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KAFKA ON THE SHORE

by Haruki Murakami & translated by Philip Gabriel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 24, 2005

A masterpiece, entirely Nobel-worthy.

Two mysterious quests form the core of Murakami’s absorbing seventh novel, whose encyclopedic breadth recalls his earlier successes, A Wild Sheep Chase (1989) and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1997).

In the first of two parallel narratives, 15-year-old Kafka Tamura drops out of school and leaves the Tokyo home he shares with his artist-sculptor father, to seek the mother and sister who left them when Kafka was four years old. Traveling to the small town of Takamatsu, he spends his days at a free library, reconnects with a resourceful older girl who becomes his de facto mentor, and begins to reenact the details of a mysterious “incident” from more than 60 years ago. In 1944, a group of 16 schoolchildren inexplicably “lost consciousness” during an outing in a rural mountain area. Only one of them, Satoru Nakata, emerged from the incident damaged—and it’s he who, decades later, becomes the story’s second protagonist: a childlike, scarcely articulate, mentally challenged sexagenarian who is supported by a possibly guilty government’s “sub city” and possesses the ability to hold conversations (charmingly funny ones) with cats. With masterly skill and considerable subtlety, Murakami gradually plaits together the experiences and fates of Kafka and Nakata, underscoring their increasingly complex symbolic significance with several dazzling subplots and texts: a paternal prophecy echoing the Oedipus legend (from which Kafka also seeks escape); a faux-biblical occurrence in which things that ought not to be in the skies are raining down from them; the bizarre figures of a whore devoted to Hegel’s philosophy; and an otherworldly pimp whose sartorial affectations cloak his true menacing nature; a ghostly forest into which Russian soldiers inexplicably disappear; and—in glancing allusions to Japanese novelist Natsume Soseki—a clever homage to that author’s beguiling 1905 fantasy, I Am a Cat . Murakami is of course himself an immensely reader-friendly novelist, and never has he offered more enticing fare than this enchantingly inventive tale.

Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2005

ISBN: 1-4000-4366-2

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2004

LITERARY FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

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Reviews of Kafka on The Shore by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on The Shore

by Haruki Murakami

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Literary Fiction
East Asia (except China)
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Adult Books From Child's Perspective
Coming of Age
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Book Summary

A tour de force of metaphysical reality, powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy who runs away from home to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy, and an aging simpleton.

With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come. This magnificent new novel has a similarly extraordinary scope and the same capacity to amaze, entertain, and bewitch the reader. A tour de force of metaphysical reality, it 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. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle–yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own. Extravagant in its accomplishment, Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world's truly great storytellers at the height of his powers.

Cash isn't the only thing I take from my father's study when I leave home. I take a small, old gold lighter--I like the design and feel of it--and a folding knife with a really sharp blade. Made to skin deer, it has a five-inch blade and a nice heft. Probably something he bought on one of his trips abroad. I also take a sturdy, bright pocket flashlight out of a drawer. Plus sky blue Revo sunglasses to disguise my age. I think about taking my father's favorite Sea-Dweller Oyster Rolex. It's a beautiful watch, but something flashy will only attract attention. My cheap plastic Casio watch with an alarm and stopwatch will do just fine, and might actually be more useful. Reluctantly, I return the Rolex to its drawer. From the back of another drawer I take out a photo of me and my older sister when we were little, the two of us on a beach somewhere with grins plastered across our faces. My sister's looking off to the side so half her face is in shadow and her ...

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I thought this was a marvelous novel, although I'm not sure that I entirely understood it. The upside is that I'm not the only one, it seems that even Murakami had trouble understanding it! As he says, "This may sound self-serving, but it's true. I know people are busy and it depends, too, on whether they feel like doing it, but if you have the time, I suggest reading the novel more than once. Things should be clearer the second time around. I've read it, of course, dozens of times as I rewrote it, and each time I did, slowly but surely the whole started to come into sharper focus.".. continued

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Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and graduated from the Waseda University, Tokyo, in 1975. He and his wife lived in Europe and the United States from 1986 to 1995 before returning to Tokyo. He did not write his first novel, Hear the Wind Sing (1979, translated 1987) until he was in his thirties. His major breakthrough came in 1987 with the publication of Norwegian Wood - a coming of age story named after the Beatles' song, which is somewhat different to his other books in that it is written in a realistic style, whereas his other books all have strong fantasy elements. In addition to writing his own books in Japanese, Murakami is a skillful translator of English works into Japanese, including books by Scott Fitzgerald...

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Review of One of the Best Magical Realism Books: Kafka On The Shore

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“Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.” – Haruki Murakami, Kafka On The Shore

Readers highly appreciate Murakami’s Kafka On The Shore because of its surrealism, vividness, and amazing plotline, making the book incredibly absurd. But its terribly convoluted story leads to criticism by the readers as well.

It’s not easy to comprehend Murakami’s writings, and many readers give up halfway through his books, which is understandable due to the depth of surrealistic elements most of his novels hold. However, there are a plethora of readers who love reading Murakami’s works and are extremely involved in his writings.

One of this author’s most talked about books is Kafka On The Shore, which gained immense popularity and is still in readers’ memories as an impactful read.

I am a Murakami fan and greatly liked Kafka On the Shore. However, I have different opinions regarding several parts of the novel. Today, I will give my honest review of this book and a short summary.

I will make it interesting so you can have an overall idea about the novel and its author, and you will definitely walk away with a different perspective.

I am so excited to write this review, so let’s get started, shall we?

Table of Contents

Summary of Kafka On the Shore

Kafka On The Shore was published in Japan in 2002; in 2005, Phillip Gabriel translated it into English.

The story interconnects two parallel universes that initially seem like different plots but later merge to serve a powerful purpose.

The book introduces us to a 15-year-old boy named Kafka Tamura. He is dealing with internal conflicts such as his estranged relationship with his father, a hollowness deep buried within due to never getting his mother’s affection, loneliness due to a missing sibling, and more.

He also wants to discover his identity and plans to leave home to find his mother and sister. Another reason is to escape his father’s Oedipal prophecy, which states, ‘He will kill his own father and sleep with his mother and sister.’

Kafka leaves his home and ends up in Takamatsu in South Japan. He struggles to find a good place to live for a few weeks, but later gets shelter in a library. The library owner, Miss Saeki, and the worker, Oshima, hire him to handle small chores. From here, the complex story of Kafka begins.

The other part describes a bizarre incident in a village that leads a boy to be in a coma for weeks. The boy turns out to be Mr. Nakata, the story’s other main character.

Nakata loses his ability to read and write and becomes mentally challenged after the unusual accident but gains the power to talk to cats. Nakata is now an older man living a solitary life with government subsidies and a little extra money he makes by finding the missing cats of various people in the neighborhood.

One day, Nakata falls into real trouble, which results in him murdering a man and starting an unknown journey, where he witnesses fish and leeches falling from the sky and many other absurd instances and finally takes him to where Kafka is.

A plethora of events happen in the rest of the story, which hooks you from the beginning, making the book unputdownable.

My Review of Kafka On The Shore

I was not familiar with the works of Haruki Murakami when I started reading the book Kafka On The Shore. It is a lengthy novel, but once I started reading, the book piqued my interest and made me sit for hours engrossed in the story.

Many other readers, including me, will admit that initially, the book might seem confusing and weird because of all the bizarre incidents. But absurdity was one of the central themes of this book, making all the scenes justifiable.

If I talk about the entire plot, it is incredibly well written with many major themes incorporated, making the book worthy of your time. I was not rushing to finish the novel because I wanted to devour this book and focused my mind on reading it meticulously.

I learned about the Oediphial prophecy, which is an essential part of the story. Apart from the theme of magical realism, the creative use of absurdity, solitude, metaphors, etc., is another interesting aspect of this book, which kept me hooked throughout.

I was looking forward to a proper build-up of all the characters in the story. But apart from the protagonists, other characters’ personalities felt a little dull. The characters felt like props to support the main characters, especially the females. Murakami’s character-building of females has been called flawed in many of his works, and honestly, I felt the same.

The author talked about music, famous bands, and their influences in the book, and as a person who loves music, I could instantly relate to it. In the story, one of the characters’ growing love for music resulted in a change of mindset, which felt so realistically true.

Kafka On The Shore is not an easy read; one needs to invest time and find a peaceful reading place to understand the story thoroughly. I would advise readers to avoid expecting logical explanations or a perfect conclusion from this book. The author has written the story in this way so the readers can interpret the profound meanings according to their introspective thoughts and experiences.

I suggest reading a few simple works by the author before starting this book to familiarize yourself with Murakami’s writing style.

The book faces appreciation as well as criticism from the audience. But the novel is great and has the power to impact the inner minds of the readers. There might be flaws here and there, but one must recognize the author’s extraordinary thought process and talent to deliver this amazing storyline.

Overall, it is a story worth reading. You should definitely give this book a try! After all, you will only know the value of something if and when you experience it, so read the book with patience, and it will give you a memorable experience.

This book includes a lot of themes that you can explore. I have selected a few major themes from this story to emphasize the messages Murakami was trying to convey to the audience.

1. Metaphysical Reality

Metaphysics or Metaphysical reality, means curating logic or explanations of abstract elements beyond the natural world. Murakami has often used this theme in the story, narrating characters and worlds that exist beyond physical reality.

He has interconnected the unrealistic imaginations of the subconscious mind with real-life experiences to confuse the readers’ minds and draw conclusions on their own.

Fate is another strong theme added to the story. The story starts with Kafka’s fate: killing his father and sleeping with his own mother and sister. Predestined things are beyond our control, and no one can stop or alter their fate is a message delivered throughout the story.

On the other hand, Nakata’s life changed due to many bizarre incidents. Murakami has highlighted the outcomes of fate in various aspects.

Memory plays a very important part in each character’s life in the story. Few are so engrossed in past memories that they fail to live their present lives; few wish to paint a picture with the help of their vivid memories; some have lost their memories due to accidents.

The author conveys that memories can trap us in grief or give us the happiness we desire.

4. Isolation

Isolation is another essential aspect of the story. If you read the entire story, you will know how each character deals with loneliness. Isolation is buried deep within each character’s life; few have accepted their life of solitude, and few seek to remove themselves from their lonely life.

Isolation can deeply engulf us and lead to paths that can be risky, which, over time, we do not realize.

5. Melancholy

Once you read the entire story, you will know that melancholy is another emotion that is experienced by the characters. Each of them suffers from deep sorrow and is trying to overcome the issues in their own way.

Murakami has shown the readers the reality of life and how everyone has something to be sad about, but they mostly suffer in silence.

6. Absurdity

You all must be aware of the absurd writings of Murakami. Kafka On the Shore has the theme of absurdism, where many bizarre incidents are narrated with no logical explanations. But when you delve deeper, the meanings behind those instances can be easily found.

7. Magical Realism

In the story, Murakami narrates unexplainable and magical moments with a realistic tone. Magical realism is a central theme of the book . While reading, you can understand how the author has incorporated this theme deeply.

This book has an amazing storyline, and I enjoyed reading it. As an avid reader, you should definitely give this hyped book a try to see if it impacts you or not.

Murakami has been a renowned author for a long time, and this is one of his famous works, so grab this book now and delve into the world of magical realism without delay!

I hope you liked my review and it was helpful for you to decide if the book is worth investing in. If you have already read this book or are a Murakami fan, share your views with me. I will be delighted with them.

Kafka on the shore – Murakami’s puzzling world of poetic imagination

If I had to choose one word to describe Murakami’s ‘Kafka on the Shore’, it would probably be ‘bizarre’. But a good kind of bizarre. Great even. From talking cats to fishes falling from the sky, this is an emotional and psychological roller-coaster that has it all. And more. A story that few others can match in terms of its imagination and storytelling. Although translated into English (among other languages) from the original version written in Japanese, Kafka on the Shore still follows a fluent flow across the book that is easy to follow while keeping you on your toes across its length.

The Plot. Or, the plots

Kafka on the Shore doesn’t follow the story of a single individual. But is a parallel narrative of two people living out their individual plots, moving on in their individual lives. Lives that are different on so many levels, yet connected in their own ways.

On one hand we have the book’s namesake, Kafka Tamura, a fifteen-year-old boy running away from home and his father, to try and escape an Oedipal curse. And in the process hoping to find his mother and sister. And in doing so, embarks on a truly unique adventure, encountering some personalities that have a significant impact on his own. All becoming a part of a journey that takes him beyond the depths of his wildest imaginations to a new world of discovery and redemption.

On the other side, we have Satoru Nakata, an older man who has lost most of his mental faculties, but has gained an unimaginable ability to speak to cats. The result of a bizarre childhood accident that left him without memory, or the ability to read and write. But left him this strange power to communicate with his feline friends. Now using this power, Nakata has committed himself to rescuing cats. Soon enough, Nakata, perhaps without entirely realizing it, has begun an adventure of his own, without a clue of where he will end up.

The ingredients of Kafka on the Shore – The characters. Or the blend of characters

It’s quite common for any piece of fiction to be loaded with characters of different styles and personalities. Kafka on the Shore just takes this to another level. How often do you come across a story that has almost as many cats as key to its plot as its human beings? Given the fact that this is a Haruki Murakami classic, the presence of cats should not surprise anyone familiar with his work. But making these cats a part, and a crucial part of the story and the character arc of some individuals is another fascinating aspect of this book.

We of course have Kafka and Nakata as the two lead characters like I mentioned before, each at the core of their individual stories that run as alternating chapters through the book. Then we have the supporting yet highly influential roles of Oshima, Miss Saeki, Sakura, and Hoshino. And to add a new flavour of drama (or whimsy, depending on what view you take) to the story are Johnnie Walker (yes, just like the brand of whiskey) – who kills cats to make a flute from their souls, and Colonel Sanders (like the founder of KFC) – who has his own role to play. And let’s not forget the cats.

To sum up. A teenager on the run and lost. An old man who can’t read or write, but can talk to cats. Two globally renowned brands. All floating between the two parallel dimensions. What more can we ask for?

The themes of Kafka on the Shore

The story of Kafka isn’t stitched around one central theme as such. But Murakami uses a mix of different elements to stitch his story together. While I wouldn’t call any of them a central theme to the book, it does use the medium of music, philosophy, symbolism, mythology, self-realisation to bring it all together. Mixed in with a distinctly Murakami feature of abstracts like Johnnie Walker, Colonel Sanders, and of course, cats. No surprise I’m sure if you’ve read any other of his works.

A bridge between reality and dreams

Kafka’s journey isn’t a simple one. It never starts off as one. But it isn’t just another complex or difficult journey either. His journey is together magical, sad, self-revealing, and even self-fulfilling. But above all, it is a journey that alternates between the realms of his reality and dreams. And a lot of grey area in between. With the teenager quite unable to distinguish between these worlds.

Nakata on the other hand, having been abandoned by his family has almost succumbed to his fate of saving cats. Even his adventures that promise to take him to unknown lands cannot seem to shake his sense of resolute content and calm.

One on an unusual and eye-opening quest for himself. The other in complete acceptance of who he is. Even if he doesn’t realize his acceptance. The two personalities in focus of Murakami’s story almost present a dualism akin the Yin and Yang of Chinese philosophy. Opposite yet complimentary forces within a being. Not unlike the constant switches between dreams and realities, to the point that it becomes difficult to be sure which is which.

Undeniably Murakami

Among other aspects of Murakami’s writing, like the elements of music, cats, and abstracts, there’s another element of Kafka on the shore that makes it a distinctly Murakami piece. Its prose. A story that is easy to follow, but can be at times a challenge to understand. Even if you look at its abstracts in a very literal sense as nothing more than just a part of the story, the story’s imaginative landscapes and events make this an intriguing read to say the least. All pointing towards a piece of work that is undeniably Murakami.

The last word

Kafka on the shore was my introduction to the world of Haruki Murakami, courtesy a birthday gift from a close friend. And an introduction I will always be grateful for. As this would go on to become the first of many Murakami works I would read. But let’s leave that for another time.

In a nutshell, this is a book where you need not depend on logic to fathom Kafka’s story. Because you cannot. It is a story that builds from mythology, adds a layer of its own philosophy and draws the strangest parallels through its pages. Pages of a book that I would definitely recommend. It is after all the book that introduced me to Murakami. And the book that almost compelled me into following more of Murakami’s works over the years.

If you haven’t added Kafka on the shore to your list of books to be read, it’s perhaps time you did. I might as well say that about Murakami himself. Philosophical, creepy, beautiful, and filled with complex riddles that have no answers, this is in fact a book doesn’t just deserve a read, but deserves a re-read, and may be another read after that. As Murakami himself suggests in an interview dedicated to answering questions about the book, the key to understanding Kafka on the shore is to read it multiple times. And there’s no time like to today to get your hands on a copy and get started on it today.

Ronak Shetty

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personal reflections, meditations, and dreams

Book Review: Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami

I’ve theorized that Japanese literature seems to be the best adjusted to modern life. A singular lack of angst distinguishes novels such as Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore , in which I take vicarious delight as its protagonists go about their lives at such places as diners, noodle shops, convenience stores, bus stations, bookstores, museums, and other mundane oases. Of course, Murakami’s characters aren’t simply going about their lives but are engaged in quests that are of great consequence to themselves if not to the universe as a whole. Isn’t that what we’re all doing: adventuring through the turnpike rest areas and shopping malls, like Don Quixote without the satire, discovering meaning wherever it is to be found?

Japanese fiction doesn’t abstract itself from the humdrum environment that produces it. Rather than to imagine more exciting times and places via historical fiction, say, Japanese writers make do with where and when they are. Or as Mr. Hoshino says in this book:

“We’re all pretty much empty, don’t you think? You eat, take a dump, do your crummy job for your lousy pay, and get laid occasionally, if you’re lucky. What else is there? Still, you know, interesting things do happen in life – like with us now.” (p. 306)

As a matter of fact, Mr. Hoshino is addressing his remarks to a man with the ability to talk to cats and to make it rain leeches.

But this book, like all of Murakami’s books, isn’t really about the paranormal. It’s about those not supernatural but nonetheless magical things that give our modern lives meaning: music and books and libraries.

A deserted library in the morning – there’s something about it that really gets to me. All possible worlds and ideas are there, resting quietly. (p. 313)

A library, even in the middle of a boring place like Takamatsu or Tacoma (or Taipei, as in the photograph), gives us all the magic we need. The same could be said of this dream of a book.

Author: Harry Miller

I have traveled and lived in Taiwan, China, and Japan and am now a professor of Asian history and author of Southern Rain, a novel of seventeenth-century China. View all posts by Harry Miller

5 thoughts on “Book Review: Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami”

Loved this review. I agree with every bit of it. You have captured the essence of the book so well. I had read this book back in 2018 and it is the one book that I can’t stop recommending. The way I feel about the book is similar to what I felt after reading your review. Thank you.

Thank you. I see from your blog that you are a fan of Japanese literature. What is your opinion of Norwegian Wood?

Like Liked by 1 person

I haven’t read that one yet. Having read 3 of Murakami books I thought I needed a break. But, thanks for the reminder. I need to read that one soon.

Thanks for your reply. I wanted to make sure you weren’t a robot. I would be keen to know what you think of Norwegian Wood, if and when you read it. Opinion on it is divided. As you may know, it is an early book, with no paranormal content. There is also a good movie, which deals with some but not all of the book’s themes.

Sure, will definitely share my thoughts with you. I have also heard mixed opinions on it but that doesn’t dampen my will to read it. Along with Norwegian Wood, I am keen to read Sputnik Sweetheart and hopefully 1Q84.

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Beyond the shores of realism: A review of Kafka On The Shore by Murakami

Whoever said happiness can’t be bought, surely, has never received a package of their favourite books! But, How come me, a lover of classics ends up buying and reading ‘Kafka on the Shore’ by Haruki Murakami? Well, that is a long and interesting story for some other day! Though, to say… The kind of things you do for love… is an answer enough in itself.

In a Gist

But coming back to Kafka on the Shore, It is a story of Kafka and Nakota. Kafka, a young boy who has left his home and wants to make a new life for himself in a faraway town. Or is he searching for the answers from his past? Nakota, an ageing man who seems to have lost his memory and has the ability to talk to Cats.

As these two embark on their individual journey’s, strange things happen. Cats talk, fishes fall from the sky, souls leave bodies and enchanted forests make their way in the main plot of the story.

Nakota’s simplicity, Kafka’s confusion and the magical realism of the story are more than enough reasons to pick up this hefty book and start reading it. You are promised a journey that will intrigue you, madden you, make you sad but in the end leave you touching the lines on the pages as if they were from holy scripture.

‘Kafka on the Shore’ Writing Style

The novel reveals Kafka and Nakota’s stories in alternating chapters. What is interesting about Murakami is that he always manages to end the chapter on a cliffhanger. How? Me, a literature student who dissected uncountable novels for six semesters and specifically learnt the art of structural deconstruction, still doesn’t know!

Murakami’s narration is genius not just because it is structurally solid, but because he uses simplicity. He does not use ornate language or physical setting. His characters will remind you of people you know, talk to and come across every day. The places he uses look exactly like your city, or the forest near you.

Then, What is it that differentiates Murakami from other writers? Haruki Murakami seems to respects words. He doesn’t lure you into the story because he wants you to keep reading it. Murakami lets you know that there is wisdom contained in them but doesn’t force you to read them. As if he knows that the ones who are wise enough to understand the wisdom contained, will read and understand and the ones who can’t feel the magic will quit and Murakami, in this instance, ensures that they quit. Such is his diction and narration!

The Emotion-Time Play

Haruki Murakami’s Kafka On The Shore doesn’t cover years in single sentences or through the course of a few pages like Khalid Hosseini, Leo Tolstoy or some other bestsellers. He merely covers a time frame of roughly one and a half month in the five hundred and five pages in which the story is spread. But this doesn’t deter Murakami from depicting the range of emotions Kafka On The Shore portrays: Love, Lust, Desire, Longing, Insecurities, Acceptance, Struggle, Loneliness… You name the emotion and Murakami covers it. And this is literally just the cherry on the top. There are so many other emotions waiting to be scratched from the surface. The more number of times you read the book, the more you understand it.

And it’s not like the Murakami writes something extraordinary when it comes to describing emotions. He doesn’t have a new language or cheat-code that we don’t know of. Yet, he will write the emotions you every day feel so simply that you will be left stumped by the ease with which your heart has been wrenched out on paper.

Murakami’s Flow

Any Discussion on Haruki Murakami’s Kafka On The Shore will not be complete without talking of his writing flow. The thing is that even in his handling of the, let’s say, heavy stuff, He doesn’t throw you in the water. Like, imagine sitting in a boat… Other writers usually throw you inside the water and leave you in the ocean of grief. Murakami gives you a hand, lets you feel and gently touch the water and then helps you sit down in the boat. It is only after you are comfortable with the current, does he pull you up leaving you with an enriched experience.

Final Verdict on ‘Kafka on the Shore’

Read this novel if you are a fan of the genre of magical realism or metaphysical writing. Read it if you genuinely like reading good stories. Read it if you are a writer or a reader who wants to understand the intricacies of Narration and Diction. Read it if you want a strong anchor in tumultuous times. Read it if you are a fan of music and painting [Surprises await you].

See, Murakami doesn’t make you feel strongly, he makes you feel deeply! I started reading Murakami with Norwegian Wood because I had lost my grandmother and needed to understand grief. It has been three years and till date, I haven’t found anyone who has understood what grief does other than Murakami. Kafka On the Shore teaches you a lot of emotions in the same manner. I hope it is the same rollercoaster ride for you as it was for me!

I will be signing off with my favourite quotes from the book. I hope they give you a further impetus to read it. If there is something you have to say about Murakami or Kafka On The Shore, We at BookArt101 would love to hear from you. Please write to us in the comments below and let me know what other books would you like me to review!

Stay safe and Happy. Cheers!

Quotes from ‘Kafka on the Shore’

“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.”

“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.”

“A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.”

“Being with her I feel a pain, like a frozen knife stuck in my chest. An awful pain, but the funny thing is I’m thankful for it. It’s like that frozen pain and my very existence are one.

The pain is an anchor, mooring me here. ”

You can also learn more about Magical Realism through Salman Rushdie’s books to experience something different.

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Mehak Thapar

I am a Murakami fan. The way he writes and portray things and uses metaphors to describe them. I can never ever get enough of him. Absolutely loved the way you reviewed the book. Now I feel like re reading it.

Alisha Verma

I am so glad this has made you feel like re reading it. We can never get enough of Murakami ♥️

Loved the way the review weaves in both the author and the book. I have yet to read a Murakami where I didn’t follow him as he moved silently amongst the lives peopling his stories.

So glad you feel this way!

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Book Reviews

Kaleb A. Brown
Jun 6, 2021
12 min read

Kafka on the Shore Book Review

Updated: Jul 20, 2023

This Review Contains Mild Spoilers for Kafka on the Shore

Read from ~05/04/2021 - 05/26/2021

The 2006 Vintage Books edition cover of Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore

Before continuing, I suggest reading my review of Murakami’s Men Without Wome n . In reading Men Without Women , I had certain preoccupations going into Kafka on the Shore ; preoccupations that affected my reading experience. Think of this as the conclusion to my Men Without Women review.

With that out the way, I’ll be frank with you. This has been one of the hardest reviews for me to write. This is largely because its forced me to look at Murakami in a new, unflattering light. It’s easy enough to talk about whether you like a book or not. In contrast, it's supremely uncomfortable and revealing to write about how you feel that one of your favorite authors has failed you .

In the conclusion to my Men Without Women review , I said I wasn't sure if Murakami was misogynistic or just weird. I'm still leaning towards weird, but I've found his weirdness often dips into territory I really can’t get behind. If something walks like a duck, talks like a duck, yet isn't a duck, at the end of the day, I'll still have to operate as if it were a duck. It's painfully clear to me now that Murakami cannot write women to save his damn life and it feels particularly bad here. Any time a woman shows up in Kafka I'm probably groaning. Even someone like Ms. Saeki who has a history of her own still ultimately feels like she exists narratively to serve main character Kafka. And that's a credible reading. At worst, she just serves as a lightning rod for the main character's incestous lust.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Kafka on the Shore is a novel split across two distinct narratives that affect one another, but rarely overlap in terms of characters. The odd-numbered chapters tell the story of a fifteen year-old runaway going by the name of Kafka Tamura. Kafka runs away from his Nagoya home in order to escape from his oppressive father and his stagnant life. He travels to Takamatsu in Shikoku where he happens across a quaint library. There, he meets Miss Saeki, a woman who may have the answers to his questions regarding his past — namely, where did his mother and sister go and why did they leave him. The even-numbered chapters follow Nakata. During the twilight of the Second World War, Nakata was an average child. However, a mysterious event left him in a coma. When he woke up, while he discovered he could no longer read nor write, he soon realized he could speak to cats. In the modern day, Nakata is an old man living in Nagoya thanks to subsidies from the government. While trying to track down a lost cat as part of his steady odd job, Nakata stumbles upon the gate to a mysterious world, a world that may threaten this one and contain answers to what happened to him as a child. Accompanied by Hoshino, a truck-driver, Nakata embarks on a journey through this world.

And here's the thing, moreso than The Shadow Rising , this book differs in quality wildly depending on the POV. Nakata's chapters were amazing, suspenseful, and touching displays of magical realism, reminding me of why I fell in love with Murakami all those years ago. On the other hand, by the middle of the book, Kafka's chapters are hot fucking garbáge. They're oversexed, creepy, plodding, self-indulgent and just plain hard to get through. Kafka's chapters forced me to reckon with my feelings of Murakami as I know him today.

I usually give praise before delving into criticism, but my critique is so glaring, so central to my reading of this novel that not diving headfirst into it feels like I'm beating around the bush.

Let's talk about women, shall we?

Kafka on the Shore features two, count 'em, two major characters that are women. That may not sound that bad when you realize there's only six major characters in total, but its striking that Murakami fumbles at writing women this badly when there are so few of them in the first place. A complaint lodged at Murakami in regards to his women characters is that they only exist to further the development of the male characters. Kafka on the Shore seems to prove this depressingly well. Characters Saeki and Sakura really only exist to revolve around Kafka. While, again, Saeki is given a history, it rings a bit hollow when she's described as living a sort of half-life until Kafka shows up, essentially saying that she has no meaning beyond Kafka. The little we know of Sakura might as well not even be there when she contradicts those details for Kafka's benefit. Sakura and Saeki feel less like realized characters and more like mere props to decorate Kafka's story. And then there's the sex, dear god there's the utter ocean of shudder-inducing sex. Because what better way to make it absolutely Pepsi Crystal clear that you don't respect the women you write by having them be glorified sex toys? I said that the users of r/menwritingwomen often accuse Murakami of being a horndog. If Kafka on the Shore is anything to go by, the man's a full-on horn wolf . The sad thing about it is I almost bought into it; my money was in my hand and I was smiling at the cash register. When we first meet Sakura, it seems like she's going to be a recurring character with her own wants and desires. Her and Kafka's initial interaction was surprisingly chaste given Murakami's reputation. The next time she appears, Kafka stays at her place for the night. She tells Kafka to think of her as a sister and warns him not to get any funny ideas since she has a boyfriend (she curiously doesn't mention the fact that she's an adult while he's fifteen, but don't you worry dear reader, that's a whole other mess that we'll get into soon enough). About thirty seconds of reading later, she's giving the guy a handjob — " platonically " of course, just so he can relax! Afterwards, she's largely out of the story, essentially showing that she only matters in-so-far as getting Kafka off. Later on, a similar song and dance occurs when the relationship with Miss Saeki also ultimately becomes little more than sexual.

The way the female characters are reduced to being essentially trophies is sleazy. The type of sex on display is downright nauseating.

Kafka on the Shore features a prominent Oedipus plot, wherein Kafka's father prophesizes that his son will kill him and sleep with his sister and mother. Naturally, we must stick with the classical understanding of prophecies wherein one won't be able to escape said prophecy despite their best efforts. So, Kafka does sleep with his sister and mother, he does kill his father (maybe, kind of). Making this even worse if the fact that, again, Kafka is fifteen . And it still manages to get worse. Somehow, Saeki sleepwalks whilst driving a car then proceeds to have sex with the underage Kafka, who is fully conscious. Given that Kafka doesn't try to stop a woman who's unconscious from having sex with him, he's raping her, but given she's middle-aged while he's still a child, Saeki is raping him . Does Murakami address this? Of course not! Because why think about your weird sex? Then later, the two of them start regularly having sex while Saeki is conscious. Kafka then forces himself upon Sakura in a dream, wherein she says "this is rape, you know," which I'm sure is a totally accurate representation of what someone would say in that in that horrifying situation .

And fans are sure to have a defense; believe me, I know — a few months ago, I might have been right beside them. One might excuse this by claiming that it makes sense, as Kafka's a hormonal teenager. That would be fine and dandy if the women weren't acting on his desire. One could say he might just be an unreliable narrator that blurs the line of reality and fantasy, but this ultimately doesn't make it fun to read, this ultimately doesn't leave us with any critique of this behavior and nothing leads us to believe it isn't real besides the Murakami Defense Squad saying it isn't. Need more evidence that the excuse of it being "just Kafka's perspective" is bunk? The takeaway from a female character completely separate from the lens of Kafka , Nakata's teacher, is that after she had an extremely erotic dream about her husband, she hid her period blood-stained washcloths in the forest during a school fieldtrip and then proceeded to slap a child senseless when he stumbled upon them. It's clear that Murakami writes women in a very sexual, bizarre manner in general. Others might defend the Sakura rape scene as being a dream, but this story routinely shows that dreams can blend into reality. Even if it wasn't, "I only fantasized about raping my sister" isn't quite the defense that some think it is. When they're not groan-inducing, the role of women in this story is downright uncomfortable, with little justification for it.

And I really shouldn't need to say this, but just to get it out the way, I am not a prude. Sex can be done well in books. One of my favorite books features copious amounts of sex. Hell, I often look for works with sex. So I don't shirk at the thought of sexuality itself, I just shirk when it's done tastelessly.

The version of Kafka on the Shore's cover designed by Chip Kidd

And if you thought you were out of the woods because you survived Murakami's bungling of women, wait until you see him tackle feminism and transgenderism! Because in Kafka on the Shore Murakami is of the belief that he can never make this reader groan enough !

There's a section in the novel where two women visit the library where Kafka, Oshima, and Saeki work. The woman state that they're from a feminist organization and declare the library sexist for various reasons. This is already annoying since most of the reasons given are minor and the women are presented as being irate and not open to discussion. If that wasn't enough, Oshima reveals that he's transgender (in this case, being biologically female whilst being a man) in the most awkward way possible, going into detail about having a vagina, being flat-chested, not having periods, and having anal sex with men. Oshima essentially says this to shut down the women, claiming that as a transgender man, there's no way he could be sexist against women.

I really, really don't want to try and parse through trans or feminist issues because I'm not equipped to do so — I'm neither trans nor am I a feminist (in that I don't actively organize nor protest). Really the only reason I feel comfortable talking about this section is because Murakami proves that he's even less equipped to talk about these issues than I am. The entire thing just proves how out of his depth he is when writing about things not in his immediate circle. Through the women, Murakami seems to create an annoying strawman argument against feminism. Years ago, I might consider it groundbreaking that Murakami features a trans character, but now I can't help but think that the Murakami-isms really don't do this character justice. Trans people aren't a monolith of course, but I'm pretty comfortable in saying they generally don't go talking about their plumbing to random people in public spaces. There's no scenario in which this section isn't terrible. This section reads like a poor attempt to dunk on feminism. It's also a poor way to reveal Oshima as trans because, again, this reads like an unrealistic scenario and him being trans doesn't mean he can't be sexist.

I can't even take solace in the characters of Kafka's sections offsetting Murakami's missteps. I've already gone into the problems with Saeki and Sakura. Simply put, Kafka isn't a very compelling lead. Oh, sure, there's a good framework for an interesting character — he runs away in part to get away from his twisted father, he desperately wants to be stronger than he is, and he has a destructive sex drive, among other things. But that's all that this is: a framework, a skeleton. There are decent ideas here, but little meat to these ideas. He's a character that seems to react very little to the oddities around him. He's someone that seems to shuffle to and fro wherever the story tells him to with very little reflection. He's initially horrified at the Oedipus prophecy his father tells him, but then he's perfectly fine with sleeping with women that he strongly suspects are his sister and mother because Reasons™️. More often than not, Kafka doesn't act like an actual person, let alone a fifteen-year-old. It's hard to buy this as a coming of age because Kafka hardly seems his age.

Kafka's relation with his father is also pitifully undefined beyond "rocky." While the prophecy that Kafka's straddled with is a weird, horrific thing to tell your son, I honestly still wanted more to go off of. We know little about Kakfa's relationship with his father beyond this. Is his father neglectful? Physically and verbally abusive?

I think the most real character in this section is Oshima. This ultimately isn't saying much, because he more often than not comes across as an obnoxious way to spout the classical literature Murakami wants to desperately tie this novel to.

Some might say that this is to be expected with Murakami's books. After all, the magical realism elements are at the forefront of the experience, that the characters are simply mediums for the bizarre events of the story. Unfortunately, I don't find bland, unrealistic characters compelling no matter the reason. More damningly, magical realism didn't grip me that much in Kafka's chapters.

On a more positive note, if someone defends Kafka's blandness, I'd raise them a Nakata, a Hoshino.

Make no mistake, my problems with Kafka's chapters make me dislike this novel overall, but Nakata's section is why I can still glean some enjoyment out of it, it's how I can still respect Murakami's craft and imagination instead of completely writing him off as a problematic hack. If this novel was just Nakata's section I wouldn't be nearly as disappointed as I am.

For one, I was a lot more invested in the characters in Nakata's section. I really couldn't assign a voice to Kafka, as he read so blandly. As weird as it sounds, I imagined a very distinct voice for Nakata's dialogue — Jim Cummings rendition of Winnie the Pooh. Nakata and Pooh both have similar mannerisms — from their excitement regarding their favorite foods, to their simple expressions of their feelings. It's an odd connection, no doubt, but a connection nonetheless, which is a lot more I can say for Kafka. Unlike Kafka, Nakata is lovably distinct and it's a treat to see his reactions to the world. Hoshino, Nakata's companion, is also a really interesting character, if only due to how well he's written in comparison to Kafka. Hoshino is essentially an everyman — your average, run-of-the-mill guy. Hoshino is satisfying in a way Kafka isn't because his averagenishness works as an "in" for the audience better than Kafka's blankness. In this way, he effectively shows how a normal person would react to the strange occurrences of the novel. Sure, his reactions may be a bit understated, but he still reacts, proving that normal people can work well in Murakami's style of magical realism. It's honestly amazing how Hoshino still comes across as being "average" while still being wonderfully defined. Hoshino had a good relationship with his grandfather, he was mixed up with the wrong crowd as a teen, said experience of being an outsider lead to him developing an ACAB mentality, he served in the JSDF, he's a truck driver, he has a problem with steady relationships, and he likes watching baseball a bit too much. I found Nakata and Hoshino realized and endearing in a way I never found Kafka. I mourned and feared for them while I could honestly care less about what happened to Kakfa and the rest of the library crew .

Nakata's chapters also inject the book with the magical realism that I know and love. They're in Kafka's chapters, too, but they're more prominent here and they're more fun, less gloomy. To wit, we have people that can speak to cats, a felicidal maniac who takes the form of an alcohol mascot, leeches and fish falling from the sky, a magical pimp with the likeness of Colonel Sanders, and magical stones. It's a simple thing, but I also just like the fact that the characters actually move in Nakata's section. While Kafka moves locales occasionally, he's mostly staying put while Nakata and Hoshino are constantly on a journey. Nakata's section proves that Murakami can be engaging, that he can amaze through his imagination which seems to know no bounds all the while drawing us in with colorful and/or relatable characters.

Part of this is the reason I ultimately don't hate Murakami. I still recognize that he's a very talented writer who has the capacity to craft stories I enjoy. It's just a shame that he has an utter blindspot when it comes to writing about women. I still attribute this to ignorance rather than malice, but given that he has no interest in evolving , this distinction gives me little solace. And if he really doesn't evolve, I question if I really want to follow Murakami as closely as I have been. I'm grateful for the stories I read but it seems there's a point where many fans stop respecting Murakami quite the way they used to. Unfortunately, Kafka seems like the marker of that point for me. Maybe I'll read Murakami again, but I fear I'll find his treatment of women distracting at best, supremely irritating at worst. At that point, for the sake of ensuring that my memory of him isn't completely tarnished, it might be better to just call it quits.

The biggest praise that I can give to Kafka on the Shore as a whole is that its split-POV perfectly exemplifies the duality of Murakami. When Murakami hits the ball, you're either going to see a spectacular homerun, or you'll see a ball hurtling toward your face at 110 miles an hour, making you question if it's worth going to the game at all.

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February 1, 2021

Review of Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami

Book Review , Criticism

book , fiction , imagination , Japan , literature , review , society

As you might have noticed from previous reviews , I’m a great fan of Japanese literature. I’m also a great fan of Haruki Murakami as well as Kafka (one of Murakami’s inspirations). And so, Kafka on the Shore felt like a great fit. Alas, it’s probably the most disappointing Murakami story I’ve read.

Why that is will be interesting to analyze, as there are important lessons to learn about how to write symbolism , among other things.

In a nutshell, it takes quite some… skill to alienate your readers from the perspective of symbolism in a context of magical realism.

Review of Kafka on the Shore : Genre, Plot, Narrative

Haruki Murakami’s style is often non-realist. I did use the term “magical realism” above, so let’s take a quick look at a definition.

What Is Magical Realism in Murakami’s Fiction

Generally, we can define magical realism as “what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe” (Strecher 1999, 267) Strecher, Matthew C. “Magical Realism and the Search for Identity in the Fiction of Murakami Haruki”. Journal of Japanese Studies . 25.2 (1999): 263–298. .

Wendy Faris adds that space-time and preconceptions of identity are typically undermined in such fictions, as magical realism entails “the closeness or near-merging of two realms, two worlds … The magical realist vision exists at the intersection of two worlds, at an imaginary point inside a double-sided mirror that reflects in both directions” (Faris 1995, 173) Faris, Wendy B. “Scheherazade’s Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction”. Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community . Durham: Duke University Press, 1995. .

In simpler terms, Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore occurs in our world, our reality, and yet it contains elements that simply cannot take place. More importantly, perhaps, there isn’t any supernatural weight in these events. That is, they aren’t really treated as supernatural.

Raining Fish and Talking Cats

And so, with this in mind, Kafka on the Shore involves a man talking with cats . It also involves fish and leeches falling from the sky. “Entrance stones”, Colonel Sanders (sort of), Johnnie Walker (ditto), ghosts of living people, and the list goes on.

The plot is fairly simple to begin with: Kafka Tamura, 15, decides to run away from home. He takes a bus away from Tokyo, meeting Sakura – a few years older than him. He ends up in a new place, spending time in a small library, where he becomes impossibly infatuated with the 50+ year-old Miss Saeki.

There are basically two parallel storylines going on, with some additional, thinner narrative strands: Kafka in the library, and Mr. Nakata, a mentally impaired senior citizen who can’t read. Still, he has some peculiar abilities, talking to cats being one of the most intriguing. Talking, thinking cats , we all love that, right?

The plots do converge, eventually, but the process is forced and not particularly sense-making. Meanwhile, a multitude of narrative details and journeys remain unexploited.

Review of Kafka on the Shore : Characters

Characters in Kafka on the Shore are not particularly well written, I’m afraid.

Suffice to say this: I had no problem accepting fish falling from the sky and cats that talk, Johnnie Walker wanting to steal feline souls to make magic flutes, Colonel Sanders as a pimp, a prostitute who talks about consciousness, Hegel, and Bergson while offering oral sex to her client, but I could not accept a 15-year old who likes Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, and François Truffaut films.

This might sound ludicrous. I mean, there surely are some 15-year-olds who like jazz. However, I offer this as a marker of how oddly (in a bad way; there’s also a good way) constructed the characters in Kafka on the Shore really are.

Tangled Symbolism

The worst part of it all is that, in Kafka on the Shore , Murakami seems to have lost control of his symbolism. To put it bluntly, there are too many things going on, symbolically, and there is nothing to unite them.

Take a deep breath:

Kafka (intertextually speaking, it creates a whole universe of connotations).
The act of reading.
Portals, entrances, alternate realities.
Yeats and the responsibility in dreams.
Morality of thought.
Relationship with one’s parents (possibly hinting at abuse)

The list could continue for quite a while, and one reason is that the reader can’t really group any of these elements together under a conceptual umbrella term.

Indeed, I would claim the whole novel is a giant, meandering mixed metaphor . It contains symbolism that, while complex and overlapping, does little to bring everything together – and whenever it attempts to, the result is forced.

At best, the only concept one can come up with is how difficult feelings are for a teenager. Yawn…

Review of Kafka on the Shore : General Impression

Enjoying Murakami and Kafka, I really wanted to like this. Indeed, I liked it until about a third of the way, maybe halfway. But it quickly disintegrates, as its symbolism can’t come together in a proper, all-encompassing way.

There is too much allusion going on, without the proper weight required to hold it accountable.

In dreams begin responsibilities, the novel emphatically alludes to Yeats, but forgets about its promise. Actually, it does so within its own plot: There is a scene where Kafka, in a sort-of-a-dream, basically rapes Sakura (whom, on top of everything, he thinks of as a sister). She explicitly tells him that there will be no turning back after this, but he ignores her. Still, there are no repercussions.

More importantly, on a narrative level, Kafka on the Shore offers all these dreams without any serious thought of how they come together. It feels as if Murakami became too absorbed by his own fantasies – of all sorts – and forgot his authorial responsibility to create a symbolically coherent narrative.

All in all, there are things to enjoy in Kafka on the Shore , but I would call it a missed opportunity for something phenomenal.

In dreams begin responsibilities, Mr Murakami.

I swear this is one of your best reviews ever. The organic unity of the artwork, a reflection sparked by the romantics, remains a necessary criterion for work. An author’s self-absorption is the end of all literature, simply for language posits the other when it happens, if it fails this minimal criterion, it fails completely. Also, because art itself is a truth(-making) process. If no truth comes out of it, no art has happened.

Thanks! I guess the best texts are born when your emotions are accentuated, and this was the case with this review as well. I really felt disappointed – almost upset at Murakami – that, in my opinion, he wasted this opportunity.

What remains unresolved (perhaps a text for another day, one which perhaps you could write!) is the threshold between “your emotions [being] accentuated” and “author’s self-absorption”.

I mean, one piece of advice I often give is that authors need to write from their heart (their fucking heart, as Bill Hicks would’ve put it), focusing on expressing what’s burning inside. But where do we cross into self-absorption? Is there, even, a way to tell? Perhaps this fault line is to be found precisely in the (lack of) organic unity, as you described. This is an intriguing topic.

Art for art’s sake, I say. Truth can be found in any art, each truth according to the viewer. I also wonder if a lack of organic unity is a sign of self-absorption – it may simply be honest art. I loved this Murakami novel, and found the unresolved symbolism intriguing, for it allowed me to draw my own conclusions, as such is the process of life. This is indeed a great topic, guys.

One thing most of us would agree, I believe, is that true art should inspire multiple interpretations. Thanks for your comment, Glenn.

I don’t want to be devil’s advocate, but defining the unity proposed by the romantics is beyond difficult. Yet, it is of critical necessity (in both senses: necessary and necessary for criticism). One must not, may I insist, fall for the artist’s side, as that concerns the artist, but not the critic. Of course the critic must be minimally acquainted with artistic procedures, but as the name implies, they are impersonal, just as style is. If it is not concerned with the artist, neither will it be with the viewer. The critic is not merely a commentator, that is, a privileged viewer. The critic is a reader, which is to say, a truth-extractor whose endeavour consists precisely in linking and excavating the truth-making processes at play in the work. One could say the critic is a philosopher specialized in not claiming a bunch of bullshit about art, unlike most philosophers. Also concerned with thinking properly and not subordinating art to any other truth-making procedure (science, politics, love…). Viewing itself is both a passive reception and a volitional act, but because interpretation (reading) is not a volitional act, that is, it does not depend on will, interpretation cannot happen at will (unlike vision). Interpretation concerns thinking at the same intensity that thinking concerns itself (with itself) and both concern linking, which is a gesture, that is, a volitional action. The critic posits, not himself, but criticism opposite to the work. Neither the artist nor the viewer.

This is, to put it mildly, a spectacularly eloquent way of describing it. Of course, we must also admit that it speaks about ideal conditions that are despairingly absent in real-world scenarios – where critics not only bring their own ideologies into interpretations, but, more damagingly, do so subconsciously Alas, we must still have something to aspire to.

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Book Review: Kafka on the Shore By Haruki Murakami

Every one of us has had to show strength at some point in our lives because of trials or adversities we have encountered. It's not just about physical strength, but mental, emotional, and spiritual strength as well. Now, it's not a matter of winning or losing; instead, the stakes are far higher: your life. You must summon the strength to absorb and withstand oppression, loneliness, despair, mistakes, and misunderstandings. All of these difficulties blend to form a menacing sandstorm, and you find yourself right in the middle of it. It's similar to the case of Kafka Tamura in the story Kafka on the Shore , the world's toughest 15-year-old boy. On his 15th birthday, Kafka decides to flee his home for an unknown destination, but the journey is not easy. Although this journey is already doomed by Kafka's father's sinister self-fulfilling prophecy, Kafka does everything in his power to avoid it. But does Kafka succeed? What steps would you take if you were in his shoes? Would you accept fate or fight against it? You would have to not only escape the sinister prophecy, but also deal with living ghosts, mysterious and cruel mascots, un-dead World War II soldiers, and a visit to the Land of the Dead.

Kafka on the Shore is a story about a 15-year-old boy named Kafka Tamura, who is the protagonist (of the novel's first string). Kafka decides to flee his home under the shadow of his father's sinister prophecy, " Oedipus' Curse ," and is determined to find his mother and sister, who abandoned him when he was 4 years old. Another protagonist (from the novel's second string), Satoru Nakata, is a simpleton, a 60-year-old man who lives alone but possesses special abilities such as the ability to talk and track cats. Murakami has divided the novel into two threads: one that follows Kafka's story and the other that follows Nakata's. Moving forward in the story requires a decision from both protagonists; failing to do so will have disastrous consequences. When it comes to making decisions, Kafka has two options: accept his father's prognostication of his future fate or fight against it and achieve something meaningful in his life. Unlike Nakata, who is content with simply existing, talking, and tracking lost cats as part of his normal daily routine until he encounters a cruel mascot named Johnnie Walker, who forces him to choose between killing Johnnie Walker and saving the cats for the greater good. Both Kafka and Nakata, the protagonists, meet a couple of terrifying antagonists, but along their separate journeys, they meet and encounter peculiar characters who appear in the story occasionally and help the protagonists complete their journey and achieve meaning in their lives. Both threads intertwine and combine to create a mind-bending and trance-inducing masterpiece for the reader.

Themes in Kafka on the Shore

The plot of Kafka on the Shore revolves around a few themes that are prominent throughout the story. The following section explores a few of these themes briefly.

Fate and Prophecy vs. Self-reliance

Kafka on the Shore takes place in a bizarre universe where characters struggle to make sense of out-of-the-ordinary events and encounters as well as their personal feelings and actions. Kafka's story begins with a conflict between his fate, which manifests itself in the form of his father's sinister prophecy, and Kafka's aspiration to live a meaningful life on his terms. His father's prophecy is reminiscent of the Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex . Kafka flees his home not only to avoid the prophecy but also to find his mother and sister, who abandoned him when he was only four years old. But, because he is bound by the unforgiving curse, he will murder his father and sleep with both his mother and sister. Characters like Nakata and Hoshino, on the other hand, believe that destiny has placed them on a challenging quest, which they can only complete through sheer willpower. Miss Saeki and Oshima, two more characters who are convinced they know when they will die. Because of this, both of them live their lives without fear and deal with serious issues when the time comes.

Mind, Body, and Soul

The world of Kafka on the Shore is written by Murakami in a paranormal and transcendental manner, which is obvious because the genre of the novel is magical realism, which involves the real world having a certain degree of magic and fantasy with restricted information and a unique world-building structure that is visible throughout the story. The tone of the story is paranormal from the start because the characters encounter otherworldly beings and milieu that keep raging a constant conflict between the minds, bodies, and souls of the characters, leaving them befuddled and psychologically damaged. Nakata was not born dumb and unintelligent but inherited it after being involved in a traumatic and bizarre accident on Rice Bowl Hill that left him in a blackout for several weeks and detached from reality, resulting in mind, body, and soul segregation. The soul of Miss Saeki, who is twenty years old at the time of her boyfriend's death, also breaks away with her body. Nakata and Miss Saeki both suffer from soul segregation, becoming mentally detached and physically living in an empty shell. In addition, both of them only cast their shadows partially because they are trapped in a parallel universe. Speaking of our main protagonist, Kafka, who experiences more mystic incidents than any other character, Kafka completes half of the sinister prophecy by entering Nakata's body and separates his soul in his dreams to complete the other half of the prophecy, resulting in conflict between Kafka's physical, mental, and spiritual states.

Parallel Universe and Supernatural Events

As previously stated, the story is set in a transcendental setting, and paranormal activities occur on occasion. A few paranormal activities that occur in the story and over which the characters have no control but are involved are as follows:

Rice Bowl Hill Incident – A group of students inexplicably falls into a coma during a class field trip on a hill called Rice Bowl, and the Secret Service of the USA investigates the matter.
Fish Rain – 2,000 sardines and mackerel fall from the sky in a shopping district.
Leech Rain – A huge amount of leeches rain down in the middle of a highway.
Land of the Dead – Nakata's and Hoshino’s quest leads them to flip an Entrance Stone , allowing Kafka to enter and make a daring escape from the land of the dead.

Musical Stimulation and References

Anyone who is an aficionado of Murakami’s work is well aware that musical introspection and references, chiefly classical music, are prevalent throughout his short stories and novels. Similarly, Kafka on the Shore presents a wide range of music and its influence on the emotions of characters like Kafka, Miss Saeki, and Hoshino. Kafka is often seen hearing the classical musicians and music bands like Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Prince, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Radiohead, etc. Miss Saeki was a musician who sang only a single song in her work, titled " Kafka on the Shore ." Hoshino, on the other hand, is not initially interested in classical music, but during his quest with Nakata, he visits a café and falls in love with music after hearing Beethoven, Haydn, and Schubert. Characters are influenced by the power of music, their emotions reorient, their perspective on life changes, and this leads to reworking their decisions. They also feel detached and nostalgic as well as acknowledge the incredible beauty and puissance of music.

A few bizarre and standout characters in Kafka on the Shore

The boy named crow, satoru nakata, johnnie walker, the living ghost of miss saeki , colonel sanders, the title's meaning and interpretation: kafka on the shore.

Murakami describes the “ shore ” in Kafka on the Shore as the border between the conscious and the unconscious minds. It's “ a story of two different worlds, consciousness, and unconsciousness. ” Most of us are living in those two worlds, one foot in one or the other, and all of us are living on the borderline. J. M. (n.d.). Into the Labyrinth: The Dream Logic of Kafka on the Shore | Steppenwolf Theatre. Into the Labyrinth: The Dream Logic of Kafka on the Shore. And it’s also clear in the story how characters struggle to distinguish between the real and parallel worlds. Despite the author's brief explanation, the reader will notice a few clues to the title, which are as follows:

Kafka on the Shore (Photograph)

Kafka on the shore (painting), kafka on the shore (song).

Kafka on the Shore is a magical realism masterpiece and unquestionably one of the Top 10 magical realism novels. Many people regard this as Haruki Murakami's magnum opus. It is a puzzling and mind-bending story with a rustic prose style that takes the reader on a wild ride where reality and fantasy are difficult to distinguish. Murakami has used dualistic elements in the story, such as fate vs. willpower, consciousness vs. unconsciousness, mind vs. body, real-world vs. parallel world, mundane vs. supernatural, living vs. dead, and the power and beauty of nostalgia and music. A fantastic blend of magical realism and everyday life that makes the reader think about and question their own life. In a nutshell, Murakami's storytelling is evocative, polarizing, and Kafkaesque, but it is also fascinating in every way.

Sources of Information and References

H. M. (2005). Kafka on the Shore. (P. G., Trans.). (NaN ed.). Vintage Books.
Kafka on the Shore - Wikipedia. (2021, July 24). Kafka on the Shore - Wikipedia
Kafka on the Shore | Haruki Murakami. (2014, October 6). Haruki Murakami
Kafka on the Shore Themes | LitCharts. (n.d.)LitCharts
Kafka on the Shore Themes | GradeSaver. (n.d.). Kafka on the Shore Themes | GradeSaver
J. M. (n.d.). Into the Labyrinth: The Dream Logic of Kafka on the Shore | Steppenwolf Theatre. Into the Labyrinth: The Dream Logic of Kafka on the Shore

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Cover: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Book review: Kafka on the shore

Book review of kafka on the shore.

This is my book review of Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I have read “Hardboiled wonderland and the end of the world” before, as my first Murakami book. I loved that one, so I wanted to read more by the same author. So I picked up Kafka on the Shore, for my next Murakami read.

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

“Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father’s dark prophecy.

The ageing Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down.

As their parallel odysseys unravel, cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghost-like pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since World War II. There is a savage kiling, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle – one of many which combine to create an elegant and dreamlike masterpiece.”

The description is kindly borrowed from the back of the book.

Kafka running away or towards the shore

There are a handful of storylines going on in this book. Not all of them will make equally good sense and they don’t necessarily end up being tied up nicely at the end either.

I enjoyed all the characters and the way Murakami portrays them. They all have rich backstories and inner lives, even though some are more simple than others.

With Kafka, he doesn’t always feel like a teenage boy, but as he is running away from (or towards) his father’s prophecy, we see the teenage rebellion in him. Even though he ends up perhaps not rebelling so much as accepting how things play out, deciding to play an active part in his fate.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter towards, if he is running away or towards his fate, as he becomes entangled in so many other interesting narratives and time seems to cease having any say in the matter.

Murakami and the library within the book

If I didn’t notice the amount of literary references and references to other art works in the first Murakami book I read, well, I did now! First Kafka is obviously a reference to Franz Kafka, who I must admit, I haven’t actually read anything by (yet). But Murakami seems to love Kafka so much, that he named the main character after him.

Also, Kafka discusses literature with the other people he meets throughout the book. When Kafka finds himself suddenly hanging out a lot at a pretty and privately funded library, a lot of great works are namedropped. One of the librarycustodians seem very well-read and I felt a little uneducated for not knowing the books they mentioned. Not in a bad way though, but it gave me a feeling of wanting to read those works too.

Especially to get into some more depth of the story of Kafka on the Shore, as there are so many different layers to dive into. Having a library as a place for time and narratives to be paused, reflected upon and reshaped is something Murakami does very well. I just love literary references in books, and it makes me want to journey through all the books, to know why the author put them there.

I could honestly go on and on about Haruki Murakami and how much I appreciate the way he writes. It’s so subtle, elegant, imaginative and original but still down to earth and simple. It’s like a Ghibli but in a book. Maybe it’s a cultural thing that I’m hopelessly blind to, or maybe it’s just a coincidence.

I just know, that the more Japanese literature I read, the more I seem to absolutely love it.

Let me know what you think in the comment section below – I’d love to hear from you!

If you’d like more inspiration on what to read next, feel free to check out my entire collection of book reviews right here>>

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'Kafka on the Shore' Play performed by Ninagawa Company at the Barbican Theatre

Kafka on the Shore review – Murakami’s novel becomes a sensuous spectacle

T he great Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa, now 79, has given us some memorable productions over the years. But even by his standards, this version of Haruki Murakami ’s 2002 novel is quite something. A complex narrative is rendered through multiple scenes all set in giant plastic cubes that glide about the stage like phantasmagoric art installations, with the aid of a heroic army of scene-shifters.

Not having read Murakami’s novel, I can’t comment on the fidelity of Frank Galati ’s adaptation. What we see are two parallel, ultimately interrelated stories. In one, a 15-year-old boy calling himself Kafka, after his literary hero, runs away from home in a quest to find his mother and sister. In the other, an old man named Nakata, seemingly endowed with mystical powers after a mysterious childhood accident, pursues his mission to trace lost cats. In one of the most telling juxtapositions of the two stories, the studious Kafka dwells on the Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s mechanistic approach to mass murder, while Nakata shows instinctive human compunction over the need to dispose of a cat-killer.

Even if the narrative is top-heavy with themes and ideas, including the circularity of time and the shifting nature of identity, the staging is riveting. Ninagawa and his designer conjure up a world poised between reality and dream, which embraces everything from wild forests to neon-lit urban hells, and introduces characters ranging from talking cats to Hegel-quoting sex-workers. Nino Furuhata as Kafka, Rie Miyazawa as the mother he Oedipally desires and Katsumi Kiba as the cat-seeking holy fool are all impressive, but it is the black-clad stagehands who deserve the loudest applause for making Ninagawa’s vision possible. The play quotes Yeats’s epigram that “in dreams begin responsibility”. One might add that dreams can also end in a sensuous theatrical spectacle.

Haruki Murakami

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Kafka on the Shore

Haruki murakami, everything you need for every book you read..

Kafka Tamura sits in his father’s study. Kafka has decided that he will run away from his home in Tokyo on his fifteenth birthday. Crow (an imagined persona whom Kafka consults for advice when he finds himself in stressful situations) advises Kafka to be tough and strong. Feeling as if he is preparing for a journey that will change him forever, Kafka packs a knife, some money, and a picture of himself and his older sister on the beach from when Kafka was young. Both his older sister and his mother left the family when Kafka was just four, so this is the only memory he has of them. Kafka has spent years building up his physical and mental strength, training to be able to escape his cruel father and survive as a runaway. But he fears that no matter how far he runs, he will never be able to escape a dark omen that follows him everywhere.

With only a backpack of possessions, Kafka gets on a bus bound for Shikoku in Western Japan. At a rest stop on the journey, Kafka meets a girl named Sakura , who is a few years older than him. He is attracted to her, but he worries, as he does with all women Sakura’s age, that she could be his long-lost sister. They both agree that chance encounters are important, and possibly even the result of fate. When they arrive in the town of Takamatsu, Sakura gives Kafka her phone number. Kafka, unsure of what to do, visits the Komura Memorial library, where he meets Oshima , a well-dressed young librarian, and Miss Saeki , an extremely elegant, middle-aged woman who runs the library. Kafka is struck by the thought that she could be his mother. Over the next week, Kafka falls into a lonely routine, spending mornings at the gym and afternoons reading in the library. He and Oshima strike up a friendship.

Meanwhile, a series of declassified U.S. Army documents from World War II tell the story of a mysterious incident. Setsuko Okamochi , an elementary school teacher in the countryside, took a group of children to look for mushrooms on a hill. Suddenly, all the children collapsed. The children were unconscious, but their eyes moved back and forth rapidly, almost as if their minds were experiencing something independently of their bodies. Setsuko ran to get help, but a local doctor found himself completely at a loss. Soon, the children began to wake up on their own, apparently fine and without any memory of the incident. All the children woke up except for one: Satoru Nakata , a studious young boy who had been evacuated from Tokyo to the countryside, remained in a coma for weeks. Interviews with doctors and psychologists show that Nakata’s case baffled them. Finally, Nakata, too, woke up on his own, but unlike the other children, he had lost his memory entirely. He had even lost the ability to read or write, skills he never regained. Although the official record ends there, many years later, Setsuko wrote in a letter that she believed she was responsible for the incident.

In the present day, Nakata, now an old man, sits in a vacant lot in Tokyo chatting with a black cat. Although he lost his memory and literacy in the childhood incident, Nakata gained the special ability to talk to cats, a skill he now leverages in his part-time job searching for lost house cats. Right now, he’s on the hunt for a cat named Goma . A slightly addled cat named Kawamura and a refined Siamese cat named Mimi help Nakata trace Goma to the grassy lot where she was last seen, and Nakata waits there, hoping she will reappear. Other cats warn him that an evil man has been showing up there. Before long, a big, fierce dog shows up at the lot. Nakata follows the dog to the home of Johnnie Walker —a mysterious man who dresses like the logo for Johnnie Walker brand whisky. Johnnie Walker tells Nakata that he can help him find Goma, but only if Nakata will help him, as well—by killing him. Johnnie Walker reveals that he kills cats in order to collect their souls, which he is using to build a mystical flute. Unless Nakata kills Johnnie Walker, he will kill Goma and Mimi. With mounting horror, Nakata watches as Johnnie Walker dismembers three other cats before he can no longer stand it. He stabs Johnnie Walker with a kitchen knife and gathers up Goma and Mimi, whom Johnnie Walker was about to kill. Nakata returns Goma to her family and tries to turn himself in to the police, who think he is crazy. He leaves Tokyo the next day.

Back in Takamatsu, Kafka wakes up outside with blood on his shirt and no memory of the past few hours. Panicked, he calls Sakura and goes to her apartment, where he tells her about his family. He spends the night there, and she makes him orgasm while they talk about his sister. The next day, Kafka heads to the library and tells Oshima that he needs somewhere to stay. Oshima says that he will ask Miss Saeki if Kafka can stay in the library, and, in the meantime, takes him to a remote cabin in the woods. On the drive, Oshima reveals that he suffers from hemophilia and as a result often thinks about his own death, using music as a distraction. Kafka spends the next couple of days venturing into the labyrinth -like woods around the cabin, talking with Crow, and making peace with the overwhelming solitude of the forest. On the drive back to the library, Oshima tells Kafka about Miss Saeki’s past. Her childhood sweetheart died when they were both very young, and ever since then Miss Saeki has been distant and listless. She refuses to listen to “Kafka on the Shore,” a song she wrote for her boyfriend when they were young. The next day, two women visit the library and complain that it is not comfortable for female guests, accusing Oshima of sexism. He reveals that he is a gay, transgender man.

Meanwhile, Nakata hitchhikes west, getting a series of rides on different trucks. Eventually, he meets Hoshino , a young man who cruises through life seeking out only short-term relationships and new Hawaiian shirts every few weeks. Hoshino finds himself drawn to Nakata and takes a few days off work to help him get to Takamatsu—a location Hoshino feels drawn to, though he isn’t sure why. Nakata says they must find the “entrance stone,” a mysterious white stone with magical properties that only Nakata knows about. After days searching in library books and tourist sites to no avail, Hoshino is approached by an old man who calls himself (and dresses like) Colonel Sanders . Colonel Sanders takes Hoshino to a Shinto shrine, where he finds the entrance stone. He then lugs the stone back to Nakata. They spend some time trying to determine what to do, and then Nakata says they must flip the stone over in order to open an entrance to another world. With tremendous effort—the stone has become supernaturally heavy—Hoshino does so. Soon, he decides that his relationship with Nakata is more important than returning to work.

At the library, Oshima shows Kafka an article saying that a famous sculptor—Kafka’s father—has been stabbed to death. Although he was far away at the time of the murder, Kafka feels he was responsible. He tells Oshima about the omen that drove him away from home: echoing the Oedipal myth, Kafka’s father prophesized that Kafka would kill him and sleep with his mother and sister. Over the next few nights, a ghost resembling a teenaged version of Miss Saeki appears in Kafka’s room. Intrigued, he listens to the song “Kafka on the Shore” and begins to believe he and Miss Saeki are being drawn together. He also begins to suspect more strongly that Miss Saeki is his mother, although she denies it. Soon, Kafka and the real Miss Saeki begin to have sex. She feels as if she is making up for the time she lost with her boyfriend, while he wants to make up for his damaged childhood.

As the police intensify their search for Kafka’s father’s killer, Hoshino and Nakata relocate to an apartment provided by Colonel Sanders. They begin driving around the city as they try to determine what to do next. Oshima, also wary of the intensifying search (and the relationship between Kafka and Miss Saeki), brings Kafka back to the cabin. Kafka has a dream about raping Sakura which fills him with guilt. Kafka is intensely lonely and feels trapped by his father’s prophecy. Hoping to escape, or face death, he ventures into the dark woods. Eventually, he comes upon two soldiers in World War II uniforms who say they will take Kafka to a mysterious entrance. He follows them to a steep ravine with a collection of small cabins, much like Oshima’s cabin, in a clearing at the bottom. The soldiers leave him in one of the houses.

After days of aimless driving, Nakata and Hoshino stumble upon the Komura memorial library, and Nakata feels pulled to go inside. There, he talks with Miss Saeki. They feel an immediate connection. She tells him that she feels trapped within memories of her past, while he says that he feels equally trapped by his lack of memory. Miss Saeki entrusts Nakata with a stack of files in which she has written her life story. At her request, Hoshino and Nakata burn the files without reading them. When Oshima goes to Miss Saeki’s office at the end of the day, he finds her face down on her desk, dead. When Hoshino and Nakata return to the apartment, Nakata, too, dies in his sleep, leaving Hoshino to puzzle over what to do with the entrance stone. After a couple of days, a black cat arrives and tells Hoshino that he will need to kill something that will attempt to get through the entrance. Sure enough, a long, pale, snake-like creature emerges from Nakata’s dead body and begins to make its way to the stone. Hoshino tries unsuccessfully to kill it and realizes he must close the entrance by flipping the stone over. Once again, it takes nearly all his strength, but he is successful. He is then able to kill the creature. Vowing to hold onto Nakata’s memory, Hoshino heads out of the apartment.

In a brief interlude, Crow, in the form of a literal crow , circles the forest. He spots a man dressed in a red track suit and black silk hat. The man tells Crow that he makes flutes out of the souls of cats, and he’s traveling to where he can make the biggest flute of all. He says that the forest where they are now is like limbo: the man has died and is now a soul in transition. It’s impossible for Crow to hurt him, he says, but invites Crow to try. Crow pecks out the man’s eyes, but the man just laughs. Crow rips out his tongue, and he continues to laugh, now soundlessly. The wheezing sounds almost like a flute.

In the cabin in the ravine, the young version of Miss Saeki appears to cook Kafka’s meals. He is overjoyed to see her, but soon realizes that she has no memories of the past—and that, if he doesn’t leave soon, he too will lose his memories. In the afternoon, the middle-aged Miss Saeki arrives and tells Kafka that he must leave the valley. He asks, again, if she’s his mother. Miss Saeki responds only that she once abandoned someone she shouldn’t have, and asks if Kafka can forgive her. He forgives her, and, in his head, forgives his mother, and feels as if a frozen part of his heart has crumbled. Miss Saeki pricks her arm with a hairpin and lets Kafka drink some of her blood, and then leaves the cabin and stumbles back through the woods to Oshima’s cabin. Oshima’s brother drives Kafka back to the library, where he tells Oshima he has decided to return to school in Tokyo. They part, promising to meet again someday. On the phone, Kafka also says goodbye to Sakura, fondly calling her his sister. Thinking about all that has happened to him, Kafka gets on the train to return home.

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Review: ‘Kafka on the Shore,’ a Metaphysical Odyssey Adapted From Murakami’s Novel

By Charles Isherwood

July 24, 2015

A sudden craving for Kentucky Fried Chicken swept over me at one point during the stage adaptation of the Haruki Murakami novel “Kafka on the Shore,” being presented through Sunday at the David H. Koch Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival . It has been well more than a decade since I’ve visited a KFC, but those familiar with Mr. Murakami’s playful metaphysical mystery will recall that Colonel Sanders — or rather a spirit taking the form of that corporate icon — is among the strange array of characters in the book.

So, too, is Johnnie Walker, the top-hatted figure strolling across many a whiskey bottle. And by the conclusion of this visually arresting but ponderous three-hour production , performed in Japanese with English supertitles, thoughts of crispy chicken had been swept away by a stronger craving for a bracing glass of that liquor. Or indeed any other.

The production, adapted by Frank Galati (who earlier adapted and directed a stage version of two stories from Mr. Murakami’s collection “After the Quake” ) and directed by Yukio Ninagawa (making his third appearance at this festival), features an alluring and impressive set design by Tsukasa Nakagoshi. The wide expanse of the stage — usually home to New York City Ballet and other dance companies — is filled with large glass boxes lit by fluorescent tubing. These vitrines, of various shapes and sizes, are manipulated by black-clad figures so that they slip and slide smoothly around like ambulatory dioramas, giving the sweep of the story an almost cinematic flow. Scenes from the book take place mostly inside or just outside these boxes, which represent locations as varied as a quiet private library, a teeming red-light district, a long-haul truck and a remote forest idyll.

Mr. Galati does a smooth job of streamlining the book, but as is often the case with stage versions of philosophically inquisitive novels (or for that matter, nonphilosophically inquisitive ones), story tends to take precedence over the less easily dramatized layers, which in this case include much rich meditation on the quirks of destiny, the fluid nature of time and identity, the echoing hollowness of human experience and the strange forces that bring people into life-changing contact.

Broadly speaking, the story charts the intersecting odysseys of two principal characters, the 15-year-old Kafka (Nino Furuhata), whose self-chosen name suggests his precocious spiritual alienation, and Nakata (Katsumi Kiba), a childlike older man whose brain was scrambled, we learn in flashback, when he was a young boy during a weird mystical occurrence on a school outing in the forest during the war.

Since this trauma, Nakata has been unable to read or write, but he is able to converse with cats, and picks up a few dollars to help support himself by using this unusual gift to track down lost felines. (The talking cats — represented by actors in sleek fur costumes — are among the more engaging aspects of the show, with the performers persuasively mimicking the slinking of a Siamese or the playful rubbing of a young tomcat.)

Both characters begin their journeys in Tokyo, but Kafka soon leaves the city behind. Unhappy at home with his famous sculptor father and convinced that he needs to flee to avoid a dark Oedipal destiny, he moves on and eventually finds a new spiritual home in the small library run by the reclusive, beautiful Miss Saeki (Rie Miyazawa) and her assistant, Oshima (Naohito Fujiki), who, in one of the novel’s many odd surprises, eventually reveals that he is biologically female but lives his life as a gay man. (Long story — of which there are many in the novel and which Mr. Murakami makes a sort of comic motif.)

At roughly the same time, Nakata’s search for a lost cat brings him into the dark orbit of an evil figure taking the form of Johnnie Walker, a kitty killer whose outrages so upset Nakata that he is forced to murder him (albeit at Johnnie’s express request). Nakata, too, flees the city, with the help of the friendly truck driver Hoshino (Tsutomu Takahashi), who’s intrigued by this strange codger who has the ability, among other things, to make fish fall from the sky.

All of this, by the way, is merely the rough outline of the essentials. As the plot develops, many more swirling currents develop, each as surprising, mystifying or simply bewildering as the one before. Unfortunately, even with an extensive running time the production does not allow for the characters to inhabit our imaginations as richly as they do in the book. (And forget trying to parse the murky layers of meaning.)

In the large theater, the performances likewise are unable to register powerfully, especially since the sometimes densely philosophical dialogue and the myriad oddities of the plot require us to pay close attention to the titles high above the stage. Still, the actors give winning if mostly economical interpretations of their characters.

Although Mr. Furuhata looks closer to 13 than the 17 years old that Kafka sometimes pretends to be, he is touching as this young fellow, still trusting and kindly but possessed of a dark worldliness — and eventually a sexual charisma that has surprising consequences. Mr. Kiba’s Nakata naturally wins our hearts with his deadpan confessions of his own stupidity and genial ability to catch each of life’s curveballs as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. Ms. Miyazawa’s Miss Saeki has an ethereal, almost ghostly presence, her soul still bound up in a tragedy in her past.

The supporting players, too, make vivid impressions, with Mr. Takahashi’s jovial Hoshino particularly warm and welcome. Masato Shinkawa is flesh-crawlingly effective as Johnnie Walker, who feasts on kitty hearts. And as Colonel Sanders, Masakatsu Toriyama both looks and acts the part of the avuncular fellow so familiar to us all, at least from distant television commercials.

Owners of the KFC brand, however, might not be quite so pleased with his representation here. The colonel proves helpful in leading Hoshino to a mysterious stone that is a sort of portal into the spirit world that Nakata is in search of. But he’s also a pimp who insists that Hoshino sleep with one of his girls before he will be granted access to that stone. That’s a long, strange story, too — and so, in sum, is “Kafka on the Shore.”

Kafka on the Shore

Based on the book by Haruki Murakami; adapted for the stage by Frank Galati; directed by Yukio Ninagawa; translated by Shunsuke Hiratsuka; sets by Tsukasa Nakagoshi; costumes by Ayako Maeda; lighting by Motoi Hattori; sound by Katsuji Takahashi; hair and makeup design by Yoko Kawamura and Yuko Chiba; music by Umitaro Abe; stage manager, Shinichi Akashi; technical manager, Kiyotaka Kobayashi; production manager, Yuichiro Kanai. A Ninagawa Company production, presented by Lincoln Center as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. At the David H. Koch Theater, 212-721-6500, lincolncenterfestival.org. Through Sunday. Running time: 3 hours.

WITH: Rie Miyazawa (Miss Saeki/Girl), Naohito Fujiki (Oshima), Nino Furuhata (Kafka), Anne Suzuki (Sakura), Hayato Kakizawa (Crow), Tsutomu Takahashi (Hoshino), Masakatsu Toriyama (Colonel Sanders), Katsumi Kiba (Nakata) and Masato Shinkawa (Johnnie Walker), Mame Yamada (Kawamura) and Katrine Mutsukiko Doi Vincent (Mimi/the Colonel’s Girl).

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Book Review: Kafka on the Shore By Haruki Murakami
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COMMENTS

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
467,522 ratings37,666 reviews. Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, 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 ...
'Kafka on the Shore': Reality's Cul-de-Sacs
From "Kafka on the Shore." Laura Miller is a frequent contributor to the Book Review. A version of this article appears in print on , Section 7 , Page 1 of the National edition with the headline ...
Kafka on the Shore, readers at sea
Kafka on the Shore, readers at sea. Reaching the end of Murakami's novel has done little to explain its mysteries, but has brought some appreciation of his ability to blend the fantastic and the ...
KAFKA ON THE SHORE
KAFKA ON THE SHORE. A masterpiece, entirely Nobel-worthy. Two mysterious quests form the core of Murakami's absorbing seventh novel, whose encyclopedic breadth recalls his earlier successes, A Wild Sheep Chase (1989) and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1997). In the first of two parallel narratives, 15-year-old Kafka Tamura drops out of school ...
BOOK REVIEW: KAFKA ON THE SHORE
Kafka On The Shore is, perhaps, the most hypnotic novel of Haruki Murakami. It has all the motifs of a Murakamisque novel- memory, journey into the unknown, alienation, people conversing with cats and music- and yet it is so different. Kafka On The Shore is the story of Kafka Tamura and Nakata. Kafka runs away from home at the age of fifteen.
Reviews of Kafka on The Shore by Haruki Murakami
Book Summary. A tour de force of metaphysical reality, powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy who runs away from home to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy, and an aging simpleton. With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed ...
Kill me or the cat gets it
Books. This article is more than 19 years old. Review. Kill me or the cat gets it. ... Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, translated by Phillip Gabriel 656pp, Harvill, £12.99.
Review of One of the Best Magical Realism Books: Kafka On The Shore
View on Amazon. Kafka On The Shore was published in Japan in 2002; in 2005, Phillip Gabriel translated it into English. The story interconnects two parallel universes that initially seem like different plots but later merge to serve a powerful purpose. The book introduces us to a 15-year-old boy named Kafka Tamura.
Kafka on the Shore
Although translated into English (among other languages) from the original version written in Japanese, Kafka on the Shore still follows a fluent flow across the book that is easy to follow while keeping you on your toes across its length. The Plot. Or, the plots. Kafka on the Shore doesn't follow the story of a single individual.
Book Review: Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami
Author Harry Miller Posted on July 2, 2020 June 27, 2020 Categories Reviews, Uncategorized Tags book review, books, Don Quixote, Haruki Murakami, Japanese literature, Kafka on the Shore, libraries, modern life, mundane, music, paranormal, supernatural
Kafka on the Shore
Kafka on the Shore (海辺のカフカ, Umibe no Kafuka) 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. The book tells the stories of the young Kafka Tamura, a bookish 15-year-old boy who runs away from his Oedipal curse, and Satoru Nakata, an old ...
Book Marks reviews of Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Murakami's novel, though wearying at times and confusing at others, has the faintly absurd loft of some great festive balloon. He addresses the fantastic and the natural, each with the same mix of gravity and lightness. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami has an overall rating of Positive based on 9 book reviews.
'Kafka on the shore' Book Review: Travel beyond realism with Murakami
Nakota's simplicity, Kafka's confusion and the magical realism of the story are more than enough reasons to pick up this hefty book and start reading it. You are promised a journey that will intrigue you, madden you, make you sad but in the end leave you touching the lines on the pages as if they were from holy scripture.
Kafka on the Shore Book Review
Kafka on the Shore is a novel split across two distinct narratives that affect one another, but rarely overlap in terms of characters. The odd-numbered chapters tell the story of a fifteen year-old runaway going by the name of Kafka Tamura. Kafka runs away from his Nagoya home in order to escape from his oppressive father and his stagnant life. He travels to Takamatsu in Shikoku where he ...
Review of Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami
As you might have noticed from previous reviews, I'm a great fan of Japanese literature.I'm also a great fan of Haruki Murakami as well as Kafka (one of Murakami's inspirations). And so, Kafka on the Shore felt like a great fit. Alas, it's probably the most disappointing Murakami story I've read. Why that is will be interesting to analyze, as there are important lessons to learn ...
Book Review: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, 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 ...
Book Review: Kafka on the Shore By Haruki Murakami
The world of Kafka on the Shore is written by Murakami in a paranormal and transcendental manner, which is obvious because the genre of the novel is magical realism, which involves the real world having a certain degree of magic and fantasy with restricted information and a unique world-building structure that is visible throughout the story.
Book Review: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Kafka on the Shore is one of the most renowned works by the Japanese author Haruki Murakami, it's 2005 English translation was among the "10 Best Books of 2005" from The New York Times and received the World Fantasy Award in 2006.Murakami is undeniably one of the best Japanese authors of our time, with his books and stories being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of ...
Book review: Kafka on the shore » MadebyPernille
Book review of Kafka on the Shore. This is my book review of Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I have read "Hardboiled wonderland and the end of the world" before, as my first Murakami book. I loved that one, so I wanted to read more by the same author. So I picked up Kafka on the Shore, for my next Murakami read.
Book Review: Kafka on the Shore
Through this book, Haruki Murakami explores the theme of consciousness and unconsciousness. It's very interesting, since the book follows 2 storylines simultaneously. For every odd numbered chapter, it is about a boy named Kafka Tamura, who lives with his dad; a famous sculptor, in Tokyo. On his 15th birthday, he makes up his mind to run away ...
Kafka on the Shore review
Kafka on the Shore review - Murakami's novel becomes a sensuous spectacle. T he great Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa, now 79, has given us some memorable productions over the years. But even ...
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami Plot Summary
Kafka has a dream about raping Sakura which fills him with guilt. Kafka is intensely lonely and feels trapped by his father's prophecy. Hoping to escape, or face death, he ventures into the dark woods. Eventually, he comes upon two soldiers in World War II uniforms who say they will take Kafka to a mysterious entrance.
Review: 'Kafka on the Shore,' a Metaphysical Odyssey Adapted From
Kafka on the Shore. Based on the book by Haruki Murakami; adapted for the stage by Frank Galati; directed by Yukio Ninagawa; translated by Shunsuke Hiratsuka; sets by Tsukasa Nakagoshi; costumes ...
Kafka On The Shore Review by Haruki Murakami
This video is a review of Haruki Murakami's famous book Kafka on the shore. If you want to read kafka on the shore then this video will provide you brief ins...
Kafka on the shore
3 likes, 0 comments - bibliomaniac_praveen on December 13, 2022: "Kafka on the shore - Haruki Murakami - Book Review Rating 4/5 Detailed review @ https://kalaikoodam ...
Kafka On The Shore deserves to be on your TBR list
600 likes, 41 comments - sriparnasam on April 2, 2024: "Kafka On The Shore deserves to be on your TBR list . . . . . . . . . . . [Kafka On The Shore, Murakami Books, Books by Haruki Muraka..." Kafka On The Shore deserves to be on your TBR list 📚 . . . . . . . . . . .
How Hard is Your Shore Excursion?
Hiking near Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska (Photo: Chris Gray Faust) Unfortunately, there's no industry standard for shore excursion difficulty levels, which makes it even harder for ...

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Review of One of the Best Magical Realism Books: Kafka On The Shore

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Book review: Kafka on the shore

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Kafka running away or towards the shore