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Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami
Translated by Philip Gabriel
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Kafka on the Shore

Haruki Murakami
Translated by Philip Gabriel
$26.00
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Overview

480 PAGESENGLISH
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Vintage International
Vintage International
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Overall rating: 4.188679 / 5 from 53 reviews.

AI Generated Review Summary

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami is a metaphysical journey featuring a runaway teenager and an elderly man. Customers have mixed feelings about the book, characters, and story, with some appreciating its surreal and colorful elements while others find it uncomfortable.

Summary topics

  • Story Quality: 18%
  • Book Quality: 40%
  • Character Development: 13%

Review topics: ["book","story","read","characters","novel","author","written","ending","scenes","tale","questions","themes","murakami","writing","world"].

Review highlights

  • "Characters are fully developed and plot flows easily." — Kent
  • "An absolutely wild book, in all the ways a book can be wild." — Michael
  • "Great story and author." — Dani

Reviews

Low quality

"$26 for paper thinner than that in a bible"

— Lukas G. (2/5)

Best to ever do it!

"Murakami stories just can’t be beat, the way he intertwines multiple stories is beautiful and somewhat magic almost. You fall in love with all the characters in the novel too it’s just outstanding and I can’t recommend it enough"

— Mellow (5/5)

Not bad, not great

"It kept me reading but for me it was pretty whimsical"

— Harshmellow (3/5)

You won't understand what is happening, but will enjoy it anyways.

"Another dream like story. I understood so little of the esoteric stuff going on but couldn't help but to keep going in the hopes of finding out. All of the characters are so quirky and unique that they are easy to get attached to. Even though it felt like I never actually got to know them. Especially Mr. Nakata."

— Michael (5/5)

Should read

"It’s the timeless classic reads. I could experience my teenager life again by reading this book."

— Haruki E. (5/5)

I hate this book. Better read it again

"I have no idea how to describe this book. I can tell that the author knew what he was writing about but I cannot for the life of me figure it out myself. I read the whole thing, eagerly chipping away through the winding, perverted, eloquent story only to come to the last page and realised I have no idea what I just read. So I read it again. I swear I learned new information but I still have no idea whats going on and its infuriating. You should definitely read this book."

— Savanna (5/5)

Those who like it, like it a lot.

"Murakami is an acquired taste, but that taste is brilliant."

— Janzenr (4/5)

Good

"Very interesting and vivid tale that tackles its themes well. Some of the content may be unsettling to readers, though; notably, incest. Apart from this, I really liked how the settings were described and the characters."

— Simon (4/5)

Never never land, Japanese style

"A very interesting and unusual novel, with characters that seem to pass easily from mundane day-to-day reality to surrealistic situations! Highly entertaining with a hint of Japanese zen to boot! Some repetitive scenes, though, that could have use a good editor. Neverthelss, highly recommend!"

— Robbie R. (4/5)

A surreal, weird, and very interesting book

"An absolutely wild book, in all the ways a book can be wild. The story was so interesting, despite how confusing it was at times, and kind of reminded me of David Lynch's movies, where nothing is explained to you but you just have to go with the flow. Once you adapt to the weird it all becomes very engaging. Murakami is an interesting writer, and this is a very interesting story, but perhaps the element that some may find the most jarring is the sexuality and incest found in the book. The story is meant to be a retelling of the ancient Greek play Oedipus Rex, in which a baby is prophesized to one day end up killing his father and sleeping with his mother, so he is sent away to be killed, only to be spared and come back years later, and unknowingly fulfill the prophecy. It is one of the world's most famous tragedies but still, one of its most uncomfortable, and Kafka runs with that. Reading it without that context can make the story feel disgusting and confusing. However, once you understand the parallels to the Greek myth, it becomes an even more interesting story, but no less gross. Also, some of the languages toward women's bodies can feel rather crude and overly sexual at times. While this may not be everyone's cup of tea, it does have some very interesting philosophical questions to pose and weird characters to think about. I really did enjoy it, despite its flaws."

— Michael (4/5)

Q&A

  • Published date: Jan 03, 2006
  • Language: English
  • No. of Pages: 480
  • Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
  • ISBN: 9781400079278
  • Dimensions: 5.07" W x 1.01" L x 7.89" H
“As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami ... is a striking experience in consciousness expansion.” —The Chicago Tribune

“An insistently metaphysical mind-bender.”
—The New Yorker

“If he has not achieved that status already, Haruki Murakami is on course to becoming the most widely read Japanese writer outside Japan, past or present.”
—The New York Times
Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and the most recent of his many honors is the Yomiuri Literary Prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe.

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