende lett lesning.”
”Fantastisk vakkert fra Murakami … en sjeldent stor opplevelse.”
På 15-årsdagen rømmer Kafka Tamura hjemmefra. Han vil vekk fra den iskalde faren sin og den foruroligende ødipale spådommen som alltid har fulgt ham. Men Kafka bærer også på håpet om å finne moren og søsteren, som forsvant elleve år tidligere. I byen Takamatsu slår han seg ned i et
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lite bibliotek, der han blir kjent med den androgyne Oshima og den gåtefulle kvinnelige bestyreren. Og her får han hjelp når politiet tar opp jakten på ham etter en blodig hendelse. Nakata er også på flukt fra politiet. Etter en mystisk ulykke som barn har Nakata kunnet snakke med katter, og det er da han leter etter en forsvunnet katt at han får blod på hendene og må legge ut på reise. Gradvis veves trådene i Kafkas og Nakatas liv sammen.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member atheist_goat
I have no idea what was going on in this book. I thought I did a few times, but I was wrong.

It's a great feeling to not be in academia any more, and be able to admit the above.
LibraryThing member bardsfingertips
This was a lovely book, and based on just this experience (being my first), I bought a slew of Murakami books for future reads.

It may be egocentric for me to say this (maybe even metaphorical – wink, wink!), I almost feel as if Kafka on the Shore was written for me. At least, it was a subject
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matter I could relate to: the supernatural feeling of just love, being loved, and desiring love. To spite the recent pop-science report that breaking up doesn’t hurt as much as we tend to think so, I feel that any such claim is broad, generalized, and unfocused.

In Kafka on the Shore we have the two halves of an incomplete circle. One is about a boy whose mother left when he was too young to remember (with his adopted sister) and a father he feels no love from or towards. The other half is of a woman who is much older than the boy and, in her youth, had love thrust onto her early in life; and, of course, had her lover taken from her due to violence and mistaken identity. The boy runs away and tries to move away from the world. The woman is a time capsule holding onto a past she refuses to let go of; of a world she will not move away from.

Outside of this incomplete circle, we have an old man who is not very bright due to something that happened to him as a child during the Second World War. He can also talk to cats (something I found truly entertaining; for the author gave each cat a unique voice). Somehow, it is set through to a course that this old man is the key to it all: to complete the circle between the boy and the women.

I want to give away so much, because there is so much lovely symbolism. There’s also a great mixture of Eastern ideals and Western philosophies in place. Recently, I had a discussion with my more significant other about the curses of the Far East (Asian countries). We watch a lot of horror films from Korea and Japan. Though, Korea is usually more emotionally driven, they both explore the significances of curses. In the United States, we think of curses from Europe. These are usually set on a person because of punishment and, until they learn & fix their ways, the curse stays – the beast finds true love and does something selfless, the curse is lifted and we have a happy ending. In the Japanese and Korean films, curses are set not just for life, but for generations. The curse is not meant to be lifted. The curse is meant to stay and run its course. Usually, people learn live a new life because of the curse, with full knowledge that the cure has to run its course.

Kafka on the Shore has such a curse. Because of the manner in which the curse is allowed to run its course, and with the factor of the key to complete the circle, the story has a satisfying (at least to me) ending. In a metaphorical way (wink, wink), it is a happy ending.

One last thing: though, I cannot read Japanese at all, and to do the following would be pointless, but I would love to roam through the private library mentioned in the novel. It seemed quite charming.
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LibraryThing member CarolynSchroeder
This has to be one of the hardest books to review because it has wonderful parts, but as a whole, it's rather a mess. This is man's search for meaning in life, on the fringes of reality (sometimes in reality and sometimes well outside of it as well), and how we juggle memories, present paths and
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learning new things. With a few exceptions, the characters in this book are great, the language fun to read; and we learn as they learn. The explanations of their journies are easy to follow, despite being so metaphysical. Nakata, Hoshino and Oshima are just amazing people to learn about and spend time with, simple at first glance, then layers of interesting insights and musings. Nakata's conversations with cats and humans are very endearing. I thought Kafka and Ms. Saeki were just tools to carry out the weird story about the Oedipal curse and murder of Kafka's insane father. There are some vividly horrific moments in this book, mainly, having to do with the torture of live cats and collection of their beating hearts for a "flute" of sorts. I certainly could have done without that part and almost stopped reading. It's unnecessary and brutal ~ the book would reach a far greater audience without the horror show. Also, the sexual relationship between Son and Mother was pretty creepy. The last thing that was maddening was that Kafka talks endlessly about his genitalia and if I heard one more thing about it, I was going to chuck that book out the window. There is far too much repetition of simple concepts and the story wraps up rather predictably, despite its wanderings and goofiness. I think I liked the simple story of Hoshino and Nakata the best, a beautiful road trip friendship. I never tired of reading about their discoveries. Overall, I'm not sure who I would recommend this one to though ... maybe someone who doesn't mind sifting through the haystack for the little gems in here, likes their literature very weird; and someone who has a strong stomach.
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LibraryThing member -Cee-
Philosophical, weird, totally absorbing, coherent, awesome...
Kafka, a 15 year old runaway in Japan, is trying to find his mother and sister while escaping the curse of his father. From the beginning, he works toward building his strength and understanding –qualities he will need as he slips
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between the real world and dreams, in and out of time, and is led by forces beyond his control.

Counterbalancing Kafka is a much older Nakata who even with his very strange handicap possesses wisdom and perfect timing. The two characters are entwined in parallel journeys – each working to resolve different aspects of the same mystery.

Well written, easy to read, and puzzling by nature, this book grabbed me from the beginning and wouldn’t let me go. Characters go beyond three dimensions. Every event impacts another. Filled with magical realism, this story explores with sensitivity issues like time, loss, memories, abandonment, friendships, death, and intimacy. You will find talking cats, ghostly libraries, and classical music.

Fun quote:
”A long while later, after the files were completely burned, Hoshino stomped the ashes into dust… ‘Nobody’s gonna read it now,’ Hoshino said. ‘I don’t know what was written in it, but it’s all gone. A bit of shape and form has disappeared from the world, increasing the amount of nothingness.’
‘Mr Hoshino?’
‘What’s up?’
‘I have a question I’d like to ask.’
‘Fire away.’
‘Can nothingness increase?’
Hoshino puzzled this one over for awhile. ‘That’s a tough one,’ he admitted. ‘If something returns to nothing it becomes zero, but even if you add zero to zero, it’s still zero.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘I don’t get it either. Thinking about those kinds of things always gives me a headache.’”
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
This is a strange novel by Haruki Murakami. It is part allegory, part fantasy and often frustrating to this reader. With a plethora of references to things as disparate as classical mythology, pop culture, music (both popular and classical), philosophy (Kant and Hegel) and religion, the novel
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seemed to be chaotic at times. However, there was an overarching story line that seemed to hold the book together. Briefly it is the story of a runaway fifteen year old boy named Kafka Tamura whose life eventually intersects with that of a much older "simple" man named Satoru Nakata. Told in alternating chapters with the help of a supporting cast including talking cats and "Colonel Sanders" the book careens, a little too slowly, toward a conclusion that at least is unpredictable. I found it ultimately unsatisfying and will not recommend this book to my friends.
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LibraryThing member The_Hibernator
Kafka on the shore follows two seemingly unrelated characters whose stories collide in surreality. The first character is a 15-year-old runaway boy who has renamed himself Kafka Tamura. Kafka runs away from his father for reasons that slowly reveal themselves as the plot thickens. He ends up in an
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obscure library, where he must overcome a dark curse. The second character is Nakata, an old man who suffered an injury as a child and lives as on a stipend for the mentally disabled. Nakata may not be very smart, but he can talk to cats, and he has an uncanny ability to accept surreal events at face value, thus providing a unique perspective to the strange plot twists. Kafka on the Shore highlighted the extreme effects alienation can have on a person's psyche. It had some VERY dark undercurrents (and even one scene of brutality that was quite shocking). It was a fascinating story, but after thinking about it for several days, I'm still unable to figure out quite what it meant. Perhaps it was only an expression of dark loneliness and nothing more? Whether I'm missing the deeper meaning or not, I greatly enjoyed reading my first Murakami book, and look forward to reading many more of these fascinating works.
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LibraryThing member joe_chip
kafka on the shore is a dual narrative dealing primarily with kafka tamura and nakata, two characters who unbeknownst to each other are both on a journey to takamatsu. kakfa is fleeing from his father’s oedipul prophecy (with the modification that he will also sleep with his sister) but he is
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also (almost contradictingly) searching for his mother and sister who left when he was very young. the other narrative deals with nakata, who after a bizarre childhood accident has been left simple-minded but has gained the ability to speak to cats. as such he finds part-time work in finding lost cats. it is his search for one of these lost cats that eventually puts him onto a mysterious quest. both characters find themselves on an odyssey of sorts whereupon they have strange experiences and meet very interesting characters.

the style is magical realism, but what is interesting is that the fantastical elements of the story never seem overly odd. even when we don’t understand what is happening or why, there is a feeling that all the events are still natural - in fact very natural. there is a reverence for nature that emanates from the novel and a sense that nature is more mysterious, complex and powerful than we often expect.

this book is quite a joy to read - which is in a way unsurprising because there is an element of the book that deals with the joy of reading. kafka loves reading, as does oshima (a friend he meets) and there are moments where they talk about their love for books and the meanings of some books. as its title suggests the novel is full of literary allusions and it is interesting how the characters themselves anaylyse their situations using literature and its quite refreshing how quickly kafka recognises the oedipul nature of his plight. they use literature and philosophy as a means to further understand themselves, their feelings and their fate. for lovers of books these moments have added pleasure because they can relate to kakfa and oshima’s appreciation for books.

as with his other novels, murakami’s love for music permeates the book and plays a key role. the title is actually the name of a song that is central to the novel, and beethoven, specifically his archduke trio, also features prominently.

when i finished this book i found myself a little confused - i struggled to find its meaning… but then, i can’t say i mind too much. this is one of those novels which you feel is very sincere and is meant to be just so. i couldn’t want it to be any other way. if the meaning wasn’t clear to me then that doesn’t mean it won’t be clear to another person. although, i also ask myself, why should it be clear? must the message of the novel be loud and clear like the moral of a sitcom? murakami has in fact addressed this himself, by saying:

kafka on the shore contains several riddles, but there aren’t any solutions provided. instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. and the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. to put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. it’s hard to explain, but that’s the kind of novel i set out to write.”

which is as good an explanation regarding the meaning of the novel that i can think of.

ultimately, the enjoyment of the novel lies in the enjoyment of reading it… the experience of it… and the feeling of being immersed in his world.
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LibraryThing member dancingstarfish
I have read Murakami when the mood has struck me over the years and this may be my favorite. His books are like dreams you barely remember the next morning. When you are suddenly reminded of it later, you remember what it felt like, more than you remember the exact details. I loved it!
LibraryThing member ChristaJLS
Sometimes you come across a book that just blows you away. This is one of those books.

Kafka's and Nakata's adventures had me utterly addicted from the first few pages. It has been awhile since I have been engaged by such well developed and compelling characters. The two couldn't be anymore
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different. Kafka, a teenage runaway, was the “toughest fifteen-year old in the world” and Nakata, a mentally-blank senior. But Murakami's writing is perfect for both of them. They seemed so human that you found yourself cheering them on as they searched what they were looking for and felt their failure and success as strongly as they did.

Beyond the characters, the story itself was well crafted. There are quite a few twists and turns and it wasn't until the very last moment that I knew what was going to happen. There were a number of times I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen and having no idea where Murakami was going to take me next.

The writing wasn't difficult but the story is one that will make you think. The importance of relationships, the power of memory and the journey towards what you need to do (even if you don't know what that is yet). Heavy issues, but tackled in an accessible way. This will be one book that sticks with me for a long while.
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LibraryThing member ReadThisNotThat
This is the second book I've read by Haruki Murakami (The first being What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Vintage International) which is entirely different) so I didn't know what to expect. From other reviewers and the synopsis available here I gathered that it would have a philosophical
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bent, which it did, however many of the philosophy references were completely over my head not being well versed in philosophy myself. Even without getting every reference the novel was still a beautiful read.

At times Murakami telegraphs what will happen next but the structure of the novel still allows for a great deal of suspense as the chapters alternate between Kafka, a runaway fifteen year old from Tokyo, and Nakata, an elderly man beginning a journey of his own. The storytelling becomes very sweet towards the end of the novel which contrasts nicely with the raw realism from the earlier chapters.

This book is certainly not recommended for everyone. Some might find it too abstract or outlandish. It combines traditional literary storytelling with elements of fantasy and science-fiction without truly being a genre work. It's also a compelling story full of literary and philosophy references that enrich the narrative. With that in mind I would recommend the book to current and former college English and/or philosophy majors, fans of Plato, and readers looking for a very different work of fiction to read. It does have some cursing and explicit material so I would not recommend it for children or students, although high school juinors and seniors may enjoy it as an extracurricular read.
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LibraryThing member nohablo
Japanese magical realism! Somehow struck some sour notes for me. While Murakami can write a beautiful, elegiac phrase, and while I (usually) enjoy some Canned Philosophy, KAFKA ON THE SHORE reads a little too achingly hip - the name drops, the toneless didacticism, and its sort of hammy intentional
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obliqueness become a bit noxious. Granted, I did speed through the ending meaning that some of the core feeling of the book may have pinged off my shell of SPEED & retardation, but by that point a lot of the book's introspection read more like Matrix-grade bushwa.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
I fumble around in the bushes, but all I touch are branches, hard and twisted like the hearts of bullied little animals. No backpack.

This is such a fantastic book! When a fifteen-year-old boy runs away from his affluent Tokyo home, his life becomes intertwined with that of someone he has never met;
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an old man who supplements his government subsidy by finding lost cats. Their strange stories lead up to an ending which is satisfying even though it leaves a lot of questions still unanswered.
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LibraryThing member plenilune
It took me a little while to get going, but I ended up devouring this book. I particularly enjoyed the chapters with Nakata, and then Hoshino, due largely to particularly enjoying those characters: endearing, open to possibility and aware of their limitations. I developed genuine interest in them,
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what happened to them, and more than once found myself on the edge of my seat while reading their chapters.

I was not so enamored of Kafka, ostensibly the protagonist, but more acted upon than acting (aside from when he initially runs away). I had to keep reminding myself he was only fifteen and thus as a reader I needed to be patient with his development. I didn't get the character Crow at all. I wasn't sure if he was supposed to be an aspect of Kafka, an imaginary friend, a living spirit, etc., and expected part of Kafka's development to be outgrowing Crow.

I found myself looking at the world a little differently while reading this book, or perhaps not looking at it differently but feeling it differently. Murakami's writing belies profound intelligence and an ability to create a whole experience for the reader, something lacking in most fiction, even in much good writing. This was my first by him, but will not be my last.
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LibraryThing member EJStevens
Kafka on the Shore blurs the lines between the waking and sleeping world with his unique dreamlike style. Kafka on the Shore begins with the journey of fifteen year old Kafka Tamura as he runs away from home interspersed with top-secret US Department of Defense and Army Intelligence reports about
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strange events called The Rice Bowl Incidents of 1944. Murakami skillfully weaves a complex tapestry from seemingly unrelated events and characters.
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LibraryThing member poplin
Kafka on the Shore follows the stories of Kafka Tamura, a 15-year-old runaway with the specter of Greek tragedy hanging over his head, and Nakata, a senior citizen who was rendered mentally slow by a bizarre childhood incident (but left with the ability to communicate with cats). Their narratives
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are presented in parallel, and as the novel progresses, the fate of each becomes intertwined with that of the other—as much on a spiritual plane as on a physical one. Surrounding them is a world in a constant state of dream.

Murakami is often characterized as a magical realist, and although I can see why, I believe this is something of a misclassification. I once read an article that posited that the feature that distinguishes magical realism from pure fantasy is the way cause and effect is treated. In fantasy, magical events occur without reason or explanation, whereas in magical realism, seemingly magical acts are given a cause—even if the link that binds together cause and effect seems implausible or even absurd. For example, in Midnight’s Children, the main character’s telepathic abilities are awakened when he inhales a pajama cord too deeply. Here, however, the connection between cause and effect is buried deeply, and is often nowhere to be found. My mind desperately sought to find a connection between Johnnie Walker and Colonel Sanders, knowing the repetitious use of brand names must mean something, and yet I came up empty-handed.

I believe that Murakami’s intent was to create not a world where magic and reality coexist but rather one in which the line between waking and dream is razor thin and easily breached. As in dreams, there is a sense of connection between people and explanations underlying events that can almost be seen, almost be grasped, yet remains elusively just out of focus.

How is the reader supposed to understand a dream not of his own imagination?

Hoshino, the truck driver who befriends Nakata and helps him complete his mission, seems to take the proper position: with some difficulty, he stops questioning the meaning of improbable events and unlikely characters, and accepts the dream as his own.

Even the unsatisfying conclusion that offers little explanation and feels at first to be rushed and anticlimactic ultimately plays into Murakami’s vision of a shared dream. Dreams invariably end with looses threads, and this one is no exception.

Kafka on the Shore is unsettling and enchanting, and has the mark of a book that will only continue to bloom upon another read.
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LibraryThing member Lisa2013
recommended for: readers who are skilled at suspending disbelief and/or who enjoy unusual novels

This is a very odd book and I enjoyed it despite its oddness, not because of it. I’m rather surprised by how much I liked it.

From the beginning I thought that it was peculiar but I was engaged from the
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beigining. Right from the start I enjoyed the writing style and cared about the characters.

This book is beautifully constructed and very well crafted.

In alternating chapters, the story follows two characters (Kafka and Nakata) seemingly on a collision course. The two intersecting stories that make up the whole were both fascinating.

I loved Kafka Tamura and Satoru Nakata. Oshima, Hoshimo, Sakura, Miss Saeki were also interesting and I cared about them too. I could have done without Colonel Sanders and especially Johnnie Walker and the sometime gruesome parts of the plot.

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book because I’d heard it referred to as magical realism and I suspected that wouldn’t appeal to me.

It’s true what I loved best were the “normal” parts of slices of life with Kafka and Nakata, the psychological fiction aspects, and the allusions to Oedipus and Greek mythology and, I think, Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis than the even more strange and surreal aspects of the story. I chose to interpret these as metaphors and that’s what made the book work for me.

As I read, the suspense increased, and it became more difficult to both pick the book up and read it and to put the book down and stop reading it.

This is my first Haruki Murakami book and I want to read his other novels on my to read list.
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LibraryThing member TerrapinJetta
Average at best. Starts off very strongly though, but I was disappointed by the ending. I love the idea of being able to talk to cats, and I feel it moulds reality with fantasy very well.
LibraryThing member SandDune
I hadn't read any Murakami before reading this. I think I'd picked up some of his books and put them down again a few times but never actually bought one. In retrospect it's quite strange that I hadn't read anything by him before as his books seem to fall into one of my favourite sub-genres which I
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would loosely describe as 'literary but weird'. Kafka on the Shore should have ticked all the boxes for me as it is definitely literary and definitely weird but for some reason there was something about it which didn't quite work, hence only a **** rating.

Kafka on the Shore starts as a troubled 15 year old boy (the Kafka of the title - not his real name which we never learn) runs away from his home in Tokyo where he lives with his father - his mother has disappeared with his older sister years previously and he doesn't even know her name or what she looks like. He ends up at a town in the south of Japan where he discovers an unusual library and is befriended by the people who run it: Oshima and the enigmatic Miss Saeki. Kafka's story is initially interspersed with documents relating to an investigation into a strange incident in the Japan of the 1940's where a number of children collapsed simultaneously for no apparent reason, and later with the contemporary story of Mr Nakata, who had been one of the children affected in the incident, now an elderly man. Not so very weird at first - but then Mr Nakata can talk to cats, Johnny Walker and Colonel Sanders appear and strange things fall from the sky A shocking turn of events forces Mr Nakata to flee Tokyo and it gets stranger and stranger. Anyone who likes everything to be crystal clear at the end of a book should probably leave this one alone.

There were elements of the book that I really loved - the strangeness for a start - and Nakata's story, particularly his relationship with the lorry driver Hoshino who helps him on his quest. However, there were parts that didn't work for me. There are some quite violent scenes (any cat lovers who are at all squeamish should beware) and I'm not very good with that. Kafka also didn't really come across as a 15 year old boy, even a very literary one - and in particular the relationship between him and Oshima just didn't ring true. In fact, Kafka's relationships as a whole didn't seem to make sense - he is obviously a troubled teenager who has never made real friends - and yet he is able to develop a fairly successful relationship with everyone he meets after leaving home.

So not a perfect read but one that I really enjoyed and I'll be reading more of Murakami's work.
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LibraryThing member kouchba
A journey in a japanese dream. I was eager to read such a book, the author is a master in guiding you through the labyrinth in which he will trap you.
LibraryThing member kattepusen
This is my first time reading Japanese author Haruki Murakami - and it will definitely not be my last. Kafka on the Shore is quite enigmatic, and the story is such an origial tale with enormous seductive powers. The novel consists of two intertwining stories featuring 15-year old run-away student
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Kafka Tamura and retired feline-loving simpleton Nakata. They are both on a journey, but for different reasons. The coming-of-age story of Kafka is the perfect compliment to Nakata's "exit-of age". Don't worry about me giving away the ending - mostly because the author himself dosn't seem to be giving it away. Suffice it to say it is a modern Oedipus tale sauteed with plenty of surreal twists served over a steeming order of nail-biting suspense.

I have recently read too many novels where there are lots of "mysteries" and overly constructed surprises only to have a conclusion where it is all nicely tied up and neatly explained - and you are supposed to be surprised as to how it all was really connected. It is becoming such a tired and quite predictable formula. This story, however, will not give you the answers like tomorrow's newspaper will give you the solved sudoku puzzle.

In a certain way, Murakami reminds me a bit of Kundera (my all-time favorite author). The characters are compelling, the descriptions acute, yet elusive, the emotions raw and brutally honest, and the sense of mystery unapologetically lingers long after the story ends.

As far as the translation is concerned, it did seem a bit "over-translated" at times. It seemed artifial to read about dollars instead of yen, and the colloquial expressions often seemed too American...However, I don't speak any Japanese, so I cannot be too critical - I can just offer my sense of the translated text.

I cannot wait to read more from this Japanese Kundera...
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LibraryThing member ijustgetbored
Five stars and then some. Sometimes, you'll read a book and wonder how the author managed to be so brilliant. This is one of those books that raises that question.

In (very) brief, the book depicts two parallel storylines: that of a teenager who has run away from home and that of agiing man who,
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though he seems simple, posseses some remarkable abilities. The range of supporting characters is wide, and they are all well-drawn (with the possible exemption of the young Sakura, who is not so much enigmatic as she is simply a bit thin); Murakami has tremendous skills in character development: each character is well-rounded, well-developed, and speaks in a unique voice. All of the main characters also tend to wrap up their own trajectories, which is a feat (tying up all the loose ends, which is especially a formidable task in a novel as long and involved as this one) that many novelists never seem to grasp.

The plot itself is, as mentioned above, far more complicated than can be outlined in a review. What a potential reader needs to know is that the plot never becomes entangled and that the reader never becomes lost. There are plenty of points of metaphysical speculation, and the plot is all the richer for them; they are part of the novel's lifeblood. This is not navel-gazing; Murakami weaves them into his plot in order to make us reflect not only on the magic realism world of his characters but also on our own being-in-the-world. Reading this novel is NOT a passive activity but is instead one of active engagement.

Above all, reading this novel is enjoyable. Murakami has given us a page-turning plotline, one that keeps us asking what on earth could be coming next. He has given us likeable main characters, ones we want to follow into the next chapters. He has given us a world where the impossible is possible, and we want to extend our stay there. He does this all in an engaging, frequently shifting, narrative voice that keeps the novel cohesive and steers us onward.

Translator Philip Gabriel also deserves mention for his lively translation into English. Puns, jokes, idiomatic expressions, and slang all come through loud and clear in English. They style of the novel comes through in a natural voice, one that is never contrived or bland.
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LibraryThing member saskiaberanek
mind numbingly pretentious, self absorbed prose. An author who spends many, many pages saying absolutely nothing.
LibraryThing member bragan
This is my first experience with Murakami, after meaning to get around to sampling his work for ages, and... Well, I don't quite know what to make of it. I don't even know how to describe it. It's about a teenage runaway and an old man who can talk to cats and a library and a weird incident in the
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Japanese countryside during WWII and... And, no, that doesn't do it at all. None of that remotely conveys just how odd this book is. But to say that it's surreal, even though it is, doesn't seem to cover it, either. It's just... odd. Bizarre things happen that are never fully explained, even though explanations are hinted at. (Well, sometimes. A little. Maybe.) There's some weird, potentially very disturbing stuff with sex and animal cruelty. A lot of it is very metaphorical, often even pointing out the fact that it's metaphorical. Everything in it is very clearly connected, but it's not always clear exactly why or how. And there are lots of digressions to talk about literature or music or philosophy, any one of which may be relevant or may just be the author indulging his interests, it's hard to tell.

All of which makes it sound like a muddled mess, but the truth is, it's very readable. Surprisingly readable. But also a little frustrating, as it's not a short book, and after a while you start to get the distinct feeling that it's not actually going to tie everything together at the end in way that makes coherent sense. Which it doesn't. But that's less unsatisfying than I expected, because it does make a sort of dreamlike sense. Maybe. I honestly don't know. What I do know is that, however mixed my feelings about it, it was certainly interesting. And that I will definitely give Murakami another shot in the future, if only so I can continue trying to figure out what I think about him.
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LibraryThing member Lauraborealis
I’ve been a fan or Murakami since I started reading him while I was in college. He was a fresh voice, in a sea of contemporary fiction I was reading at the time; someone whose writing style was evocative, strange, ethereal, and also off-putting at times. There’s something to be said about
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toeing the line of what I’m comfortable reading, and then going beyond it, and yet still compelling me to read, even while I wear a concerned expression on my face. Murakami definitely did that to me in this book.

This novel has two main protagonists: the teenage Kafka and elderly Nakata. Each one is important to the other in some way, and their paths are inextricably linked. I found myself wondering how the hell they related to each other as I was reading it, and then intrigued by what Murakami does with them. I can’t remember reading a Murakami novel that wove through the perspectives of two disparate characters so well, while still remaining true to each individual story. I didn’t really like Kafka that much, but I still found myself relating with a lot of his personal struggles, all along that awkward line between a teenager and a young adult.

As I’ve been reading through his entire body of works slowly but surely—I’m at 7 now—it becomes pretty easy to see the common Murakami threads: cats, magical realism, dreams, music, a journey of self often glimpsed through two worlds. And you can’t forget about the Western influences, either. A familiar rubric, but brilliantly crafted to suit each new protagonist’s struggles and worlds. I found myself particularly amused by the Johnnie Walker and Col. Sanders characters mentioned in this book, who were both crafted with a sort of cheeky brevity that I really enjoyed. Through strange metaphors, weird dreams, and a plethora of fantastical elements, Murakami manages to weave another compelling story worth reading. When I finish reading his books, they always make me think hungrily about that possibility… That there is some sort of magical realism in this world, somewhere. Even if it’s not happening to me.
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LibraryThing member DanielZKlein
Murakami builds a beautiful tale and hints at all sorts of wonderful things that he is going to do with it, and then he allows it to fall apart. There are books with frustrating endings, like _City of Glass_, where you cannot help but think of the way in which the ending refused to do anything you
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wanted it to, but where you feel that this was quite intentional and that the whole book had been headed for this end. Not so here: it seems that Murakami constructed a great tale up to the 3/4 point, then didn't know what to do with it, added some vague and inconsequential scenes that in no way had any relevance to the rest of the book, and then stopped writing. The only other book I remember which stopped rather than ended in this way was John Grisham's _The Brethren_, and that comparison says a lot of bad things about Murakami.
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Original language

English

Original publication date

2002

Barcode

769
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