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180 of 188 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Read at random, July 29, 2005
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.
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167 of 192 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Murakami in transition?, November 4, 2004
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.
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85 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To boldly go, July 27, 2005
Reading Murakami is a bit like going into therapy. The images and dreams can seem familiar and identifiable to others, but they are also full of personal meaning. Each book tightens the web of associations and memories for Murakami readers; as result they end up talking about other books in order to understand the novel at hand. (This is true with other writers as well, of course, but Murakami intentionally ventures into the dark psychological realm.) I loved this novel, and found it a very satisfying extension and refinement of his work, particularly Hard-Boiled Wonderland, Wind-Up Bird, and Dance, Dance, Dance. I particularly enjoyed the ending, the writer's usual area of weakness. But the book doesn't depend on the ending -- anywhere you enter, there are mental puzzles and verbal delights galore. I dreamt more than usual while reading this book. Murakami sends me deep into myself, where I examine those feelings and forces that churn and charge forward, driving me to express my true self and to take control of my own life. As with some of the other books, I had the feeling that I was becoming more fully myself while I followed the developing situation. Much of the novel exists between two worlds, which resonated deeply with me because of the death of my mother six months ago and my heightened awareness of her lingering presence. I swam everyday when I was reading "Kafka on the Shore," and being in water was an ideal medium for coming to terms with Kafka's progress through the labyrinth of familial obligation, anger, and self-knowledge. I read Tony Kushner's "A Dybbuk" while floating in the pool one afternoon -- a play in which a "living soul" inhabits the body of his beloved. The rabbi entrusted with her exorcism fails and love triumphs in a very uneasy world: it felt like I was reading a gloss on "Kafka." I had just finished a surf novel, "Tijuana Straits," before I started this one, and I kept hearing echoes from that work (by Kem Nunn) echoed as well as sections of Richard Linklatter's first film, "Slacker." This is the process many go through reading Murakami -- all sorts of elements come to more vivid life and stick to the psychological fly-paper. Like most Murakami novels, this felt improvised, as if he weren't sure where he was headed, but the prose was more polished and the story more buffed than the early novels. It seemed more like "East of the Sun" or the short stories, which is just fine by me. The national amnesia about the horrors of World War II was not explored as deeply as in Wind-Up Bird, but it was suggested enough to lead the reader to reconsider in light of current events in China and Japan. Among other things, Murakami is working things out in real time -- our time; as concerned as he is with the eternal, he is also writing quickly enough to let the present flicker through his words. There are surprises, recollections, jokes, and profundities aplenty. This seems an excellent introduction to the world of Haruki Murakami as well as a step forward into the unknown that is his particular turf.
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