Hardcover, 448 pages
English language
Published Jan. 18, 2005 by Knopf.
Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ, Umibe no Kafuka) is a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Its 2005 English translation was among "The 10 Best Books of 2005" from The New York Times and received the World Fantasy Award for 2006. The book tells the stories of the young Kafka Tamura, a bookish 15-year-old boy who runs away from his Oedipal curse, and Satoru Nakata, an old, disabled man with the uncanny ability to talk to cats. The book incorporates themes of music as a communicative conduit, metaphysics, dreams, fate, the subconscious. After the release of the book, Murakami allowed for questions about the novel to be sent in, and responded to many of them. The novel was generally well-received, with positive reviews from John Updike and the New York Times.
This book fascinated me from start to finish. I'll have to reread it later to get more nuances. I listened to the audiobook and let it wash over me. Murakami draws his characters effortlessly, combining the real world with the absurd. I absolutely adored Hoshino.
I wanted to like this book. Seeing all the rave reviews and because I liked Norwegian Wood, I picked up my second Murakami with the hope that somehow, it'll be able to smooth out the slight hollowness I felt after reading his last book. I am sad to say that wasn't the case.
Maybe it has something to do with it originally being written in Japanese - I feel as if whatever the author wants to convey, gets lost somewhere during the translation. In any case, I would not say that I really understood this book. Maybe next time? Who knows.
not my favorite, but definitely worth reading
Picked this up on a whim at an airport bookstore. I had no idea what I was getting into. This is really heavy, unsettling, and weird. I liked it. This is my first Murakami but it definitely won't be my last.
Haruki Murakami adds his own brand of magical realism to ancient themes, seasons to taste, and shakes it all up. The result is--delightful. Just go with it!
And again, he's compelled me to listen to something I would never have discovered on my own--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eika4rkMOGY
(Yes, that specific version)
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 …
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/
Pure fantasy, though if you've been (or wished to be) a 15-year old boy - or an old soul - perhaps you've been there too.
An interesting book, spawning in interesting discussion. I was hoping that among the 8 of us we could figure out what the book was all about. But of course it couldn't be so easy. It was an enigma on purpose, with no clear cut answers. Maybe no answers at all. But some found that if you could suspend your disbelief sufficiently and just go along for the ride, that it was a fun ride to be on, tossed from chapter to chapter, landing in a different and intriguing scene at every spot. The characters felt true. Most of them matured in some way in the course of the novel. And if the man child Nakata didn't, then he still had a unique view of the world. And engendered some motherly feelings among us.
