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Loading... Kafka on the Shore (original 2002; edition 2005)by Haruki Murakami (Author)
Work InformationKafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (2002)
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Kafka Tamura is a fifteen-year-old boy who has run away from his Tokyo home to flee his emotionally abusive father. Having been abandoned by his mother and older sister when he was a small boy, Kafka sets off on an ill-defined and poorly planned quest to recapture the family life he never really had and to escape the modified Oedipal curse his father has placed on him (i.e., Kafka is destined to kill his father and sleep with both his mother and his sister). Satoru Nakata is an elderly man also in search of something he does not fully understand. After an unexplained illness suffered in childhood leaves him intellectually impaired and with no memories—but with the ability to speak to cats—Nakata has spent his life as a ward of the state, but now senses that he is destined for another purpose. After a violent event causes him to leave Tokyo as well, Nakata’s journey takes him to the same town in the south of Japan where Kafka is now hiding from the law. How—and why—will the paths of these two men intersect? In Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami has created this inventive coming-of-age tale, which is at once intellectually challenging and fully engaging at every turn of its serpentine plot. The main challenge for the reader is that the story is told in a magical realism style where myriad bizarre things occur: memories and dreams become real, fish rain down from the sky, evil spirits take the form of famous corporate symbols (e.g., Johnnie Walker, Colonel Sanders), soldiers from World War II wander a lost forest for sixty years without aging, ghosts of still-living characters appear randomly. However, this all makes sense in the end as the major conflicts are resolved in an emotionally fulfilling manner. The narrative is greatly enhanced by an interesting stylistic choice in which the main characters’ stories are developed in alternating chapters—Kafka’s written in the first-person present, Nakata’s in the third-person past—which allows them to eventually converge smoothly from very different starting points and perspectives. I really enjoyed reading this novel, as I have everything I have come across from this remarkable author. Murakami is an imaginative and truly gifted storyteller and the facile way in which he integrates such fantastical elements into the mix is quite impressive. Magical realism is a difficult style to pull off convincingly but, like other modern masters of that tricky genre (e.g., Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie), he does so here skillfully. I also admire the clear love and compassion that Murakami has for his characters, who are fully realized creations that the reader comes to care about quite a lot. Impressively, that care is evident not only in how the main characters were created, but in the development of the impressive and memorable supporting cast as well, including Miss Saeki, Oshima, Sakura, Hoshino, and a host of cats, all of whom play pivotal roles in how the narrative unfolds. This was a captivating and extremely satisfying book to read and the story is not one that I will soon forget. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami takes you into a magical world where people have feelings to express. The plot had a very unusual start, with the life of a 15-year-old boy. Murakami's writing is wonderful, capturing each character's emotions and depth. Nakata's character was the most different one. I just loved how the story finally connected itself with the happenings. But, somewhere, too many unanswered questions were left at the end. The world created by the author was unbelievable and wonderful. I wish this book would have never ended, as there are so many layers to the story. Although I couldn't grasp some of Kafka's life, the book still made a wonderful impression. And the idea of traveling through a dream was just something else. Indeed, Murakami's writing leaves readers with lingering questions as he weaves together surreal elements and philosophical musings that can be captivating. Definitely, the book deserves 5 stars. I liked this book. I feel like it struck the right balance of weird magical realism and logical plot that you felt swept along by the story without being frustrated by the randomness (as in Wind Up Bird). I would only recommend this to people who like fiction, however, as nonfiction buffs will definitely find it tedious.
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. 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 in godsnaam maar blijft dóórlezen. 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 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. ”Hurra!” ”Et stort verk, men likevel lekende lett lesning.” AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
A tour-de-force of metaphysical reality, Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters. At fifteen, Kafka Tamura runs away from home, either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister. And the aging Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction, finds his highly simplified life suddenly upset. Their odyssey, as mysterious to us as it is to them, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle. Yet this, like everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)895.635Literature Literature of other languages Asian (east and south east) languages Japanese Japanese fiction 1945–2000LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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"'...reality's just the accumulation of ominous prophecies come to life.'" ( )