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Kafka on the Shore
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 895.635
EAN: 9781400079278
ISBN: 1400079276
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: January 03, 2006
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: January 03, 2006
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial 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
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.
Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into thirty-four languages, and the most recent of his many honors is the Yomiuri Literary Prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe.
Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake; Dance Dance Dance; The Elephant Vanishes; Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; Norwegian Wood; South of the Border, West of the Sun; Sputnik Sweetheart; Underground; A Wild Sheep Chase; and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are available in Vintage paperback, as is Vintage Murakami, a selection of his finest work.
Translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Afterthoughts on Kafka on the Shore
The brilliance in Kafka on the Shore is the author Haruki Murakami's ability to fully expound by story's end his answer to the question he poses at the start of the book: is life pure coincidence, or is there a greater force that causes lives to, sometimes unknowingly, parallel each other? The answer to this lies in the double-meanings and irony scattered throughout the novel, but I believe that Murakami's answer is not definite. By the conclusion, I feel Murakami wants to convey that although ... Read More
Rating: - Kafka on the Shore
Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore" goes beyond a typical coming of age story. Kafka Tamura is a young adult struggling to escape his father's oedipal prophecy and his mother's abandonment. His journey is paved by hardships, both internal and external, and his triumphs and failures are extremely powerful. In the five hundred pages of "Kafka" it is impossible not to develop an emotional connection with the protagonist. Although his life is hardly relatable, (having a father that eats cat hearts, falling ... Read More
Rating:  - Kafka on the Shore Review
The brilliance of Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore appears to me more in what is unexplained than what is evident in the literal text. Although I am initially drawn to books that contain a rich and unique plot, a quality that Kafka displayed throughout the entire novel, I was actually more fascinated by the ever present notion that the story would ultimately reach a definite climax yet without truly knowing how it would attain this goal. The story is driven by surreal events, intentionally left unexplained ... Read More
Rating: - My first (and definitely not last) Murakami
I've heard and read of this mythic Haruki Murakami fellow before reading this book. I thought it would be a nice, summer read when I picked it up at a used bookstore in my neighborhood. At the end of the book, I was a little annoyed and regretful of finally discovering Murakami for myself. I was annoyed because the story was so absorbing and bizzare that I couldn't stop reading it. I just read it and read it for two straight days during the weekend, thus distracting me from graduate school-mandated reading that ... Read More
Rating: - The Ultimate Blend by Layne Bernstein
Upon first delving into "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami, I found myself dreading another coming of age story. However, it proved to be so much more than this in a variety of ways. Of course, there is still the classic runaway story present, but how many coming of age tales feature talking crows and cats, in addition to raining leeches? Despite my preconceived notions, "Kafka on the Shore" opened up an entirely new realm of thinking for me, which is what I appreciate most in a text.
... Read More
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