Kafka on the Shore [Paperback]

Haruki Murakami (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 3, 2006

Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.

As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Previous books such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood have established Murakami as a true original, a fearless writer possessed of a wildly uninhibited imagination and a legion of fiercely devoted fans. In this latest addition to the author's incomparable oeuvre, 15-year-old Kafka Tamura runs away from home, both to escape his father's oedipal prophecy and to find his long-lost mother and sister. As Kafka flees, so too does Nakata, an elderly simpleton whose quiet life has been upset by a gruesome murder. (A wonderfully endearing character, Nakata has never recovered from the effects of a mysterious World War II incident that left him unable to read or comprehend much, but did give him the power to speak with cats.) What follows is a kind of double odyssey, as Kafka and Nakata are drawn inexorably along their separate but somehow linked paths, groping to understand the roles fate has in store for them. Murakami likes to blur the boundary between the real and the surreal—we are treated to such oddities as fish raining from the sky; a forest-dwelling pair of Imperial Army soldiers who haven't aged since WWII; and a hilarious cameo by fried chicken king Colonel Sanders—but he also writes touchingly about love, loneliness and friendship. Occasionally, the writing drifts too far into metaphysical musings—mind-bending talk of parallel worlds, events occurring outside of time—and things swirl a bit at the end as the author tries, perhaps too hard, to make sense of things. But by this point, his readers, like his characters, will go just about anywhere Murakami wants them to, whether they "get" it or not.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400079276
• ISBN-13: 978-1400079278
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (301 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into forty-two languages. The most recent of his many honours is the Franz Kafka Prize.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#61 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

#82 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

#61 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

#82 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Literary Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

242 of 256 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Read at random July 29, 2005

By C. H. Osborne

Format:Hardcover

I guess from other reviews that I'm not the typical reader of this sort of book - some of the other reviews go way over my head, which might suggest that the book did, too. Unlike many readers, I'd never heard of this author, nor have I studied philosophy or metaphysics, nor did I appreciate any of the clever references to other works which I gather are in the book. So my review is based on the book alone without any external context or any expectations of this author at all. I picked the book up more or less at random from a public library shelf because it looked interesting.

The first half of the book had me sitting up reading in the early hours of the morning, it was that good. I'd never read anything quite like it and was fascinated to see where the story was going to go. I appreciated the book's readability too, with the author conveying complex ideas without getting bogged down in complex language. Some of the reviews I've read subsequently are less readable than the book itself, so don't be put off by thinking you need to be an intellectual to read it.

Unfortunately I felt that after the first half of the book, the sense of wonder began to fade and instead of being content to be caught up in the plot I was starting to wonder where it was going to go and how long it was going to take to get there. To be honest I hung in there for the last quarter mainly because I didn't want to abandon the book having come this far. It's not that the writing deteriorated or that the storyline wasn't still interesting, more that the characters weren't developing any further and it looked like they weren't going to. The plot just played itself out and I lost that "Wow, I can't wait to see what happens next" feeling.

Nevertheless, it's unlike anything else I've read and I did enjoy reading it. On the most basic level it's a fantasy which requires that you suspend your ideas about the nature of reality and, like one of the main characters, just accept what's going on without making judgements and perhaps without trying to understand at all. I can't say that it was an entirely satisfying read from cover to cover, but there were moments in which I was totally entranced. I will probably read more from this author, especially if I find that reality is getting a bit too heavy for me and I need a break.

By the way, cat lovers may need to be warned that there is one particularly unpleasant scene; I'm not entirely convinced that it was necessary and it is very disturbing.

170 of 196 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Murakami in transition? November 4, 2004

By Charles E. Stevens VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Kafka on the Shore is at once familiar and unfamiliar to readers of past Murakami stories: in story and in plotting it is reminiscent of past works of Murakami; the Tamura Kafka storyline is in many ways a re-telling of Hard-Boiled Wonderland, and the split narrative style also reminds one of that book. Indeed, many times throughout the book I found myself thinking that Kafka on the Shore felt like a kind of summation of Murakami's works, all the way from Hear the Wind Sing through After the Quake in terms of style and plot elements.

Despite the many familiar elements, there are several significant deviations from the usual formula, starting with the protagonist Tamura Kafka. Unlike the typical 30-something "everyman" familiar to readers of Murakami, Kafka on the Shore features the young and proactive Tamura Kafka and to the best of my knowledge is the first of Murakami's novels to be written half in the third person, giving Murakami a bit more freedom in telling this tale from different characters' perspectives. More important than narrative technique was Murakami's approach to the story: whereas many of Murakami's novels are full of a sense of loneliness and a feeling that the characters are chasing after something which is already beyond their reach, Tamura Kafka is very much in charge of his own destiny as his choice at the climax of the novel indicates.

Although Kafka on the Shore started off wonderfully, by the second half of the book, the plot became unusually linear and predictable for a Murakami novel. The Nakata/Hoshino plotline in particular was cryptic without the scope or wonder of Wind-Up Bird, for example. Oshima, one of the most interesting characters Murakami has created (and that's saying a lot) is sadly underused in the second half. Murakami's use of corporate icons and feminist figures is awkward and a bit forced. In general, what starts off with the potential to be Murakami's masterpiece falls a bit short in the end.

Part of the problem is that Kafka on the Shore feels like Murakami is undergoing a shift in style and in substance but it is a little unclear where he is trying to go to. Unfortunately, his latest novel, After Dark, does not clear up the issue either. As Murakami has aged, his protagonists have gotten younger (a 15-year old boy in Kafka and a 19-year old woman in After Dark) ... but they often seem like a middle-aged "everyman" trapped in a young person's body. It will be enjoyable to see what direction Murakami takes in the future, but compared to his works of the '80s and early '90s, Murakami's recent works have retained his energy ... but lost a bit of the soul that make a Murakami novel an experience greater than the sum of its parts.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An uplifting, gorgeous, literary adventure August 5, 2007

By Sheetal Bahl

Format:Paperback

I finished this book quite some time ago, and it's taken me a while to review this book, because frankly, I've just been at a loss of how to write a lucid and representative review. I felt tongue-tied and "writer blocked" in the afterglow on this spellbinding adventure. Murakami took me to realms I have not reached with books for a while now, and which I am still gently floating on. I finally did decide to write though, because I think it's imperative for me to document how I felt about the book and really try and impress upon other bibliophiles that they must, must, MUST read this!

The two fundamental themes of the book are simple, and in fact, quite clichéd: one can run, but not escape, and life needs to be dealt with; and that every person has a purpose and a destiny to fulfil. The way these themes are illustrated is, however, far from simple, and to do so, Murakami shares with us two tales: one of a precocious fifteen-year old boy who leaves home in an attempt to escape his oppressions, and the other of a mentally challenged old man who needs support on many fronts to just go through daily life, but has curious abilities like being able to converse with cats and making fish rain from the sky. Both the protagonists undertake fascinating physical and metaphysical journeys which inevitably weave together at the end, but in very unusual and interesting ways. Accompanying them, or somehow associated with them, on these journeys are just a handful of other characters, who while clearly playing a supporting role, are essential to the "success" (as in some logical conclusion) of the journeys, and are enchanting in their own right.

Murakami is very successful in illustrating the key themes of the book by the end (and in fact through most of its course), even though the plot is full of events that are oftentimes difficult to follow and challenge ones understanding. The book clearly demands a suspension of physical belief (refer fish example above), much in the vein of the magic realism of Marquez and Rushdie, but somehow, it doesn't feel the same. Similarly, while it deals extensively with the abstruse and the subconscious, it does not feel like surrealistic. Instead, all the unreal parts feel very natural, and it's very easy to accept them, just like it's easy to accept the myriad of contradictions that Japan (where this book is set) seems to be. Pulling this feat off is one of the most admirable stylistic achievements of this book. Another superb aspect of this book is the characters that Murakami has created. The breadth of the characters from the two protagonists through the hilarious avatar of Colonel Sanders to the confused gay "woman-in-man's-mind" is only matched by the depth of exploration of each character. The characters draw the reader into their minds and lives, allowing the reader to understand and empathize with them to very great extents, which is remarkable given the complexity and unreal nature of a lot of the characters.

The one aspect of the book which I can imagine some readers will find frustrating is the number of events, fringe characters, situations, dialogues, and sub-plots that seem to have no bearing on the main story or the plot. I, personally, learnt a new lesson from Murakami's narrative escapades and fertile imagination. Murakami very explicitly talks about metaphors throughout the book, and I think it has a purpose. The purpose was exactly to help the reader get rid of conventional thinking and reading approaches. After being perplexed for a while, I realized that all these inexplicable things were themselves metaphors, or analogies, or abstract concepts, which needed to be accepted as such without being taken literally. Once you stop doing that, and just feel them and the impact they make on your mindset rather than looking for literal bearings on the story, everything falls into place and the reading gets taken to a new level of beauty altogether. I think this is the greatest strength of the book, not its greatest weakness, and would urge readers to take this approach so that they can truly relish this wonderful adventure.

In conclusion, I strongly recommend reading, and even owning this book. I can easily imagine that this is a book you will want to go back to again and again, if not for the whole book, for many small aspects at least. Have fun!