Book talk: Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami, 2003)
I had this book on my to-read-list for a while now. I eyed it first a couple of year ago at the Messaggerie International book store but I waited to see if they were going to publish an Italian translation of it, but so far, nothing. So I caved and bought the English translation: it's one of the best book I read this year so far.
If you want to read this post with links and all, you can read it at my Vox: http://fiore-di-fuoco.vox.com/
As in a story structure seen also in his "Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World", Haruki Murakami spins the plot in alternate chapters, each dedicated to a main character, his story and his side characters. The two plots work separately to the end and never meet but you can actually see the story converge. Another detail is that the chapters devoted to the first character are narrated in first person, while the others are in a classical third person narration and point of view.
The first story is about a young boy, Kafka Tamura, who fled the home he shares with his father because his own father foretold Kafka a destiny of Oedipic recalls. In his flight, his goal is to meet the mother and the sister who abandoned him with his father. He meets with Oshima, another boy-man with an intriguing past and falls in love with Ms. Saeki.
The second story is dedicated to Mr. Nakata, an old man gifted with the ability to speak to cats. He will leave his quiet life to follow a calling and a quest he can't explain, acquiring a sidekick in the process, Hoshino.
I won't tell how the characters' paths will meet, I wouldn't make justice to the complexity and climax of the story, but it will be satisfying for you as it was for me.
I also would like to highlight some of the themes dear to Murakami that recur in this novel.
First theme would be the music talk Murakami's characters engage in at some point and how music becomes a focal part of the story. You can see this particularly in one of Murakami's first novel, "Norwegian Wood (Tokyo Blues)", where rock music is a main part of the story. Murakami's avatar for his love for music in "Kafka on the Shore" is Hoshino, who is interested in music and develops an appreciation of classical music. Kafka's story is also punctuated by music, and the resolution for this character also involves a song.
Another recurring theme is travel/flight. All the characters in Murakami's novels are somehow doing either or both, consciously (like in "Kafka on the shore") or unconsciously ("Sputnik Sweetheart", "Dance Dance Dance") from a world that's spinning out of control (in the already cited Norwegian Wood, Dance Dance Dance and Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World) in a subtle or evident way. With travel, come the Japanese landscapes and countrysides.
Third theme I could identify was the "wise man/ wise woman" who people wouldn't hesitate to call a nut job, in this case Nakata, but also found in several of his novel (that I can remember: in Norwegian Wood and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World).
Death is also a recurring theme dear to Murakami, be it violent or peaceful, senseless or resolution for his characters and their stories.
There are several other themes which can be found but I think I got the main ones.
A last note before a few quotations for this wonderful novel: one of the things I like the most about Haruki Murakami's novels and particularly in "Kafka on the Shore" (maybe egual only in "Harboiled Wonderland and the end of the World" and "A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel", "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel") is the surreal atmosphere surrounding the world Murakami spins with his story. The surreality of it all makes up half of the experience of reading Murakami's works.
"How many times do I have to explain this!? I told you already I don't have substance. I'm an abstract concept. I can't do anything on my own. That's why I went to the trouble of dragging you out here. And letting you do it three times at discount rate."
"I know I should be amazed to see them , but somehow it doesn't seem weird at all. It's wholly with the realm of possibility"
"In our home everything was twisted. And when everything's twisted, what's normal ends up looking weird too".
Other Murakami's novels I read and feel like recommend: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Norwegian Wood, Dance, Dance, Dance, South of the Border, West of the Sun, Sputnik Sweetheart, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel.
Other: The Elephant Vanishes: Stories
Non-fiction: Underground
(basically everything that have been published in Italy so far. Personal Favorite: Norwegian Wood)
Next Book Talk: Anthony Bourdain, The Nasty Bits.
If you want to read this post with links and all, you can read it at my Vox: http://fiore-di-fuoco.vox.com/
As in a story structure seen also in his "Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World", Haruki Murakami spins the plot in alternate chapters, each dedicated to a main character, his story and his side characters. The two plots work separately to the end and never meet but you can actually see the story converge. Another detail is that the chapters devoted to the first character are narrated in first person, while the others are in a classical third person narration and point of view.
The first story is about a young boy, Kafka Tamura, who fled the home he shares with his father because his own father foretold Kafka a destiny of Oedipic recalls. In his flight, his goal is to meet the mother and the sister who abandoned him with his father. He meets with Oshima, another boy-man with an intriguing past and falls in love with Ms. Saeki.
The second story is dedicated to Mr. Nakata, an old man gifted with the ability to speak to cats. He will leave his quiet life to follow a calling and a quest he can't explain, acquiring a sidekick in the process, Hoshino.
I won't tell how the characters' paths will meet, I wouldn't make justice to the complexity and climax of the story, but it will be satisfying for you as it was for me.
I also would like to highlight some of the themes dear to Murakami that recur in this novel.
First theme would be the music talk Murakami's characters engage in at some point and how music becomes a focal part of the story. You can see this particularly in one of Murakami's first novel, "Norwegian Wood (Tokyo Blues)", where rock music is a main part of the story. Murakami's avatar for his love for music in "Kafka on the Shore" is Hoshino, who is interested in music and develops an appreciation of classical music. Kafka's story is also punctuated by music, and the resolution for this character also involves a song.
Another recurring theme is travel/flight. All the characters in Murakami's novels are somehow doing either or both, consciously (like in "Kafka on the shore") or unconsciously ("Sputnik Sweetheart", "Dance Dance Dance") from a world that's spinning out of control (in the already cited Norwegian Wood, Dance Dance Dance and Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World) in a subtle or evident way. With travel, come the Japanese landscapes and countrysides.
Third theme I could identify was the "wise man/ wise woman" who people wouldn't hesitate to call a nut job, in this case Nakata, but also found in several of his novel (that I can remember: in Norwegian Wood and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World).
Death is also a recurring theme dear to Murakami, be it violent or peaceful, senseless or resolution for his characters and their stories.
There are several other themes which can be found but I think I got the main ones.
A last note before a few quotations for this wonderful novel: one of the things I like the most about Haruki Murakami's novels and particularly in "Kafka on the Shore" (maybe egual only in "Harboiled Wonderland and the end of the World" and "A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel", "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel") is the surreal atmosphere surrounding the world Murakami spins with his story. The surreality of it all makes up half of the experience of reading Murakami's works.
"How many times do I have to explain this!? I told you already I don't have substance. I'm an abstract concept. I can't do anything on my own. That's why I went to the trouble of dragging you out here. And letting you do it three times at discount rate."
"I know I should be amazed to see them , but somehow it doesn't seem weird at all. It's wholly with the realm of possibility"
"In our home everything was twisted. And when everything's twisted, what's normal ends up looking weird too".
Other Murakami's novels I read and feel like recommend: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel, Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Norwegian Wood, Dance, Dance, Dance, South of the Border, West of the Sun, Sputnik Sweetheart, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel.
Other: The Elephant Vanishes: Stories
Non-fiction: Underground
(basically everything that have been published in Italy so far. Personal Favorite: Norwegian Wood)
Next Book Talk: Anthony Bourdain, The Nasty Bits.