Kafka on the Shore

By: Haruki Murakami

Narrated by: Sean Barrett, Oliver Le Sueur

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 novel has a similarly extraordinary scope and the same capacity to amaze, entertain, and bewitch. 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.

©2005 Haruki Murakami (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"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)

The narration by Oliver Le Sueur and Sean Barrett

The narration by Oliver Le Sueur and Sean Barrett is what makes this book amazing!

So much fun!!

Any additional comments?

Haruki Murakami weaves this bizarre world that you end up being sad to leave once the book is over. It's so much fun and the narration is perfect. I'm left with so many questions about the meaning of the stories and what the symbolism/metaphors really mean!! Loved the book - definitely worth a listen :)

Great story but

Oliver Le Suer was no match for the characters brought to life by Sean Barrett, he was monotone and it was many times difficult to notice when Kafka or Oshima was talking since he didn’t even try to change the tone. But kudos to Mr. Barrett , what a pleasure to hear his interpretation of Nakata, Cl Sanders, Johny Walker... so bad that Oliver definitely was not match at all!

Engaging and Not Totally Fulfilling

I won’t say I didn’t enjoy this book. Loads of surreal stuff happens that keeps you guessing and seeking a connective tissue across the events. There’s fantastic happenings and settings that give you an appreciation for the authors creativity.

Unfortunately, I was just left with lots of questions at the end. Few things received solid answers or even the beginnings of explanations. This was a book where I went online and researched other people’s interpretation of the events, because I really didn’t know how I felt at the end. It was almost like I accidentally skipped an important chapter or something.

I think this is less a flaw of the story and more and misalignment with my personal taste. The story is, I think be design, not trying to answer questions about itself. It wants you to stew in the surreal and draw your own interpretations and connections between what’s going on and a broader meaning. This can be powerful for sure, and certain moment did resonate with me, but I felt wanting of that connective tissue in the end.

If you like the surreal, check this book out. If you need a story where things get explained and you’re left feeling like you know what the point of the story was and how it all connected, maybe pick something else.

P.S. The performances were fantastic!

Existential dream

Loved every second of this book. The author conflates the dream with the reality to tell an amazing coming of age story of a 15 year old boy.

Well Performed

Murakami’s metaphysical magical realist bildungsroman riddle mystery is delightfully performed. Barrett and Le Sueur affectionately breathe life into every character. Each chapter alternates between two perspectives, and with it, the narrator. This makes for a clear, crisp transition between chapters. This, with many other touches, weaves into an overall poignant, joyful, and profound experience.

great narration, great story

Great narration, I feel I learned something about Japanese culture and geography as well. The story had a magical realism feel too it.

Encore

Rich, dense...complex.
Different than other Murakami works.
I nod and shake my head (wink wink*) thinking I have to listen to it again to fully grasp its threads.

Masterpiece

Journey into subconsciousness and dreams like no other book. Deep and provocative and hauntingly beautiful

How deep is too deep?

While I was listening to this audiobook, it felt very Lynchian. I started to search for the metaphors and meanings as the tale went farther down the rabbit hole. It was a bit too mysterious while some plot holes grew wide with more questions. I was intrigued enough to add a few other Murakami titles to my wishlist.