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Loading... Kafka on the Shore (original 2002; edition 2005)by Haruki Murakami
Work detailsKafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (2002)
Where do I start. I'm going to have to revisit this comment a couple times. I think this is a masterpiece and one of the most fascinating books I've read. I had decided some months ago that I wasn't going to re-read anything I've read until after the end of this year. There's too much I'm in a hurry to start for the first time. I just changed my mind. I'm going to re-read this right after Jane in June. It was upsetting that the rest of life kept interrupting and I know I missed things about how the different elements related to each other because of the gaps in time when I couldn't read. Next time I'm setting the rest of life aside for a couple days and dedicating them to just this book. Even this first time I set it aside a couple times during the week until I had an adequate amount of time and a comfortable setting. Fascinating. In my very humble opinion, a great writer. So this is what magical realism is, huh? (  ) Yona | May 2, 2013 |  What a strange experience to read this book. My first try at understanding metaphysics, which I gather have to do with identity, substance, metaphor, and in this book, myth, the Oedipus complex, dreams, and World War II. Two characters go on an odyssey which eventually you learn why they are related to each other. In fact, there are many sudden relatives discovered, just as in the Oedipus drama. I took pleasure in the location of much of the book, a library somewhere on the seacoast of Shikoku. Murakami treats sex in a frank way. It is part of every day life. I like the way it just happens, and the male point of view on it, that it is necessary. The author also understands youth I think or does he? Would a fifteen year old really have the discipline to work out, to stay in a library and read, etc? The book has little footing in reality though. After all, fish and leeches rain from the sky. But the cities are real, and the bus trips, and the hotel managers, and the cats who talk and share information with those who need to know. ( ) paakre | Apr 27, 2013 | I'm a bit conflicted. I definitely enjoyed reading this, I read nearly 400pgs of it in one day. It certainly grabs your interest, and keeps you on your toes. I really loved Nakata and the cats, and Hoshino once he got involved, made for some great light comedic moments. There was a lot of intriguing things going on that kept up my interest very much and I certainly wanted to see where things would lead. However, as another reviewer said: "I was disappointed at the ending. Too many loose ties." The ending itself was alright, I mean, the big stuff was wrapped up. But after I finished, I sat there and started thinking about what I had just read, and I realized just how much was left completely hanging from earlier parts. All sorts of things that were made a fuss over at some point in the book, big key things, never went anywhere or got any explanation. Slight possible spoilerish questions: What happened to the children? What in the world went on with the teacher? Who the hell is Crow? Who the hell is Johnnie Walker/Colonel Sanders? Are they the same? Related? Completely separate manipulative entities?? What was going on with Crow in the forest at the end? What was the deal with the blood on Kafka's shirt? Why could Nakata make it rain random crap, and why did he make it rain fish?? What was up with his father's "prophecy"? /spoilerish All these questions and more. Plus he makes it seem like there's all sorts of potential future stuff that would go on with the characters, but then at the same time everything at the end seems so damn final, I don't get it. Plus the whole Colonel Sanders bit was just irritating. So, I'd give the writing/plot 4.5★s but the ending & all the dangling unexplained bits get 2.5★s, for a 3.5 overall. (  ) PolymathicMonkey | Apr 26, 2013 | Talking cats. A prostitute who discusses Positivist philosophy. A magical stone. Incest and patricide. A semi-divine spirit that takes on the essence of KFC's Colonel Sanders. A discourse on Beethoven and his "Archduke Trio." A deeply enchanted forest. A sexy, mysterious librarian. "Kafka on the Shore" is Murakami at his most Murakami-esque! (I don't know if you need to be a cat person in order to love this book, but it certainly helps.) (  ) yooperprof | Apr 18, 2013 | 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 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. (  )1  Lisa2013 | Apr 18, 2013 |
 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 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. Contains
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