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Kafka on the Shore
by: Haruki Murakami

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780099458326
ISBN: 0099458322
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: October 06, 2005
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage
Sales Rank: 1905

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- One of the best books from one of the most unique authors
This is one of the best books I have read for a long time. Murakamis world is so unique that one you have entered it you want to keep coming back again and again. And spending time with "Kafka" is one of my favorite ways to do so.

Rating:

- Not his best but still good
This is the second book I have read by this author after reading Norwegian Wood. I loved Norwegian Wood so I was really looking forward to this one. I was left a little disappointed.
The story follows Kafka who has run away from his father at the age of 15 and Nakata who as a result of an accident as a child, is mentally upset but has the ability to talk to cats.
He two stories seem very separate to begin with but slowly they begin to intertwine. Just as you begin to really enjoy one of the characters story's, you flick back to the other one and visa versa. The story started so strongly but lost its momentum part way through. I found the ending a little cliché but I still enjoyed the book. As with Norwegian Wood, the story stayed ... Read More:

Rating:

- Fascinating, compelling, but also annoyingly convoluted.
This novel has two parallel and intertwining threads. The first concerns a 15 year old boy who runs away from his father's home and who seems pre-destined to sleep with his mother and sister. The second concerns a retired, semi-retarded man, whose mind was partially stolen in a childhood supernatural accident, but who has supernatural gifts in return. He goes on a quest to find some peace. The characters all behave in that natural, simple way with simple dialogue that is one of Murakami's trademarks, but which I found somewhat annoying at times in this particular novel. The plot, for all its surreal, bizarre twists, is strangely compelling and I found the book very gripping. It is clear that there is a tapestry of ideas within the novel, ... Read More:

Rating:

- Puzzling
This was my first experience of Murakami, so I had no preconceptions when I read the book. I finished it last night and I'm still rather baffled so apologies for the vagueness of this review, but as another reviewer said the story is so complex and confusing a summary would be practically impossible.
My first thoughts on starting reading it: this is a massive book; the writing style is so fluid, the descriptions so clear, you can really see and almost hear the scenes described; I'm really going to enjoy this. That Murakami is an immensely talented writer is obvious. But the story... It's so sprawling, the dual quest story, and complex that when I was reading I was thinking about the notes Murakami must have made before he started, (I don't ... Read More:

Rating:

- One of the Best Novels of 2005
"Kafka on the Shore" richly deserves its praise by The New York Times as one of its most notable books of fiction in 2005. On a more personal note, I regard it as the most compelling new work of fiction I have read this year, and substantially more absorbing a read than the novel which I regard now as a distant Number Two, Rick Moody's "The Diviners". But I do wonder whether it is truly one of Haruki Murakami's masterpieces; of these both "Norwegian Wood" and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles" are genuine literary classics of modern world literature. In stark contrast, I agree with a previous Amazon reviewer that the Kafka Tamura saga - one of the two intertwined plots - is reminiscent of "Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World". And yet here, ... Read More:

Books : Kafka on the Shore