Kafka on the Shore
5 journalers for this copy...
I loved this book and it kept me thinking as I read. I loved everything about the character Nakata and through him the author shows his depths of creativity and imagination. There were certain scenes that I found very uncomfortable and distressing but generally the author manages to resolve them in ways that both acknowedlge the evil done and mostly (but not always) remove the victimization aspect. A brilliant book that should definately be shared.
from Amazon:
Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.
As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers.
from Amazon:
Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.
As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers.
Journal Entry 2 by megami-no-ushi at VBB, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- Canada on Friday, November 19, 2010
Released 13 yrs ago (11/18/2010 UTC) at VBB, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- Canada
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
One of my contributions to the Japanese author's VBB on it's way to Greece! (surface) Enjoy!
Thanks so much megami-no-ushi!
... for your kind words of encouragement (I do need that, from time to time!), the card, the book, and the chocolates!
(Selected from Samrana's Japanese VBB.)
... for your kind words of encouragement (I do need that, from time to time!), the card, the book, and the chocolates!
(Selected from Samrana's Japanese VBB.)
Of the Murakami books I've read till now, this one is probably the most approachable.
Despite all the symbols and metaphors, as well as discussions about the nature of symbols and metaphors, and despite all the supernatural elements, there is a clarity to the plot.
Literary and cultural allusions abound but they are more or less all spelled out in the text itself. The Oedipus trilogy by Sophocles, Freud's theory of the ego, Orpheus in the underworld, the omphalos, Beethoven's Immortal Beloved, Dostoevsky's The Idiot, the shore scene in François Truffault's The 400 Blows, etc. as well as Japanese references such as the work of Ueda Akinari.
The symbolic/supernatural characters of Johnny Walker and Colonel Sanders are harder to figure out, but in all probability they are not meant to be understood in any conventional sense, just as the hypothetical first person in mythology to be accosted by the Furies did not know what to make of them.
I enjoyed reading Kafka on the Shore but I found the last quarter of the novel rushed and hastily assembled, compared with the first 3/4 of the book. In the last chapters it seemed the effort was about bringing closure and joining the disparate strands together rather than maintaining the rhythm of the narrative so far. The text lost its distinct feel and pacing, and the reader's tenuous connection with the character of Kafka, so delicately developed over the course of the book, was almost lost in the choppy plot developments squeezed into the last pages of the book.
Another fault I found with the text is the translation. There were too many Americanisms that stood out in a most inelegant way: the quoting of dollar amounts instead of yen, but more glaringly the tendency to repeat anachronistic exclamations such as "Jeez Louise", or "that's all she wrote."
edited to add : crows in Japan
Despite all the symbols and metaphors, as well as discussions about the nature of symbols and metaphors, and despite all the supernatural elements, there is a clarity to the plot.
Literary and cultural allusions abound but they are more or less all spelled out in the text itself. The Oedipus trilogy by Sophocles, Freud's theory of the ego, Orpheus in the underworld, the omphalos, Beethoven's Immortal Beloved, Dostoevsky's The Idiot, the shore scene in François Truffault's The 400 Blows, etc. as well as Japanese references such as the work of Ueda Akinari.
The symbolic/supernatural characters of Johnny Walker and Colonel Sanders are harder to figure out, but in all probability they are not meant to be understood in any conventional sense, just as the hypothetical first person in mythology to be accosted by the Furies did not know what to make of them.
I enjoyed reading Kafka on the Shore but I found the last quarter of the novel rushed and hastily assembled, compared with the first 3/4 of the book. In the last chapters it seemed the effort was about bringing closure and joining the disparate strands together rather than maintaining the rhythm of the narrative so far. The text lost its distinct feel and pacing, and the reader's tenuous connection with the character of Kafka, so delicately developed over the course of the book, was almost lost in the choppy plot developments squeezed into the last pages of the book.
Another fault I found with the text is the translation. There were too many Americanisms that stood out in a most inelegant way: the quoting of dollar amounts instead of yen, but more glaringly the tendency to repeat anachronistic exclamations such as "Jeez Louise", or "that's all she wrote."
edited to add : crows in Japan
Please PM or post in the forum if you are interested, and include
a) Your location
b) Where you are willing to post the book after you read it
(Greece only, or only within Europe, or International)
Book Ray participants :
- lessalive (Αθήνα)
- feltre (Αθήνα)
- kihli (Θεσσαλονίκη) <-- book is here
- nanahadji (Κύπρος)
~ ~ ~ ~ > Please make a journal entry when you receive the book.
~ ~ ~ ~ > Please read and pass on the book within two months. If you can't do this for any reason, please PM me to let me know.
~ ~ ~ ~ > When you are done reading, contact the next reader via PM for their address. Also make another journal entry (or edit your first one) to share your comments about the book.
(forum post)
----------
A brief note about crows in Japan.
Journal Entry 6 by okyrhoe at book ring/ray, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases on Saturday, June 9, 2012
Released 11 yrs ago (6/6/2012 UTC) at book ring/ray, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
On its way by post to lessalive. Enjoy!
The book has arrived.
Thank you very much okyrhoe!
Thank you very much okyrhoe!
I liked the book very much! I 'd like the story to go on forever and maybe that's the main reason I thought the end was somewhat forced.
Thank you megami-no-ushi and okyrhoe!!!
Thank you megami-no-ushi and okyrhoe!!!
I will give it in person to feltre.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Thank you!
Interesting story, full of myths and symbols. I loved Mr. Nakata and the talking cats. I'll pass it to the next reader ASAP.
Thanks okyrhoe.
Thanks okyrhoe.
I'll send it today.
26/9/12 έφτασε στη θεσσαλονίκη
26/9/12 έφτασε στη θεσσαλονίκη
Journal Entry 13 by kihli at Thessaloniki - Θεσσαλονίκη, Thessaloniki Greece on Saturday, October 27, 2012
I'm going to read the book as soon as possible since I like Murakami so far.