To begin with a major annoyance, the English translation by Prof. Philip Gabriel of Murakami Haruki’s Kafka On the Shore has been excessively “britishized” for the first Vintage paperback edition. The result is a weird mixture of American syntax and style with British spelling, typography, and vocabulary (mobile phones, lorries, and torches abound). Alas, this mixture isn’t just weird and off-putting: it’s effectively out-pulling insofar as the translation’s constant flow of linguistic inconsistencies pulls you right out of the story, time and again. It’s a great example of what I’ve come to call the “Transparency With Birds” effect [ http://bit.ly/6QIYAj ]. Meanwhile, Vintage also issued Gabriel’s original translation in a “reprint” paperback edition, so both that and the original hardcover edition are an option.

The story itself can wrap you up & take you away, but Kafka on the Shore is certainly not among Haruki’s masterpieces. The story lines are excessively opaque and excessively predictable at the same time, the characters at once over- and underdeveloped, and the novel has a Stephen King-ish feeling about it (certain motifs, characters, modes of progression), but without King’s knack for weaving even the most outlandish storylines into a gripping and satisfying solution. Not that Kafka On the Shore needed a solution, but it also lacks internal coherence. In the end, too many things and events have not been accounted for, neither in terms of a solution nor in terms of coherence. And certainly not in terms of development: especially Kafka Tamura, the principal character with first-person view (mostly), seems to have ended up right where he started, up to and including his fully intact alter ego that goes by the name of “Crow.”

The story’s development, like the characters’, is designed to be labyrinthine—a recurrent motif—rather than linear. Only, it’s more circular than labyrinthine, on balance. While both the phrases “wrong turns must be righted” and “wrong turns have been righted” turn up sufficiently often in the original paperback edition’s 615 pages to suggest one must have missed some major plot point or other, it is close to impossible even after attempts at backtracking to pinpoint what wrong turns have been taken when by which characters, let alone righted. That’s postmodern, alright. Speaking of which, there’s also that typically postmodern mix of ancient archetypes and corporate conspiracy elements, complete with a more than decent load of learned detours into art & culture, but without the tightly controlled over-the-top playfulness of, like, John Barth’s or Donald Barthelme’s or Robert Coover’s fiction. Plus, Murakami’s use of feminist characters and corporate icons feels forced, heavy-handed, and artificial. At times, the heavy-handedness even affects his writing technique: the way two pseudo-feminist cardboard characters “function” to reveal important attributes of another important character’s make-up (Oshima) borders on hack work.

But still, Kafka on the Shore is a rich and gripping reading experience. It does expand one’s understanding of the world, or at least one’s repertoire of questions. But of weaknesses, alas, it has more than its fair share.

I think this novel is the perfect blend of Murakami’s career--Japanese magical realism, pop culture references and sparseness in writing. What I like most about Murakami is that he’s an incredibly cerebral writer that is also incredibly readable and he wanders into the fantastic, but never crosses over into fantasy. ( )

This was such an unusual tale, so many themes, so much symbolism. I loved, but I'm not sure I could say why! ( )

I didn't have much expectations about this book, and didn't think it would be entertaining knowing that it dealt with some disturbing themes. However, i did enjoy the quick read. It is fast-paced, has some unforgettable characters, and intersperses nicely philosophical digs without sounding tedious. The seemingly separate stories in the beginning converge at some point and were interesting in themselves, however, after that, everything became very predictable. The two themes recurring throughout is that "everything is a metaphor" and " in dreams begin possibilities." It is through these lens that i think the novel should be seen --- otherwise, trying to make sense of the events and details will only frustrate...how to explain talking cats, fish and leeches raining from the sky, and multi-dimensional realities? ( )

[En començar] Llibre deixat per Ogarin. En Murakami m'agrada molt, però em vaig empatxar. Quan vaig començar Crónica del Pájaro que da Cuerda al Mundo va ser massa per mi, no podia amb ell. Després d'uns quants mesos torno a provar amb aquest, i després d'un parell de capítols em sembla que he superat el meu empatx! Ole![En acabar] Hi ha comparances que sempre fan de mal fer, i més d'una vegada m'he hagut d'empassar les meves paraules, però allà va: aquest és el llibre del Murakami que més m'ha agradat pel moment, i el llistó era alt. No parlaré de com de bé escriu en Murakami (o tradueix la Lourdes Porta) perquè això ja és conegut. Si hagués de destacar 2 coses què m'han cridat l'atenció especialment (al lloro si no l'has llegit, que parlo del final): 1. No sé quan se l'ha comprat, però ara en Murakami té sentit de l'humor. 2. És molt debatible, però al meu entendre aquest llibre, acaba molt bé! ( )