Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami leaves the reader with more questions unanswered than are easily and superficially wound up in a mainstream fiction.

Using subtle fantasy, magic realism, repetition, interweaving symbols and metaphors, the author has created a post-modern heir to Sophocles; and Murakami ties it all together as good as Jeff Lebowski’s rug. This is more finely tuned than Kafka’s absurdist comedy, and more well rounded.

He references and alludes to Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Western philosophy, Jungian synchronicity, and Eastern spiritualism. He also uses frank, earthy sexuality that is evocative of Norman Mailer or John Barth. Murakami takes his easel deep into our subconscious psyche and paints a labyrinthine watercolor of the underside of our collective iceberg.

One way that I know that a book is good, great even, is that I know I will think about it after I have finished, and I have a firm belief that this book will come back to me, will stay with me, for some time.

This is a psychological quest, a spiritual journey – a profound and meaningful fantasy, distinct from the work of authors such as Neil Gaiman and China Mieville by his affinity for magic realism, his close but surreal connection to the modern.

This magnificent work is a document from the borderlands between this world and another.

kafkaesque

Surreal. Poignant. Magical. Weird. And a classic Murakami from beginning to end.

This was my third book by Mr. Murakami. 1Q84, I enjoyed but I don’t think I will be recommending it to anyone. Then came Norwegian Woods which I loved and have recommended to many friends. But Kafka on the Shore held a special place in the hearts of my friends who have read Murakami. This seems to be their favourite. So I went into this with high expectations, and Mr. Murakami did not disappoint.

Story starts with the divulgence of a high profile investigation that happened in second WW. Fast forward five decades and we are introduced to Kafka Tamura, a 15 year old, who runs away from his family to find the truth about himself. Few chapters after we met our second main character Nakata, a simpleton who talks to cats. After his retirement, Nakata survives by finding lost cats for people because of his special abilities. Even though they are miles apart from each other, and yet their story so intricately woven that it is hard to comprehend where one starts and the other ends.

For me, this was the weirdest magical realm that I have ever read. Fishes falling from the sky, talking to cats (is there a word for being able to talk to cats?), a man obsessed with the idea of creating a flute with the souls of cats, a man killing another man while the killer got away spotless, it was someone else woke up with a bloodied shirt miles away. I am sure any other time I would have DNFed something this weird but Mr. Murakami put a spell on me and I kept turning pages. The desire to know more about Kafka and Nakata and how their story entwines was too much.

Just like 1Q84 and Norwegian Woods, Murakami tells us a lot about music and books through his characters. Whenever I read him I end up searching authors and musicians. I love how he uses these two in his stories.

So much happened in this book yet I will remember this book for its serenity and dreamlike story. Though he didn’t give us a conclusion here but I think this is the best way to end it. I don’t think a perfect ending is possible for this story. There will always be more “hows” and “buts”, so it’s better to let reader to create their own conclusion for this one.

A challenging but also an amazing read.

Definitely a page-turner! Once you start, you just keep on reading. Well, why do we stop reading a book? I think we can group the reasons into three: (1) Natural - work, eat, toilet, eyes are tired, other distractions, etc; (2) Boredom - the book or its part is boring; and (3) Need to Digest - sometimes I read a phrase or an idea and it is either hard to understand so I read several times or too beautiful that I want it to sink in and I want to remember it forever.

For my first Haruki Murakami book, Kafka on the Shore, I could not put it down because there is never a boring part especially the first third and on a lesser degree, the second third. I was expecting the last third to be the part where he should give the conclusion: tie up the many loose ends. All the while, that was the part where I though I should see his utter brilliance. He did not. He chose to let all ends hang loose.

So, when I closed the book, I was groaning in front of my daughter. What? That's it? Ganun na lang ba?. So, I said, hmmm 3 stars. Then I remembered what Doris Lessing wrote in her introduction to The Golden Notebook that if a novel is not open for interpretation, it is a boring novel. What makes a story interesting is if it open for interpretation and the more interpretations, the better.

I am giving this a 4-star rating. But this book is not for everyone. If you are the type who asks questions like: so what happened to this character? why was he like that? where did he come from? how did this happen? what is the connection of this and that? Then don't ever lay your hand on this Murakami masterpiece. Stick with your John Grisham or Dean Koontz thrillers where everything is explained thoroughly to please your rationale mind. Most readers are like you anyway. That's why those books sell more and they are always there occupying shelves and shelves of your nearby second-hand bookstore.

Murakami, just like other literary masters, does not write to please. He seems not care about public reading preference but he puts in brilliance in his work and it is up to the readers to appreciate his talent.

I really disliked this book. It in fact made me angry to read it or sometimes to even think about reading it. It started off with an interesting premise and interesting characters (which is why it got two stars), but about midway through I thought it all spiraled apart into ridiculousness. I know this book falls into the magical realism genre, in which I know who just need to suspend your disbelief, which I can do, but only if I feel like the magical elements in the book have a meaning and contribute to the story, not if they are just thrown in there to be surreal. There were so many elements in this book that were just plain weird...for example, Johnnie Walker (the whisky guy) who killed cats and collected their souls to make a magic flute (this was just one scene, it never really came back to connect to the story), fish and leeches raining from the sky, and Colonel Sanders (the KFC guy) also made an appearance and set one of the characters up with a prostitute. And then there were weird realtionships between the characters of the 15 year old main character sleeping with (maybe) his 50 year old mother. It's all so odd and I felt like I never understood any of the characters or the meaning of all of this random stuff. And then there would be random annoying many-pages-long philosophical statements from a character or desciptions of classical music that just were so boring and unconnected to the rest of the story and seemed completely out of place. So I definitely would not recommend this book. The only reason I even finished it was because it was the book for my book club that I just joined. And that's another reason it got two stars instead of one - some of the parts of the book were interesting to talk about to other people.

Hồi mình còn trẻ mình luôn ước mơ trở thành 1 nhà khoa học gì đó :3 hàng ngày chuyên tâm vùi đầu nghiên cứu cái nọ cái kia, cứ thế 24/7 chẳng cần biết sự đời ngoài kia như nào. Ước mơ thế hoàn toàn chẳng vì lý do gì cao siêu vạn đại, chỉ vì do mình nghĩ mình ko phù hợp để sống ở ngoài đời - như 1 cách trốn tránh :3

Và mình thấy các nhân vật điển hình của bác già, từ Rừng Na Uy cho tới Người Tình Sputnik, từ Biên Niên Ký Chim Vặn Dây Cót cho tới Phía Nam Biên Giới, Phía Tây Mặt Trời, từ Nhảy Nhảy Nhảy cho tới Kafka Bên Bờ Biển, cũng đều có gì đó ko hợp để sống ở ngoài đời :3

Họ phù hợp hơn để lạc tới 1 bến bờ phi lý nào đó ko thể chỉnh đúng tiêu cự

Với thiển ý ngu học thường thấy của bản thân thì mình nghĩ những câu chuyện của bác không phải để hiểu mà để cảm :3 cho nên dù chẳng hiểu hết từ a đến z thì cuộc phiêu lưu ấy vẫn đáng để thử dù chỉ trên bề nổi con chữ - một cuộc phiêu lưu điên rồ, bất toàn tới tỉnh queo :3

Có tìm được điều gì đó đáng giá ko? Chịu, chẳng biết. Nhưng đôi khi người ta cũng hay thích đóng vai người quan sát, hơn là tham gia vào chính cuộc đời mình :3

Nói chung cuốn này rất phù hợp để đọc vào 1 ngày mưa, hoặc nắng, 1 ngày rét, hoặc rét 40 độ, 1 ngày nào đó, hoặc như người ta vẫn gọi là mọi ngày. Giống như kiểu mình có thể ăn tiết canh vào bất cứ lúc nào, miễn là có đủ berberin. Và đủ dũng cảm - cái này thì chưa đủ bao giờ.

Có phải vậy không nhỉ?

second read thoughts: I thought I'd get a better understanding for this story the second time around, but I'm still lost in a world full of questions. I know that's partly the author's intent though! I feel like I'm going to drive myself crazy if I keep trying to make sense of what this book is trying to achieve. I think that's kind of the point though. This book isn't trying to achieve anything, it's one of those books where the reader is left to decide what the book ultimately does. Which makes this an even more interesting experience, because everyone comes out of it with something different.

first read thoughts: This was definitely an interesting read. I feel like I will have to read it again for everything to fully make sense, but I was surprised by how easy this book was to follow. I also loved the writing style! I will definitely be giving more books by Haruki Murakami ago in the future.

Murakami has become a firm favourite of mine for his wonderful blend of the metaphysical and magical realism with ordinary life and people.Truly remarkable. Haruki Murakami is a rare author.

I don't know how to say how I felt about the book - there aren't words to express what I feel. Mesmerizing, hopeful, dreamy, magical, surreal: I can go on and on and yet not convey what I want to. Kafka on the Shore is 'that' kind of book.

Totally loved all the instances of magical realism. I literally would like to be able to talk to cats now. The numerous metaphors used throughout the prose were a bit too much for me though. The whole thing felt like a heavy dose of Murakami, one whose effects are undoubtedly going to last for long.

As one expects from Murakami, this book is a goldmine of lovely quotes. Some of the best ones:

"No matter how far you run. Distance might not solve anything."

"mistakes are part of life, and some things we aren’t meant to understand, I suppose."

"There’s no such thing as absolutes."

"no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us for ever, like a touchstone."

"Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear."

"Talking things over is important."

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

"I want you to remember me. If you remember me, then I don’t care if everybody else forgets."

Verdict: Make sure you read it once in your lifetime.

n  n   

"[...]—Lo que yo deseo, la fuerza que yo busco, no es aquella que lleva a ganar o a perder. Tampoco quiero una muralla para repeler fuerzas que lleguen del exterior. Lo que yo deseo es una fuerza que me permita ser capaz de recibir todo cuanto proceda del exterior, resistirlo. Fortaleza para resistir en silencio cosas como la injusticia, infortunio, la tristeza, los equívocos, las incomprensiones.[...]"

n  n

Si me preguntaran por mi libro favorito y tuviera que dar una respuesta, sin duda diría que Kafka en la orilla.

Una respuesta muy difícil, pero no podría pensar en otro libro que no fuera éste. Ahora, sí me preguntan de qué trata este libro y tuviera que desmenuzarlo poco a poco y dar claridad sobre todo lo que nos muestra, eso sí me tomaría trabajo, e incluso no sé si podría dar una respuesta a esas preguntas, que, para mí, requieren de leer y releer una y otra vez este libro.

Lo mejor que pude hacer fue lanzarme a este libro sin leer la sinopsis que trae la edición que tengo en la parte posterior, creo que no lo hubiera disfrutado tanto como lo hice. Así que, para resumir de qué trata este libro, el mismo Kafka nos responde.

"El día de mi decimoquinto cumpleaños me escapé de casa, me marché a una ciudad desconocida y empecé a vivir en un rincón de una pequeña biblioteca."

Pero, no podemos ignorar al personaje de Nakata, un anciano amable, el cual a pesar de llamarse idiota a sí mismo, tiene la capacidad de hablar con los gatos.
No voy a decir más nada por si gustan leer este libro, ustedes mismos descubran lo maravillosa que es esta obra.

Kafka y Nakata son los dos personajes que llevarán los hilos de la historia, donde cada uno tiene un papel que desempeñar en una historia que de inicio parece que todo está predestinado a suceder. Sin embargo, hay otros personajes que le van llegando a la vida de nuestros protagonistas y que se convierten en parte fundamental de la historia, como es el caso de Hoshino y Ôshima, siendo Ôshima para mí, el mejor personaje del libro, cada vez que aparecía yo me sentía feliz, quería saber qué tenía para ofrecernos esta vez, una sabiduría increíble, y una forma de ser inolvidable, te quiero mucho Ôshima, sé que eres un personaje de ficción, pero mis sentimientos son reales.

"—Kafka Tamura, en la vida de los hombres hay un punto a partir del cual ya no podemos retroceder. Y, en algunos casos, existe otro a partir del cual ya no podemos seguir avanzando. Y, cuando llegamos a ese punto, para bien o para mal, lo único que podemos hacer es callarnos y aceptarlo. Y seguir viviendo de esta forma."

Para leer este libro se deben hacer dos cosas en caso de que se sientan incómodos por ciertas cosas que pasan. O ser una persona que lee sin prejuicios y de mente abierta, o entender lo que sucede como una metáfora, ya que el autor toca cierto tabú que para algunas personas puede chocar con sus ideas y una escena que es visceral y poco agradable de leer.

"[...]Lo que existe fuera de ti es una proyección de lo que existe en tu interior, lo que hay dentro de ti es una proyección de lo que existe fuera de ti. Por eso, a veces, puedes hollar el laberinto interior pisando el laberinto exterior. Aunque eso, en la mayoría de los casos, es muy peligroso. [...]"

Este libro se me hace maravilloso por la narrativa del autor, donde converge varios estilos narrativos sin hacer que se parezca forzado. Tenemos un mundo en donde los sueños, la realidad y la fantasía convergen en un solo lugar, donde por momentos cuesta creer lo que pasa, pero como lector me dejaba llevar adonde el libro quería ir, no hacía un alto para juzgar lo que el autor mostraba, sino más bien de saber qué quería mostrarnos sin importar el método, o cuál era la idea que quería plasmar en cada página.
Tenemos citas maravillosas, que en lo personal me marcaron, yo puedo dar testimonio que al finalizar este libro no soy la misma persona que lo comenzó a leer, soy otro, no porque este libro solucione mis problemas personales, o me dé una guía para vivir, sino porque este libro me ha dado una forma de ver las cosas que me suceden de otra manera, de la importancia de tener ideas claras sobre todos los tópicos que un ser humano puede tratar, pero sobre todo, de la importancia de conocerme a mí mismo. Incluso musicalmente me ha marcado, no paro de escuchar a Prince, un artista que ya conocía, pero que este libro me ha hecho percibir su música de otra manera. Un libro que me ha hecho sentir y pensar cosas que otros no lo hicieron.

"—Tú no tienes la culpa de todo. Tampoco la tengo yo. Tampoco es culpa de la profecía, ni de la maldición. No es culpa del ADN, ni del absurdo. No es culpa del estructuralismo, ni de la tercera revolución industrial. Que nosotros vayamos decayendo y perdiéndonos se debe a que el mecanismo del mundo, en sí mismo, se basa en la decadencia y en la pérdida. Y nuestra existencia no es más que la silueta de este principio. El viento sopla. Podrá ser un viento violento que asole los campos o una brisa agradable. Pero ambos irán perdiéndose, desapareciendo. El viento no tiene cuerpo. No es más que el término genérico del desplazamiento del aire. Tú aguzarás el oído. Entenderás la metáfora."

El desarrollo de personajes es excelente. Viven situaciones que ponen a prueba su cosmovisión, enfrentan sus miedos, se conocen a sí mismos, y se cuestionan cosas que antes no hacían, al finalizar el libro se siente que se han convertido en otras personas.

Al final he quedado con muchas preguntas, algunas tuvieron respuestas, otras respuestas a media y otras definitivamente no se respondieron. Sin embargo, el viaje ha sido muy disfrutable, una lectura maravillosa que me ha marcado de una manera significativa. Un libro que sé que esta reseña no le ha hecho el honor, pero espero que a la persona que la lea, quiera darle una oportunidad al libro o al autor, así no lo disfruten tanto como yo lo he hecho. No es un libro perfecto, lo sé, pero ¿qué cosa en este mundo lo es?

n  n   

"[...]—Pero, en la medida en que el tiempo exista, todo el mundo irá perdiéndose al fin, pasando a ser algo distinto. Antes o después.
—Sin embargo, aunque acabes perdiéndote alguna vez, necesitas un lugar al que poder retroceder.
—¿Un lugar al que poder retroceder?
—Un lugar al que valga la pena volver."

n  n

n  Little Red Corvetten

"Beyond the edge of the world there's a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlap, where past and future form a continuous, endless loop."

Alternating chapters tell the stories of two, apparently unconnected, characters: Kafka (not THE Kafka) and Nakata. Its most fundamental theme is the paradoxical nature of edges and boundaries (literal, spiritual, ethical): that they can both separate and connect.
“There is a kind of warp at work in the world.”
"That's how stories happen - with a turning point, an unexpected twist.”


Image: Untitled work by Slorence that is a Möbius strip and circle, with grasses (Source)

Initially, contrasts dominate: young and old; first person and third; clever and not; running away and running towards; logical and instinctive. Slowly, similarities accumulate: seeking to recover what’s lost, and a shared nemesis. The nature of connections and separation is tantalisingly opaque.

“I’m walking by the shores of consciousness.”
Thus, when the reality of different realms is muddled, and infused and confused with dreams, there is no escape via physical distance - perhaps no escape at all. And yet they run...
“In everybody's life there’s a point of no return.”

Spotting the clues, weighing the significance, pondering the meaning… that’s the pleasure and challenge.

There’s blood (literal, symbolic, and with transformative power), fire, Crow (and crows), memories, libraries, talking cats, a mystical forest, a supernatural stone, and the weight of fate and prophecy.


Image: “Wrath 2” by Dejan Zdravkovic. It’s a raven, but ravens are a type of crow, and a burnt crow is relevant for this book. (Source)

The title

The title refers to the lyrics of a (fictional) song and a picture of it. Every line has a word that is a key part of the novel. This is far more subtle than the rather heavy-handed way the Oedipus myth is repeatedly referenced.

You sit at the edge of the world,
I am in a crater that’s no more.
Words without letters
Standing in the shadow of the door.

The moon shines down on a sleeping lizard,
Little fish rain down from the sky.
Outside the window there are soldiers,
Steeling themselves to die.

Kafka sits in a chair by the shore,
Thinking of the pendulum that moves the world, it seems.
When your heart is closed.
The shadow of the unmoving Sphinx
Become a knife that pierces your dreams.

The drowning girl’s fingers
Search for the entrance stone, and more.
Lifting the hem of her azure dress,
She gazes –
At Kafka on the shore.

Quotes

•t“All I wanted was to go off to some other world, a place beyond anybody’s reach. A place beyond the flow of time.”

•t“A deserted library… all possible words and ideas are there, resting peacefully.”

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

•t“I don’t register in her eyes… I’m not in her dream. She and I are in two separate worlds, divided by an invisible border.”

Additional notes and quotes

For more notes and quotes, and a more tangible description of characters and plots, as well as a section about Murakami's controversial portrayal of women, see my alternative “review”, on GR, HERE, which has spoilers.

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.