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Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
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Kafka on the Shore

by Haruki Murakami

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  1. Mary_Z recommends Anathema Rhodes: Dreams by Iimani David, "I enjoyed both these books for their mysticism and freshness. "Anathema Rhodes" has more challenges and is clearly more socially and politically conscious, (see more) but the feel and flow of the story reminds me of Murakami's "Kafka...". I sincerely recommend both!"
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English (128)  French (7)  Spanish (4)  Dutch (3)  Danish (2)  Norwegian (1)  Catalan (1)  Hungarian (1)  Finnish (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (149)
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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.
  gyokusai | Nov 22, 2009 |
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. ( )
  JasonSmith | Nov 19, 2009 |
This was such an unusual tale, so many themes, so much symbolism. I loved, but I'm not sure I could say why! ( )
  judygreeneyes | Nov 8, 2009 |
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? ( )
  deebee1 | Oct 30, 2009 |
[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! ( )
  membrillu | Oct 30, 2009 |
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Series (with order)
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Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
"So you're all set for money, then?" the boy named Crow asks in his typical sluggish voice.
Quotations
"... in everybody's life there's a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can't go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That's how we survive."
"Listening to Fournier's flowing, dignified cello, Honshino was drawn back to his childhood. He used to go to the river everyday to catch fish. Nothing to worry about back then. he reminisced. Just live each day as it came. As long as I was alive, I was something. That was just how it was. But somewhere along the line it all changed. Living turned me into nothing. Weird...People are born in order to live, right? But the longer I've lived, the more I've lost what's inside me–and ended up empty. And I bet the longer I live, the emptier, the more worthless, I'll become. Something's wrong with this picture. Life isn't supposed to turn out like this! Isn't it possible to shift direction, to change where I'm headed?"
The air was damp and stagnant, with a hint of something suspicious, as if countless ears were floating in the air, waiting to pick up a trace of some conspiracy.
I'd never imagined that trees could be so weird and unearthly. I mean, the only plants I've ever really seen or touched till now are the city kind--neatly trimmed and cared-for bushes and trees. But the ones here--the ones living here--are totally different. They have a physical power, their breath grazing any humans who might chance by, their gaze zeroing in on the intruder like they've spotted their prey. Like they have some dark, prehistroric, magical powers. Like deep-sea creatures rule the ocean depths, in the forest trees reign supreme. If it wanted to, the forest could reject me--or swallow me up whole. A healthy amount of fear and respect might be a good idea.
There's only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

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Kafka on the Shore

Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 0099458322, Paperback)

The opening pages of a Haruki Murakami novel can be like the view out an airplane window onto tarmac. But at some point between page three and fifteen--it's page thirteen in Kafka On The Shore--the deceptively placid narrative lifts off, and you find yourself breaking through clouds at a tilt, no longer certain where the plane is headed or if the laws of flight even apply.

Joining the rich literature of runaways, Kafka On The Shore follows the solitary, self-disciplined schoolboy Kafka Tamura as he hops a bus from Tokyo to the randomly chosen town of Takamatsu, reminding himself at each step that he has to be "the world¹s toughest fifteen-year-old." He finds a secluded private library in which to spend his days--continuing his impressive self-education--and is befriended by a clerk and the mysteriously remote head librarian, Miss Saeki, whom he fantasizes may be his long-lost mother. Meanwhile, in a second, wilder narrative spiral, an elderly Tokyo man named Nakata veers from his calm routine by murdering a stranger. An unforgettable character, beautifully delineated by Murakami, Nakata can speak with cats but cannot read or write, nor explain the forces drawing him toward Takamatsu and the other characters.

To say that the fantastic elements of Kafka On The Shore are complicated and never fully resolved is not to suggest that the novel fails. Although it may not live up to Murakami's masterful The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Nakata and Kafka's fates keep the reader enthralled to the final pages, and few will complain about the loose threads at the end. --Regina Marler

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:20 -0400)

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