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The even-numbered chapters tell Nakata's story. They start with military reports of a strange incident in [[Yamanashi Prefecture]] where multiple children, including Nakata, collapse in the woods - Nakata, after the incident, is the only one of the children who came out of the incident without any memory and unable to read and write, but able to talk to cats. The incident is initially blamed on poisonous gas, but it is later revealed that it was the result of a lustful teacher beating Nakata. Later on in the book, it is shown that due to his uncanny abilities, Nakata, who survives on government subsidy, has found part-time work in his old age as a finder of lost cats (Murakami's earlier work ''[[The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle]]'' also involves searching for a lost cat). Having finally located and returned one particular cat to its owners, Nakata finds that the circumstances of the case have put him on a path which, unfolding one step at a time before him, takes the illiterate man far away from his familiar and comforting home territory. Nakata tries to find a cat named Gomma by speaking to other cats, one of which, named Mimi, tells him of a man driving a black car luring and kidnapping cats in the area. Cats in the area are wary of this man. Nakata stakes-out an abandoned building that he knows that stray and lost cats frequent. After a few days, a devious looking dog impressions to Nakata to follow, leading him to a house far off from where he lives. It is inside where he meets a man introducing himself as Johnnie Walker. Johnnie Walker reveals that he has been alive for a long time, yet has no idea when he was born and has been killing cats in a gruesome ritual to fashion a flute made of cat soul; the intent being to have a flute powerful enough call even bigger and bigger game until he could call and control people. Johnnie Walker also reveals how he is sick of living, but can't commit suicide. Offering Nakata a chance to kill him if Nakata first fears then hates him. Johnnie takes out a sack with five cats, and begins slaughtering the cats until he gets to Mimi, whom he has kidnapped (Gomma would be next). Nakata kills Johnnie Walker and delivers Mimi and Goma back to their homes, unable to talk to them anymore. Attempting to make a police report on killing Johnnie Walker, the police laugh dismiss his claims of homicide and Nakata's prediction of fish raining down from the sky the next day. The old man leaves the city the next day, heading west, as fish rain from the sky over the city. He takes a gigantic leap of faith in going on the road for the first time in his life, unable even to read a map and without knowing where he will eventually end up. He befriends a truck driver named Hoshino, who takes him on as a passenger in his [[truck]] and soon becomes very attached to the old man. He heads for Takamatsu, an unknown force driving him there.<ref name=flutsch/>{{rp|70–71}}
The even-numbered chapters tell Nakata's story. They start with military reports of a strange incident in [[Yamanashi Prefecture]] where multiple children, including Nakata, collapse in the woods - Nakata, after the incident, is the only one of the children who came out of the incident without any memory and unable to read and write, but able to talk to cats. The incident is initially blamed on poisonous gas, but it is later revealed that it was the result of a lustful teacher beating Nakata. Later on in the book, it is shown that due to his uncanny abilities, Nakata, who survives on government subsidy, has found part-time work in his old age as a finder of lost cats (Murakami's earlier work ''[[The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle]]'' also involves searching for a lost cat). Having finally located and returned one particular cat to its owners, Nakata finds that the circumstances of the case have put him on a path which, unfolding one step at a time before him, takes the illiterate man far away from his familiar and comforting home territory. Nakata tries to find a cat named Gomma by speaking to other cats, one of which, named Mimi, tells him of a man driving a black car luring and kidnapping cats in the area. Cats in the area are wary of this man. Nakata stakes-out an abandoned building that he knows that stray and lost cats frequent. After a few days, a devious looking dog impressions to Nakata to follow, leading him to a house far off from where he lives. It is inside where he meets a man introducing himself as Johnnie Walker. Johnnie Walker reveals that he has been alive for a long time, yet has no idea when he was born and has been killing cats in a gruesome ritual to fashion a flute made of cat soul; the intent being to have a flute powerful enough call even bigger and bigger game until he could call and control people. Johnnie Walker also reveals how he is sick of living, but can't commit suicide. Offering Nakata a chance to kill him if Nakata first fears then hates him. Johnnie takes out a sack with five cats, and begins slaughtering the cats until he gets to Mimi, whom he has kidnapped (Gomma would be next). Nakata kills Johnnie Walker and delivers Mimi and Goma back to their homes, unable to talk to them anymore. Attempting to make a police report on killing Johnnie Walker, the police laugh dismiss his claims of homicide and Nakata's prediction of fish raining down from the sky the next day. The old man leaves the city the next day, heading west, as fish rain from the sky over the city. He takes a gigantic leap of faith in going on the road for the first time in his life, unable even to read a map and without knowing where he will eventually end up. He befriends a truck driver named Hoshino, who takes him on as a passenger in his [[truck]] and soon becomes very attached to the old man. He heads for Takamatsu, an unknown force driving him there.<ref name=flutsch/>{{rp|70–71}} Nakata shares with Hoshino his need to find an entrance stone. Hoshino and Nakata stop at a hotel, where Nakata sleeps for over thirty hours. Hoshino strolls the town. The two first try to check the libraries and tourism spots for information on where the stone may be located.


==Major themes==
==Major themes==

Revision as of 03:18, 10 April 2023

Kafka on the Shore
First edition (Japanese)
AuthorHaruki Murakami
Original title海辺うみべのカフカ
Umibe no Kafuka
TranslatorPhilip Gabriel
LanguageJapanese
GenreMagical realism
Published
Publication placeJapan
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages505
ISBN1-84343-110-6
OCLC56805021

Kafka on the Shore (海辺うみべのカフカ, Umibe no Kafuka) is a 2002 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Its 2005 English translation was among "The 10 Best Books of 2005" from The New York Times and received the World Fantasy Award for 2006. The book tells the stories of the young Kafka Tamura, a bookish 15-year-old boy who runs away from his Oedipal curse, and Satoru Nakata, an old, disabled man with the uncanny ability to talk to cats. The book incorporates themes of music as a communicative conduit, metaphysics, dreams, fate, the subconscious.

After the release of the book, Murakami allowed for questions about the novel to be sent in, and responded to many of them. The novel was generally well-received, with positive reviews from John Updike and the New York Times.

Title

The title of the book, according to Alan Cheuse of NPR, is suggestive and mysterious to Japanese readers - Franz Kafka is categorized as a Western writer who is well-known by Americans but is not so in Japan. He compares it to titles such as Genji on the Hudson.[1] Psychoanalyst Hayao Kawai saw special meaning in the name "Kafka", as its Japanese version, Kafuka (Japanese: カフカ), could be a combination of 可か (ka, meaning possible or good) and 不可ふか (fuka, meaning the opposite), thus giving the book liminality.[2]: 64–65 

Plot summary

Comprising two distinct but interrelated plots, the narrative runs back and forth between both plots, taking up each plotline in alternating chapters.

Kafka's Story:

The odd-numbered chapters tell the 15-year-old Kafka's story as he runs away from his father's house to escape an Oedipal curse and to embark upon a quest to find his mother and sister.[3] On the bus to Takamatsu, he meets a girl named Sakura, a hairdresser with whom he feels attraction to but refuses to act on due to him not knowing if she might be his sister. After a series of adventures, he finds shelter in a quiet, private library in Takamatsu, run by the distant and aloof Miss Saeki and the intelligent and more welcoming Oshima. There he spends his days reading the unabridged Richard Francis Burton translation of One Thousand and One Nights and the collected works of Natsume Sōseki. He stays in a hotel, claiming to be a student working on research for the next week. One day, near the end of his hotel stay, Kafka wakes up in a forest, far away from the library or the hotel; with no memory of anything past dinner the previous night or recollection how he got to where he was. He finds a bathroom, washes his face and notices blood on his shirt, which he changes quickly and calls Sakura to pick him up. At her friend's home, after she picks him up, he explains his story. Kafka and Sakura have a sexual encounter that night. Kafka wakes up the next morning and cleans up around the place before leaving for the library again. There Oshima questions Kafka about his status and decides to help him. Oshima brings him to the forests of Kōchi Prefecture, where Kafka is ultimately healed.[4]: 70  Living in a cabin owned by Oshima's family. After several days, Oshima brings him back to the library, explaining that Mrs. Saeki will allow him to stay in a guesthouse in the library in exchange for being Oshima's assistant at the library. Oshima explains a little of Mrs. Saeki's history, of being a former student and singer who once was engaged to and loved a young man also called Kafka, but, since his death in the college student protests in their youth, she has been silent, distant and trapped in the past. Kafka starts his duties with Oshima. After a couple of days, Oshima reads the newspaper article of Kafka's father dying to him. Kafka resolves to stay low in the library. Kafka is then visited by a living ghost of the 15 year old Mrs. Saeki, visiting his guest room to look upon a framed picture of her deceased lover, Kafka. Kafka falls in love with the ghost. It is then that Kafka asks Oshima for both a record of and sheet music to Mrs. Saeki's song. Kafka is visited several more times by the living ghost at night while he listens to and studies the lyrics of the song. Oshima informs Kafka that because Kafka used his cell phone, the cops were able to track Kafka to Takamatsu, but thanks to Oshima, no one suspects that Kafka is in the library. Kafka calls Sakura and she tells him that she likes him, a comment he doesn't know how to respond to based on his new love for Mrs. Saeki's 15-year-old living ghost.

Nakata's Story:

The even-numbered chapters tell Nakata's story. They start with military reports of a strange incident in Yamanashi Prefecture where multiple children, including Nakata, collapse in the woods - Nakata, after the incident, is the only one of the children who came out of the incident without any memory and unable to read and write, but able to talk to cats. The incident is initially blamed on poisonous gas, but it is later revealed that it was the result of a lustful teacher beating Nakata. Later on in the book, it is shown that due to his uncanny abilities, Nakata, who survives on government subsidy, has found part-time work in his old age as a finder of lost cats (Murakami's earlier work The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle also involves searching for a lost cat). Having finally located and returned one particular cat to its owners, Nakata finds that the circumstances of the case have put him on a path which, unfolding one step at a time before him, takes the illiterate man far away from his familiar and comforting home territory. Nakata tries to find a cat named Gomma by speaking to other cats, one of which, named Mimi, tells him of a man driving a black car luring and kidnapping cats in the area. Cats in the area are wary of this man. Nakata stakes-out an abandoned building that he knows that stray and lost cats frequent. After a few days, a devious looking dog impressions to Nakata to follow, leading him to a house far off from where he lives. It is inside where he meets a man introducing himself as Johnnie Walker. Johnnie Walker reveals that he has been alive for a long time, yet has no idea when he was born and has been killing cats in a gruesome ritual to fashion a flute made of cat soul; the intent being to have a flute powerful enough call even bigger and bigger game until he could call and control people. Johnnie Walker also reveals how he is sick of living, but can't commit suicide. Offering Nakata a chance to kill him if Nakata first fears then hates him. Johnnie takes out a sack with five cats, and begins slaughtering the cats until he gets to Mimi, whom he has kidnapped (Gomma would be next). Nakata kills Johnnie Walker and delivers Mimi and Goma back to their homes, unable to talk to them anymore. Attempting to make a police report on killing Johnnie Walker, the police laugh dismiss his claims of homicide and Nakata's prediction of fish raining down from the sky the next day. The old man leaves the city the next day, heading west, as fish rain from the sky over the city. He takes a gigantic leap of faith in going on the road for the first time in his life, unable even to read a map and without knowing where he will eventually end up. He befriends a truck driver named Hoshino, who takes him on as a passenger in his truck and soon becomes very attached to the old man. He heads for Takamatsu, an unknown force driving him there.[4]: 70–71  Nakata shares with Hoshino his need to find an entrance stone. Hoshino and Nakata stop at a hotel, where Nakata sleeps for over thirty hours. Hoshino strolls the town. The two first try to check the libraries and tourism spots for information on where the stone may be located.

Major themes

The power and beauty of music as a communicative medium is one of the central ideas of the novel—the very title comes from a song Kafka is given on a record in the library.[5][6] The music of Beethoven, specifically the Archduke Trio, is also used as a redemptive metaphor.[7] Metaphysics is also a central concept of the novel as many of the character's dialogues and soliloquy are motivated by their inquiry about the nature of the world around them and their relation to it. Among other prominent ideas are: the virtues of self-sufficiency, the relation of dreams and reality, the threat of fate, the uncertain grip of prophecy, and the influence of the subconscious.[8]

Style

Kafka on the Shore demonstrates Murakami's typical blend of popular culture, mundane detail, magical realism, suspense, humor, an involved plot, and potent sexuality.[9] It also features an increased emphasis on Japanese religious traditions, particularly Shinto.[10] The main characters are significant departures from the typical protagonist of a Murakami novel, such as Toru Watanabe of Norwegian Wood and Toru Okada of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, who are typically in their 20s or 30s and have rather humdrum personalities.[3] However, many of the same concepts that were first developed in these and other previous novels re-occur in Kafka on the Shore.

G. W. F. Hegel has an influence on the book and is referenced directly at one point.[11]

Characters

Humans

Kafka Tamura

The character's true given name is never revealed to the reader. After having run away from home, he chooses the new name "Kafka", in honor of writer Franz Kafka. Kafka is described as being muscular for his age and a "cool, tall, fifteen-year-old boy lugging a backpack and a bunch of obsessions". He's also the son of the famous sculptor Koichi Tamura. His mother and sister left the family when he was four years old and he can't remember their faces. He occasionally interacts with his metaphysical alter ego "The boy named Crow" ("Kafka" sounds like "kavka", which means "jackdaw", a crow-like bird, in Czech). Crow tells Kafka throughout the novel that he must be "the toughest fifteen-year-old in the world" and thus motivates him to pursue the journey of running away from home. It is heavily suggested throughout the novel that he, Miss Saeki, and Nakata are somehow connected by an 'alternate reality' on which metaphysical objects from people's subconsciousness take form leading them to find an 'essence' to their lives in exchange for taking away a 'part' of their soul.

Satoru Nakata

Nakata lost many of his mental faculties when he was a child; as one of sixteen schoolchildren on a mushroom-gathering field-trip toward the end of World War II, they were rendered unconscious following a mysterious flash of light in the sky (although it is later revealed that the light wasn't the main cause). This event is referred to in the novel as the "Rice Bowl Hill incident". Unlike the other children, who recovered shortly after, Nakata remained unconscious for many weeks and, upon finally awakening, found that his memory and ability to read had disappeared, as well as his higher intellectual functions (i.e. abstract thinking), essentially making him a "blank slate". In their place, Nakata found he was able to communicate with cats, and from then on, he always referred to himself in the third person. Unable to make it past junior high school, his parents sent him to an agricultural school to live with his grandparents, where he was heavily bullied, though found great pleasure dealing with animals. After one severe beating, however, his grandparents got him a job making and repairing antique furniture, which he held for the majority of four decades until his boss passed away. He has two older brothers that look after him and his finances. It is alluded to that he had an abusive father. It is also hinted that Nakata and Miss Saeki have been through the 'alternate reality' before and it's where they left a 'part' of their 'soul', leading to their shadows being irregular compared to normal people's.

Oshima
A 21-year-old, intellectual, haemophiliac, and gay transgender man. He is a librarian and an owner of a cabin in the mountains near Komura Memorial Library who becomes close to Kafka throughout the course of the novel. He becomes the mentor of Kafka as he guides him to the answers that he's seeking on his journey.
Hoshino
A truck driver in his mid-twenties. From a farming family. A bit of a delinquent in his youth, after falling in with a bad crowd, he never progressed too far in his studies, but decided to enter the Japanese Defense Forces after school. There he got his start driving trucks, doing it ever since. He befriends Nakata, due to his resemblance to his own grandfather, who he had a great relationship with, and transports and assists him towards his uncertain goal.
Miss Saeki
The manager of a private library, where Oshima works and where Kafka lives through much of the novel. She was previously a singer, and performed the song "Kafka on the Shore", which unites many of the novel's themes. Although her outward appearance makes her look normal, she suffers from an existential crisis after the death of her boyfriend. She journeyed to the 'alternate reality' when she was 15 years old due to her strong desire to keep her happiness forever, eventually discovering the 'essence' used to compose "Kafka on the Shore". However it led to that version of herself 'separating' from her.
Sakura
A young woman whom Kafka meets on the bus by chance. She assists him later in his journey. She is later raped by Kafka in a dream.
Johnnie Walker
A cat killer who plans to make a flute out of cats' souls. His name is taken from Johnnie Walker, a brand of Scotch whisky, and he dresses to appear like the man featured in the brand's logo.
Colonel Sanders
An 'abstract concept' who takes the form of a pimp or hustler. He is named after, and takes the appearance of, Harland Sanders, the founder and face of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He helps Hoshino to find the 'entrance stone' to the 'alternate reality.'

Cats

Goma
A lost cat owned by Mrs. Koizumi.
Otsuka
An elderly black cat with whom Nakata easily communicates.
Kawamura
A brown cat who was addled after being hit by a bicycle. Though they can communicate, Nakata is unable to understand Kawamura's repetitive and strange sentences.
Mimi
An intelligent Siamese cat. Her name comes from "My name is Mimi" in Puccini's opera "La Boheme".
Okawa
A tabby cat.
Toro
A black cat that temporarily became an 'abstract concept'.

Analysis

Scholar Michael Seats compared the liminality of the novel to Jacques Derrida's exegesis of the concept of pharmakon. According to Seats, the novel's interpretations can be contradictory, and many can be correct.[2]: 65 

Through the lens of psychoanalytic theory, Kafka is a schizoid character suffering from a deep Oedipal curse. Kafka's heart is Kafka, his self-constructed personality, while his unconscious, the one who fulfilled the Oedipal prophecy of father-killing when he turned 15, is Crow. The character Sakura is interpreted as the embodiment of the "healed" personality, who is able to connect to the real world well. Kafka, stuck in the mirror stage, cannot cope with her care, as she has power over the symbolic order. The character Oshima represents the mind-body-spirit split within Kafka. The character Johnny Walker is a symbol of Julia Kristeva's concept of the partially constituted subject.[4]: 70–76 

Understanding the novel

After the story's release, Murakami's Japanese publisher invited readers to submit questions to its website on the meaning of the book. Murakami responded personally to around 1,200 of the 8,000 questions received.[12]

In an interview posted on his English-language website, Murakami says that the secret to understanding the novel lies in reading it several times: "Kafka on the Shore contains several riddles, but there aren't any solutions provided. Instead, several of these riddles combine, and through their interaction the possibility of a solution takes shape. And the form this solution takes will be different for each reader. To put it another way, the riddles function as part of the solution. It's hard to explain, but that's the kind of novel I set out to write".[12]

Reception

John Updike described it as a "real page-turner, as well as an insistently metaphysical mind-bender".[13] Since its 2005 English-language release (2006 PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize-winning translation by Philip Gabriel), the novel has received mostly positive reviews and critical acclaim, including a spot on The New York Times 10 Best Books of 2005 and the World Fantasy Award.[14][15]

References

  1. ^ Cheuse, Alan (8 February 2005). "Murakami Offers a Runaway's Tale in Latest Novel". NPR. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  2. ^ a b Chozick, Matthew Richard (2008). "De-Exoticizing Haruki Murakami's Reception". Comparative Literature Studies. 45 (1): 62–73. doi:10.1353/cls.0.0012. JSTOR 25659633. S2CID 161117217.
  3. ^ a b Miller, Laura (February 6, 2005). "'Kafka on the Shore': Reality's Cul-de-Sacs". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  4. ^ a b c Flutsch, Maria (2006). "Girls and the unconscious in Murakami Haruki's Kafka on the Shore". Japanese Studies. 26 (1): 69–79. doi:10.1080/10371390600636240. S2CID 145676365.
  5. ^ Burns, John (March 31, 2005). "Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami". Georgia Straight. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  6. ^ Lewis-Kraus, Gideon (February 6, 2005). "Convergence of separate odysseys: A questing boy and an old man spark Murakami's ambitious novel". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  7. ^ Jones, Malcolm (January 24, 2005). "The Call of the Wild: A Great Novel With Talking Cats and Colonel Sanders". Newsweek. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  8. ^ Tanaka Atkins, Midori. "In-between spaces in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore: Time and space in Japanese realism." Landscapes of Realism: Rethinking Literary Realism in Comparative Perspectives. Volume I: Mapping Realism. (2021). Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  9. ^ Mitchell, David (January 8, 2005). "Kill me or the cat gets it". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  10. ^ Block, Summer (July 2005). "Familiar and Alien". January Magazine. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  11. ^ Griffin, Michelle (February 19, 2005). "Kafka on the Shore". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  12. ^ a b "An Interview with Haruki Murakami". Book Browse. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  13. ^ Updike, John (January 24, 2005). "Subconscious Tunnels: Haruki Murakami's dreamlike new novel". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  14. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2005". New York Times. December 11, 2005. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  15. ^ Dirda, Michael (May 20, 2007). "A surreal novel of suspense from one of Japan's most exciting writers". Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-12-17.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Kafka on the Shore.

Reviews

Interviews

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