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Loading... Kafka on the Shoreby Haruki Murakami
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. AnnThatcher | Jul 8, 2009 |   picked this up after reading david mitchell. can certainly see Murakami's influence. After reading this book I ordered every Murakami I could find. (  )chooch74 | Jul 8, 2009 | 1  Great prose stylist. Very acute insight into modern-day life. A truly international Japanese superstar borgborgo | Jul 6, 2009 | This book had me spellbound for days. The purity and simplicity of Nakata, the teen angst and inner turmoil of Kafka and the increasing elements of magic realism as their paths converged were skillfully crafted in a way that is truly Murakami's trademark. As with Blind Woman, Sleeping Willow, Philip Gabriel's translation captures the delicacy and essence of Japanese writing beautifully. The length of this novel is a format that I feel works very well for Murakami as it allows his story lines to effortlessly work their way together taking the reader on a magical journey. ( )OldDani | Jun 13, 2009 | "Kafka on the Shore" does not achieve the same ultra-high voltage effects of "Hard-Boiled Wonderland," but this is a wonderful trip. This is a combination coming-of-age, sci-fi saga, that twists a family up and dumps them in a time warp. There are numerous cultural references, beyond cataloguing here, but this is a very well-read 15 year-old who changes his hame to Kafka, after the famed Czech author. There are oedipal overtones, but nevertheless, this has a strong theme of giving yourself up to love. In 435 pages, the pace doesn't necessarily flag, but I'm still puzzling over some of the everyday minutiae described at such length. I recommend this book for its strong fantastical element - it's Murakami after all, and because it's so captivating and out there - it's Murakami, after all. (  )LukeS | Apr 23, 2009 | 0.070 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
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) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Objects suddenly take on supernatural functions. metaphysical overseer appears under the guise of Colonel Sanders. The library assistant at the desk immediately befriends Kafka, often references mythology--these references all end up being manifestations of the characters and the plot itself. Because of this, in many ways the book mirrors the spirit of Franz Kafta's works. Murakami, grabs you right from the get-go! (