Kafka on the Shore

I made it through the second Murakami book I attempted, though it was difficult. I enjoyed the philosophical discussions and was interested in what was happening to Nakata, since it was so strange there was no way I could really understand it. But Kafka Tamura was annoying. I hated him. He gets an erection pretty much every time the story comes back to him, and he rapes a girl in his dream. Pretty bad start for a 15 year old I'd say. Miss Saeki in my eyes isn't much better. The only person that redeemed the book in my eyes was Oshima.

But I'll back up. With his mother having left when he was very young and feeling no connection to his father, Kafka Tamura runs away. His plans are methodical and dispassionate. Contrast this to Nakata, an elderly man who experienced a strange phenomenon when he was young and lost his ability to read. Nakata can talk to cats and is easygoing and carefree. In contrast to Kafka, Nakata has a purpose and a goal throughout the story, while Kafka goes around listless, getting horny all the time. What I found most interesting was a conversation Oshima has with Kafka about imperfect works of art and how they are enjoyable because they are imperfect. People are imperfect, everything is, and yet we can enjoy them nonetheless. This is, I think, the greatest thing I got from this book. I probably found this book decent overall, but the constant sexual references, as well as the explicit rape scene, mean I would not recommend this book to anyone I know.

I think I may have reached saturation point with Murakami as I didn't enjoy this one half as much as I did with his previous books. The usual stuff is still there, the magical realism, the cats, strange girls and emotionless male characters, what is missing is that brilliant writing and a strong story.

The dual stories are, Kafka Tamura a tedious 15yr-old emo kid, I hated him and this is probably why I didn't get into the book. Kafka just seems to whine and whine and people do stuff for him. The second story though is brilliant, I loved Satoru Nakata, such a gentle old man, he might have been short on mental faculties but he was far wiser than anybody else and his relationship with Hoshino was fun to read.

The biggest failing of this book was the sex scenes, I felt embarrassed for Murakami whilst reading it, the sex in fifty shades is better, that's how bad it is. It feels like Murakami has read a sex education book and gone "Oh, so that's what the penis does....well that's going in the book".

I would certainly recommend the previous books by Murakami, not sure I would recommend this one to anybody though.

I read this book after reading 1Q84, and I found certain similarities interesting.

This book had a slow start. The premise floats around alternating chapters of Kafka - a teen that has run away from home to live another life - and an event during WWII where a bunch of kids fell unconscious in Japan.

Though, in no time, both narratives ramp up into disjointed realities, violence, weird sex, and dreams. All dispersed between introspective pits for characters that wonder who their true selves are and if they could ever become who they feel they were meant to be.

There are so many cats in the world, and Siamese cats are the most sociably articulate and helpful. Carry sardines around if you plan to become a cat tracker. Word of advice: if you ever run into Johnnie Walker, it may be best to turn away.

I rotated between both the Audible audiobook and the paperback. The narration was fantastic. I would recommend either format.

Less than a week after completing this novel, I walked into my bedroom and was faced with a large slug slowly appearing from underneath my bed. Since this was my only opportunity, I didn't turn away. I let it crawl onto some tissue before I ran upstairs and dumped it into a carnivorous pitcher plant.

The next day, I verified that it was dead and being digested.

Great book. Meow.

Kafka on the Shore tells the story of a fifteen year old book named Kafka who runs away from home to find his mother and sister. Although the alternate chapters tell the story of Nakata; a strange old man who has the ability to talk to cats. Like many of Haruki Murakami’s books, Kafka on the Shore blends pop culture with magical realism in order to explore the psyche of the characters involved.

It is often hard to try and give an overview of a Murakami book because they tend to come out weird and I do not want to give the impression that his novels are not worth attempting. For Kafka on the Shore, the magical realism allows the reader to explore the psychological mind of fifteen year old Kafka Tamune. Not only is Kakfa a young man discovering his sexuality, Sigmund Freud would probably suggest that he also has an Oedipus complex and has developed an unhealthy obsession with his mother and sister.

According to Freud, an Oedipus complex stems from the unconscious mind and normally caused by the repression of a mother (or father) figure. Freudian psychoanalysis theory suggests that this is a key psychological experience needed for normal sexual development. However if it is unsuccessful at resolving it may lead to neurosis, paedophilia, or homosexuality. Without going into the problematic thinking of Sigmund Freud, this does make for an interesting analysis of Kafka’s journey throughout the book, especially with his interactions between Sakura and Miss Saeki.

If we continue looking at this novel through the lens of psychoanalysis theory, we might even get some interesting insights into Nakata. I always thought the loss of mental faculties was due to the psychological trauma, he experienced as a young boy. He was one of sixteen schoolchildren picking mushrooms in a field trip towards the end of World War II, when they were all rendered unconscious from a mysterious light in the sky. However it has also been suggested that maybe Kafka and Nakata are two different parts of the same person.

Every time I read a Haruki Murakami, I am reminded of his brilliance (with the exception of 1Q84), and I want to explore more of his works. I am also reminded that I need to learn a whole lot more about psychoanalytical theories, and how much it would help with books like Kafka on the Shore. For me this was a bildungsroman book about sexual development and memories. However, I found myself more interested in the chapters centred on Kafka over those about Nakata but maybe that was because I understood them a little better.

Yet again Haruki Murakami has impressed me with Kafka on the Shore and I am eager to pick up more of his books. I know magical realism can be scary for some people but I love the way Murakami uses it to explore the mind. My only real criticism of this book is that it was a little bloated and could have been trimmed down a little and still achieve the same. This might be due to an aversion to big books that I really need to overcome and not a true reflection on Murakami. I highly recommend giving this author a go if you have never tried him but Kafka on the Shore is not a good starting point; may I suggest trying Norwegian Wood first.

This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2015/04/29/kafka-on-the-shore-by-haruki-murakami/