Few books have infected me with boredom-induced ADD, the desire to gnaw my own foot off at the ankle, and the state of mind you might experience if forced to sit upon a nest of hornets while watching your home being burglarized, but this was one of them. It took me until page 70 to stop wanting to hop up and rearrange the spice cupboard or my sock drawer every few sentences, but then the feeling returned at page 243. Only 224 pages to go! From then on, my hatred and resentment of this book progressively grew like a dead cow bloating in the heat.

“Kafka on the Shore” is a mess. It is such a mess that it makes my six-year-old son’s post-playdate bedroom look like Buckingham Palace. Loosely based on the Oedipus myth, and taking some obvious inspiration from Catcher in the Rye, this book seems to be little more than a random hodgepodge of ideas held together with pipe cleaners and raspberry jam.

There was so much to hate about this book. Here are just a few things:
1. Boring, unnecessary descriptions – that do nothing to further the story – of what people are wearing, what Kafka likes to do during his workout, what he decides to eat, what he is listening to on his Walkman, and so on. I wouldn’t have been surprised to read a monologue from Kafka along the lines of: “When I wipe my arse, I like to use just four squares of toilet paper, no more, no less. I count them out – one, two, three, four. Then I fold the length over once, and again. Equipped now with the perfect, handheld quilt, I wipe in a single, expert, sweeping motion – front to back. Examine the paper to determine whether I need to repeat the process. However, I would add that this is only if the paper is two-ply. For one-ply paper, I need a minimum of eight sheets, but only if they are of high quality. If not of high quality, the boy Crow reminds me, ‘Remember, you’ve got to be the toughest 15-year-old on the planet.’”
2. The gratuitous cat torture scene. Johnnie Walker (him off the whiskey bottle) has to cut the hearts out of living cats and eat them so that he can collect cat souls to make a special kind of flute. There is no freakin’ point to this scene whatsoever – we never hear about Johnnie or his cat-flute again.
3. The annoying way characters – Oshima in particular – deliver sermons about philosophy, art, literature and classical music. It took me right out of the story (tangled mess though it was) and smacked of “Look at me – aren’t I clever?”
4. The screechy-preachy scene with the “feminist” caricatures in the library.
5. Hate to be ungroovy or whatever – but I just couldn’t stand any of the sex scenes, particularly with Miss Saeki, the 50-something librarian who gets it on over and over again with the 15-year-old protagonist even though he and she both know she might be his long-lost mother. Excuse me while I go mop the vomitus off of my living room wall.

After the first 100 pages I thought that I might end up giving this book three stars. Another 100 pages on, I decided two stars. By page 331 I decided one star, and by the end of this frustrating, pretentious, and completely unsatisfying book, I felt like I’d squandered so much of my precious life reading this pile o’ doo-doo that I didn’t want to give it even one star. However, since Mr. Murakami knows how to spell (or at least, I’m assuming he does since this is a translation) I will relent.

In the end, love or loathing of a book is entirely subjective, and scores of critics loved this one. As for me, I feel that if I’d wanted to find meaning in a random jumble of junk, I would have had more luck going to the thrift store and sifting through the bric-a-brac box than wasting time on Mr. Murakami’s brain-omelette.

Buckle up to experience extremely confusing, mind numbing, vivid, compelling, controversial, wild ride!

Don’t let simple, plain writing style fool you! Get ready for the bombardment of whirlwind journey between different genres including fantasy, magical realism, fiction and get drown in the sea of allegories, metaphors, vibes of
Shakespearean plays, Greek tragedies, amazing mash up of Eastern spiritualism meets Western philosophy!

The book needs to be read more than twice! If you deeply get connected with the characters and visualize yourself in their places, you feel like you’re teleported to Terry Gilliam movies’ surrealistic worlds and after a few rides later you find yourself dark humorous, complex Cohen Brothers’ rug, flying with Big Lebowski, waving to the people, questioning yourself which part of is a dream and which part is pure reality!

I enjoyed this ultra complex, brain cell frier journey even though I have more questions than appropriate answers!

My favorite quotes of the novel are:

“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

“It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory,unhappiness a story.”

“Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”

“In everybody’s life there’s a point of no return. And in a very few cases, a point where you can’t go forward anymore. And when we reach that point, all we can do is quietly accept the fact. That’s how we survive.”

“Even chance meetings are the result of karma… Things in life are fated by our previous lives. That even in the smallest events there’s no such thing as coincidence.”

Tengo ahora esta horrible necesidad de leer todos los libros de Murakami, y estoy casi seguro de que podría convertirse en uno de mis autores favoritos. Es una maravilla. Y, por si fuera poco, esta va siendo mi mejor lectura del año.

La idea de un hombre que habla con gatos me pareció muy llamativa y tramposa; amo a los gatos, obviamente quería imaginar qué tenían para decir. Por otro lado, tenemos la historia de un chico que escapa de su casa, queriendo librarse de una maldición que le ha profetizado su padre. A lo largo del libro vemos cómo ambas historias empiezan a conectar, cómo la una depende de la otra, pero que en ningún punto se unifican.

«Quizás ese algo que buscas, mientras lo estés buscando, no lo encuentres en la forma en que lo estás buscando.»

El primer libro que leí de Murakami fue Tokio blues. Me había parecido bastante bueno, muy disfrutable, pero nada del otro mundo, ni siquiera con ganas de continuar con este autor. Luego descubrí que este libro tenía un personaje que hablaba con gatos, fue lo único que necesité para querer leerlo. Y fue una bomba para mi cabeza, literalmente. Fue como si leyera a un Murakami diferente al de Tokio blues, no había punto de comparación más allá de la narrativa.

Este libro, con su narración sin decoraciones, transmite directamente cada pensamiento filosófico que plantea en los diálogos y párrafos, apoyándose en citas de autores, en la mitología griega y, por supuesto, en algunos filósofos. Esto lo hace en situaciones peculiares y alocadas. Por ejemplo, se te acerca el Colonel Sanders (adjunto imagen reconocida del sujeto) en una situación súper random y en una de esas te dice:

«Tú quizás no lo sepas, pero en este mundo hay una especie de distorsión. Por eso el mundo ha logrado tener, al fin, la profundidad de las tres dimensiones. Si quieres que todo esté recto, deberías vivir en un mundo hecho con escuadra.»

Esta y muchas situaciones igual y más fumadas ocurren en lo largo del libro, las cuales pueden llegar a no gustarle a todo el mundo.
Leyendo esta novela no pude parar de recordar Alicia en el país de las maravillas y lo parecidos que llegan a ser. No en la trama ni en el mensaje, sino en los hechos irrisorios que tiran a lo absurdo. Siempre quería saber qué siguiente locura me narraría Murakami.

He leído y visto en varias reseñas que llaman a esto realismo mágico. No sé si encasillarlo en este género, pues sabemos que el realismo mágico se caracteriza por hechos fantásticos que son tomados como algo cotidiano, pero en este libro los personajes a veces se preguntan por el origen del presente acto extravagante, rompiendo con la idea de verlo como algo normal, y con esto violando la regla del realismo mágico. Pero no me hagan caso, sólo estoy dando una opinión inconexa; pertenezco más al grupo que pone este libro en el movimiento surrealista.

«¿No lo entiendes? En ningún lugar del mundo existe una lucha que acabe con las luchas. La guerra nace de la guerra misma.»

Todos los personajes me parecen recalcables, a veces me asqueaban por las decisiones que tomaban o las ideas que tenían, pero todos se llevaron mi respeto por lo genialmente construidos que están.
Cada uno de ellos tuvo su cierre, mas siento que Ôshima merecía más protagonismo, ya que parece un personaje que solo está para añadir los buenos diálogos.
La trama no es nada predecible, es tan cuadrada como lo es un círculo, tan visible como lo que se encuentra detrás de una montaña. Lo cierto es que los personajes están en constante movimiento y nunca, jamás, se entera uno de qué pasará con ellos.
Como dije antes, la escritura de Murakami es bastante sencilla, algo que compensa con la simbología y la carga filosófica que conlleva.

Si hay algo malo que deba resaltar, sería la incansable repetición que hace Murakami en narrar acciones sencillas a lo largo de todo el libro. Tomó un café, se bañó, desayunó tal cosa, arregló el cuarto… Detalle que es un poco fastidioso al comienzo, pero que uno llega a tolerar mientras avanza en la historia.

Por favor, léanlo.

The simplistic writing in "Kafka on the Shore" contrasts pretty sharply with the book's complicated themes. Perplexing & ultimately mind-bending, Murakami helps his reader out by using prose that's as unpretentious as possible. He gives us clues as to how to get out of the labyrinth he's constructed in one piece by utilizing images & motifs, allegory and metaphor, constructing an entire world that seems to fit like a transparency over our own. There are different levels of the mind, and after reading Murakami it becomes clear that there are different levels in literature as well: some novels are brave enough to explore the deep deep realms, & with style to spare.

But "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is better. While "Kafka" continues with those previous ideas established by that other novel (mainly psychic awareness, secret hidden dimensions, metaphysics) it does manage to leave many loose ends, & the picture is not wholly complete; it is, alas, not a fully-rounded account of prophecies fulfilled as internal desires become manifested. Fish and eels dropping from the sky, talking with felines, interacting with spirits: all these are exciting elements to bring forth in a contemporary story. Murakami takes us to a place which seems new, possibly surprising even him. Perhaps he discovered what his novel was all about all too late to establish for his readership an elegant conclusion. Also: what REAL fifteen year-old listens to jazz? I was not entirely convinced that the main character was all that naive, nor all that special. Bottom line: Very interesting all the way through, but not truly, ultimately, magnificent.

با خوندنش از شر یه شاهکار فوق‌العاده خلاص شدم! باوجود اینکه همه موراکامی رو یه نویسنده تووی سبک رئالیسم جادویی میشناسن ولیکن این اثر بیشتر شبیه یه حالت خاصی از سورئال هست ..یه جور رئالیسم دست و پا شکسته و یجور سو رئالیسم ملال اور .. کتاب یه روایت موازی از دوتا شخصیت اصلی رو دنبال میکنه با این حال من میتونم قسم بخورم که موراکامی حداکثر تلاشش رو کرده تا اسم پنج نوع برند اتومبیل ..چند تا برند لباس زیر و کفش ..اسم لااقل ده تا نویسنده ار ژانر ای مختلف .. اسم پنج تا موزیسین بزرگ ..حداقل ده تا واژه تخصصی تووی هنر ..تعریف موومان و تفاوت سمفونی و سونات .. و کلی اطلاعات بی ربط دیگه رو تووی اثرش بگنجونه ..یه جور اظهار فضل ادبی ..درصورتی که نویسنده های اصیل و باهویت معمولا کمتر این مدلی دست به خودکشی میزنن .. کتاب هم زیباست هم زشت ..شخصیت ناکاتا فوق‌العاده خوب پرداخت شده و شخصیت‌ پسر زاعی نام بد جوری تووی ذوق میزنه .. اگر درصد مالیخولیای خون تون کم شده میتونید روی این اثر زیبا حساب کنید ...

I left quite a negative review on this when I decided to DNF this book (I left it down below if you are interested in reading it) and decided maybe to expand why I DNF'd this book at 80%

I didn't enjoy this book quite frankly. Murakami has great writing and the reason I read 370 pages of this is because he has such great writing. I love the excessive detail and the mundane aspect to his writing and he writes great characters. But the plot of this book was horrible. Just horrible. To be quite honest I understood nothing I read in 370 pages of the plot because it was just ridiculously stupid. Couldn't even begin to explain it.

Spoilers will ensue but trust me they don't matter because you really shouldn't read this book.

So I DNF'd it for one specific reason. I intended to finish the book has I only had 97 pages left, but I got to a particular scene and decided not to. The 50yo sleeping with a 15yo who was MAYBE her son didn't stop me from reading it, no the thing that stopped me was the rape scene. Now, don't get me wrong, I actually don't mind rape in books when it serves a plot purpose of some sort because while rape is a vile disgusting thing, it does make very plots take interesting turns. But this rape scene was senseless and pointless and had 0 purpose. I DO NOT like rape scenes that have no purpose in a book. And while I don't believe in triggers and never will, this rape scene is very "calm" so it's not uncomfortable to read.

So I originally wanted to give this 2 stars for the writing causing me enough to finish the book, but nah because I wasted so much time reading 370 pages of this shitty book and I got nothing from it. And since I read 80% I'm counting this towards my Goodreads challenge and I dare you to stop me.

------------------------------------------------
ORIGINAL REVIEW:

Dnf at 80 damn percent.

I'm dnfing this for the rape scene. I'm not doing a rape scene. I already hated this stupid ass book so fuck it.

I'm rating it 1 star instead of my originally planned 2 because I didn't enjoy that this rape scene served no purpose in the plot and I read 370 pages of this shit and still hate it.

The real rating would be 3.5 stars.
The first 400 pages were so damn breathtakingly perfect, that is an unpredictable, fun, witty, colourful, wise and full of life story. However, the last 200 pages were much of an awfully sluggish read. Sometimes I wished this book to remain unfinished because on every page you may come up with the idea that how is this mercurial book supposed to end? As you make progress you expect more at the end and suddenly its like you get hit by a truck! Then this truck takes a slow-motion move hitting you at your speed of reading the last 200 pages, and you suffer watching all those expectations get demolished! Anyway, I wish Miyazaki would make an anime out of this book.
I identified my teenage self with Kafka, his craving to be stronger and being in control, the dark side of his being "Crow", who I still deal with.
Nakata and Hoshino were so funny and sometimes I laughed so hard as reading their stories, and I thought Philip Gabriel has done a perfect job as a translator, though I read a review criticizing his translation! I wish I could read it in Japanese so I could enjoy more.
BTW, I just love the cover...

عن الحب الذي لم نفهم له معنى ولم نجد له سببًا، عن خيبات الأمل التي لم نرتكب ذنبًا كي نعاني مرارتها، عن هؤلاء الذين يرحلون دون إيضاح أسباب الرحيل، وعن هؤلاء الذين يعطوننا الدفء والحنان دون مقابل، عن عبثية قراراتنا وجنون الحياة والبشر، عن الأرواح الخاوية التي تقضي أيامها تتسائل كيف السبيل إلى التئام جروح الروح، عن مرارة الهزيمة ونشوة الانتصار، عن الذكريات التي تبقينا أحياءً بعد أن نرحل، عن سر البسمة اللطيفة التي يفاجئنا بها أحدهم في الطريق دون سابق معرفة، عن كل لحظات الصمت التي نهرب إليها من قبح العالم، وعن كل سؤال تلقيناه فكان الجواب: لا أعلم، عن كل ذلك وأكثر كُتبت هذه الرواية، ولأن كل هذا يمر علينا دون أن نفهم أو ندرك معناه، كُتبت هذه الرواية أيضًا كي لا تُفهم، إنما كُتبت كي تًعاش، كي تُحس، كي تتغلغل بداخلك دون أن تشعر، فتعزيّك عن كل تلك الحيرة التي تنتابك تجاه حياتك، وتخبرك أنه من العبث أن تمضي حياتك في هذا العالم باحثا عن معنى كل شيء، فكما قال أوشيما: ما العالم سوى مجاز يا كافكا تامورا.

تمت

This is not really a review. My actual review is on GR, HERE.
This is a collection of notes on the features and themes of the story/stories, so beware of moderate spoilers.

Kafka and Nakata

Kafka is a 15-year old runaway from a wealthy but dysfunctional and unloving home: his father is a famous sculptor, but his mother and elder sister left when Kafka was only four. He has had no news of them since and can’t even remember his mother’s face.

Nakata is an old man, of very limited intelligence since a strange childhood accident (The Ricebowl Incident). He’s largely content with his solitary life, but he does regret losing the ability to read, and says one time that he’d like to be normal, even briefly, reminding me of Flowers for Algernon (see my review HERE).

Kafka’s story is told by him, in the first person; Nakata’s is in the third person, reflecting how he refers to himself.

Despite the title, and the name Kafka has chosen, this isn’t a Kafkaesque story. However, in Czech, Kafka sounds like the word for crow or jackdaw, and in this, Kafka’s alter-ego is “the boy called Crow”.

Other important characters

•tSakura, a young woman, slightly older than Kafka.
•tMiss Saeki, enigmatic head of the Komura Memorial Library.
•tOshima, a young man who works at the Komura Memorial Library, and takes Kafka under his wing. He’s especially knowledgeable about ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and likens himself to Cassandra at one point.
•tHoshino, a truck driver, who sees Nakata as something of a replacement for his beloved grandfather.

Although it’s primarily about the connections and contrasts between Kafka and Nakata, there’s a similar dynamic between Nakata and Miss Saeki. In particular one has only memories, while the other has almost none, but they both have half-strength shadows.

Themes in this novel

•tMemories: A blessing or a curse, whether absent or omnipresent.
“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.”

•tLabyrinths: Kafka’s father sculpts a series of that name, Oshima schools Kafka in the etymology, and the forest is labyrinthine.
“The prototype for the labyrinths is, in a word, guts. Which means that the principle for the labyrinth is inside you. And that correlates to the labyrinth outside.”
“This forest is essentially a part of me… The journey I’m taking is inside me.”

•tMetaphors: Oft mentioned, not just guts being a metaphor for a labyrinth. Colonel Sanders tells Hoshino not to look for metaphors everywhere, while Oshima points out prophecy will always be fulfilled, even if metaphorically.

•tShadows and ghosts: Associated with self, mind, soul, and memory. There are people with half-strength shadows and a ghost of someone still alive. The latter is an idea explored in The Tale of Genji. See also my review of The Shadow, HERE, inspired by another Murakami.

•tFate, omens, prophesy and chance encounters: They recur in many ways, most ominously, how the sculptor carves the prophecy into his son.
“The omen is still with me, though, like a shadow.”

•tOedipus: This novel retreads aspects of the Oedipus myth, but it’s too heavy-handed. At one point, Crow literally rattles off a checklist.

•tLibraries: There’s a love for the tranquil sanctity (the only place a child can hang out, no questions asked, at no cost), and sadness at the loss of literacy.
“There’s a library far away… but there aren’t any books in it.”
It holds memories: see my review of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World, HERE.

•tMusic, film, and food: There’s plenty of all, including classical music. Given the overt Oedipal theme, I smiled when Prince’s “Sexy Motherfucker” was mentioned.
“Do you think music has the power to change people?”
It certainly changes Hoshino.

•tBlood: There are three instances where blood is crucial to the story: a teacher’s unexpected period; killing cats for their souls, which leads to the killing of a man, and a few drops of blood willingly proffered to give someone escape. There's also a character who's a haemophiliac - though it plays no part in the plot.

•tFire: Things are burned for symbolic, sacrificial destruction.

Questions

I don’t want answers to everything, nor tidy endings, but there were several aspects where I wonder if my understanding fell short, or if Chekhov’s gun was deliberately not fired:

•tTalking with cats: what fun that would be. But it’s oddly central and yet almost irrelevant to the plot. I guess it chimes with the Sphinx (a sort of big cat) in the Oedipus myth.
•tFish and leeches falling from the skies feels Old Testament plague territory to me, but probably not Murakami. They were fun, and showed a character’s accidental power, but I’m not sure if there was more to them than that.
•tColonel Sanders and Johnnie Walker: Murakami likes unexpected references to Western and pop culture, but I’m not sure if there was particular significance in the aliases chosen by those two characters.
•tLightning: one character was struck by it and another interviewed such people for a book, and…?
•tThe soul flute… where to begin?

Murakami bingo - in general

First, a list of 10 common themes, HERE. I think this book scores 9/10.

Or if you prefer illustrations, Grant Snider’s is well-known, and I think this scores 22/25:


Murakami’s portrayal of women

Always a troublesome issue. The main characters are usually men, and ones who objectify women, often in especially inappropriate ways (older man and a teen girl, for example, though not here). The women often have an air of mystery, bordering on manic pixie dream girls, and feel more like ciphers than rounded characters. However, many of them turn out to have agency, and they are always central to what happens.

In this particular novel, the Oedipal theme necessarily involves taboos. There’s also a non-violent rape scene - but it’s explicitly called out as wrong, even though it’s a dream.
“In dreams begin responsibility.”
There’s also sex with someone who’s asleep, so can’t consent, and that again, is flagged as wrong.

This novel is nearly 20 years old (first published in 2002), and its portrayal and easy acceptance of a trans man is ahead of its time. At one point, another character says “I suddenly remember that he’s a woman” - an utterly plausible inner thought about someone they care about.

A couple of women checking out the library’s facilities from a female point of view makes for an awkwardly comic battle of wits: the women are mere caricatures of feminists, and stumped when it’s pointed out that unisex loos/bathrooms are totally normal in contexts such as aeroplanes.

Here are thoughts on the subject from a Japanese bibliophile, "Acts of Recognition: On the Women Characters of Haruki Murakami", by Mieko Kawakami, HERE.

Quotes

•t“In a place where time isn’t important, neither is memory.”

•t“There’s another world that parallels our own, and to a degree you’re able to step into that other world and come back… But go past a certain point and you’ll lose the path out. It’s a labyrinth.”

•t"Most of the books have the smell of an earlier time leaking out from between their pages - a special odour of the knowledge and emotions that for ages have been calmly resting between the covers."

•t"That's how stories happen - with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There's only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It's like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story."

•t“The hands of the clock buried inside her soul ground to a halt.” [after a sudden tragedy]

•t“While they’re still alive, people can become ghosts.” [the “living spirits” of the Tale of Genji]

•t“Anyone who falls in love is searching for the missing pieces of themselves.”

•t“Words have all died in the hollow of time, piling up soundlessly at the dark bottom of a volcanic lake.”

•t“Unimpressive thunder, a lazy dwarf trampling on a drum… [then] a regular downpour, wrapping the world in a wet stuffy smell.”

海辺のカフカ = Umibe no kafuka = Kafka On The Shore, Haruki Murakami

Kafka On The Shore 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.

Comprising two distinct but interrelated plots, the narrative runs back and forth between both plots, taking up each plot-line in alternating chapters.

The odd-numbered chapters tell the 15-year-old Kafka's story as he runs away from his father's house to escape an Oedipal curse and to embark upon a quest to find his mother and sister.

After a series of adventures, he finds shelter in a quiet, private library in Takamatsu, run by the distant and aloof Miss Saeki and the intelligent and more welcoming Oshima.

There he spends his days reading the unabridged Richard Francis Burton translation of One Thousand and One Nights and the collected works of Natsume Sōseki until the police begin inquiring after him in connection with the murder of his father that he does not know he has committed.

Oshima brings him to the forests of Kōchi Prefecture, where Kafka is ultimately healed.

The even-numbered chapters tell Nakata's story.

They start with military reports of a strange incident in Yamanashi Prefecture where multiple children, including Nakata, collapse in the woods - Nakata, after the incident, is the only one of the children who came out of the incident without any memory and unable to read and write.

The incident is initially blamed on poisonous gas, but it is later revealed that it was the result of a lustful teacher beating Nakata. Later on in the book, it is shown that due to his uncanny abilities, Nakata has found part-time work in his old age as a finder of lost cats.

Having finally located and returned one particular cat to its owners, Nakata finds that the circumstances of the case have put him on a path which, unfolding one step at a time before him, takes the illiterate man far away from his familiar and comforting home territory.

Nakata kills a man named Johnnie Walker, a cat murderer. He takes a gigantic leap of faith in going on the road for the first time in his life, unable even to read a map and without knowing where he will eventually end up.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «کافکا در کرانه»؛ «کافکا در ساحل»؛ نویسنده: هاروکی موراکامی؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز یازدهم ماه نوامبر سال 2007میلادی

عنوان: کافکا در کرانه؛ نویسنده: هاروکی موراکامی؛ مترجم مهدی غبرائی؛ تهران، نیلوفر، 1386، در 608ص، شابک 9789644483509؛ چاپ دوم 1387؛ چاپ سوم 1390؛ چاپ چهارم 1392؛ چاپ پنجم 1392؛ کتاب حاضر از متن انگلیسی ترجمه شده است؛ عنوان دیگر کافکا در ساحل؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان ژاپنی - سده 21م

عنوان: کافکا در ساحل؛ نویسنده: هاروکی موراکامی؛ مترجم: آسیه عزیزی؛ پروانه عزیزی؛ تهران، بازتاب نگار، کتاب نادر، 1386، در 629ص، شابک 9789648223347؛ چاپ دوم 1388؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، بازتاب نگار، 1394؛ در 627ص؛

عنوان: کافکا در ساحل؛ نویسنده: هاروکی موراکامی؛ مترجم: گیتا گرکانی؛ تهران، کاروان، 1385، در 668ص، چاپ دیگر تهران، نگاه، 1392؛ شابک 9789643518325؛ چاپ سوم 1393؛

داستان دو شخصیت دیگر گونه است، که در موازات هم حرکت می‌کنند: «کافکا» که پسری پانزده ساله‌ است، و به علت یک پیشگویی عجیب، از خانه فرار می‌کند، و آقای «ناکاتا»، پیرمرد آرام و مهربان و عجیبی که به علت رخدادی شگفت‌ انگیز در بچگی، دچار نوعی عقب ماندگی ذهنی شده‌ است، اما حاصل این رخداد، به دست آوردن توانایی گفتگو با گربه هاست!؛

بخشی از داستان، به «کافکا» و زندگی ایشان، و بخش دیگر به آقای «ناکاتا»، می‌پردازند؛ رمان در عین دو پارگی، دارای وحدت مضمون است، و تمام رخدادها، حتی کوچکترین و جزیی‌ترین آنها، به هم مرتبط هستند؛

شاید چیزی که آثار «موراکامی»، و به ویژه این رمان را، دل انگیزتر می‌کند، سود بردن نویسنده، از رازواره های فرهنگ بومی «ژاپنی»، باشد؛ با خوانش این رمان، از پیشرفت داستان شادمان میشوید، و با باورها، و رسومی آشنا می‌گردید، که از آنِ مردمان «ژاپن» بوده و در این داستان نهادینه شده اند، باورهایی همانند: «پیشگویی»، «غیب بینی»؛ «وجود دنیاهایی ورای دنیای ما»؛ «حرکت بین گذشته و آینده»؛ و «یادمانهایی که هرگز کهنه نمی‌شوند»، و در راستای زندگی روزمره جریان دارند، و تابوهای فرهنگی دیگر نیز، که به خوبی و در کمال هنرمندی، در لا به لای داستان گنجانیده شده‌ اند

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 30/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 11/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

رواية عن مراهق ياباني محب للقراءة هرب من منزله و المدرسة... و تتقاطع هذه القصة مع قصة رجل ياباني مسن معاق ذهنيا يحدّث القطط... و كثير من الأحداث الغريبة المتداخلة مع بعضها... و كثير من الحديث عن الموسيقى و الأدب و الكتب و الفلسفة و الحياة و اللاوعي و الأحلام
أجواء القصة غرائبية و فنتازية... و الحبكة بحد ذاتها مشوقة جدا... و جدير بالذكر أيضا أن الترجمة متقنة
أنهيت صفحاتها السبعمئة في أقل من ثلاث أيام... بيد أني فور إنهائها شعرت بأنها اختفت... و كأني لم أقرأ شيئا... فهي لم تولد فيّ أي فكرة من اي نوع... و كأنها فقاعة صابون ملونة و كبيرة تراقصت أمام ناظريّ ثم فُقعت و تلاشت في الفراغ من دون أن تخلف أثرا... ربما لأن النهاية لم تفضِ إلى شيء... و كأن فلسفته هي اللاشيء... فما تركت عندي إلا ا��لاشيء لأتحدث عنه... و لكن العزاء أنه لاشيءٌ ممتعٌ
و ليس من المفاجئ قول أن الرواية ليست محتشمة، فهذا أمر صار من الانتشار بحيث بات واحدنا يستغرب من وجود رواية محتشمة للأسف... بيد أن هذه الرواية بالذات فيها مرض ما... و كأن هناك عقدة نقص تستسترونية من نوع ما تشي بها الكلمات

بأية حال ربما توقع شيء من الاحتشام في عالم غير محتشم أصلا كتوقع وجود رجل جميل كأمير دوستويفسكي "مشكين" في عالمنا هذا دون أن ينعتوه بالأبله

الأكيد أني لن أقرأ له ثانية، إذ القراءة له نوع من العبث
و ليس هناك وقت كثير لهدره على العبث

Here is a full list of every female character who appears in this book:

-An elderly retired teacher who writes to a psychiatrist to say how much she admires his work, and speaks about having an erotic dream years ago, masturbating and getting her period unexpectedly, which is “the most embarrassing thing that could happen to a woman."
-A young hairdresser who lets a stranger, who happens to be a muscular young man covered in blood, sleep in her house. Tells him they can’t sleep together because she has a boyfriend and then proceeds to give him a hand job to help him relax. Then says she wishes she was his sister.
-A receptionist who the main character thinks about when masturbating.
-A woman who hires someone to find her children’s lost cat, and when the cat is returned to their house, goes to get the money for his husband to give to the person.
-An older librarian who never recovered from losing her boyfriend when she was 15, but is nonetheless still “slim and pretty”.
-Two “shrill and unimaginative” women who are investigating women’s ease of access to public buildings. In response to their question of why female authors are listed after males in the library, they are asked whether they also found it wrong when their names were called after others in schools based on the order of the alphabet.
-A young girl working in the tourist centre who is “pretty enough” although her eyes are a little too far apart from each other.
-A girl sitting close by who the male character decides he doesn’t have the time to make a pass at.
-An unnamed sex worker, referred to as a “supple young sex machine” who does to the male characters things he’s never experienced in his life, she is a philosophy student and he asks her to quote philosophy stuff so he doesn’t come so quickly
-A 50-year woman who sleepwalks into the 15-year old character’s room, undresses and gets in bed with him. He doesn’t wake her up because he doesn’t have the strength to resist. Instead, they have sex while she is asleep, and thinks he is her dead boyfriend.
-A 50-year old woman who sleeps with a 15-year old because he asks her to.
-(Dream sequence) The main character takes off a sleeping girl's panties and puts his fingers inside of her. Then rapes her as she sleeps, because "he has no choice". She wakes up and cries, but there is no way he is going to leave her body. She closes her eyes and gives herself over to him, without protesting. He feels her pleasure.
-“A living breathing girl you can touch, her small breast just underneath her blouse, in the kitchen, cooking for me.” “I’ll do the cooking here for a while, the washing and cleaning as well, just put your laundry in the basket and I’ll take care of it” “If you need me, I’ll be here”

Note: There is also a female cat, who moves like a belly dancer.

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