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phcrn__18's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Rape, Murder, and Sexual content
Moderate: Abandonment
avocados_from_mexico's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This was certainly a book.
There are so many things that I dislike about this book, namely the (spoilers)very prominent adult/minor relationship... or whatever the fuck that was, the incest, and somewhat personal gripes with how Murakami writes the women in this book and the handling of Oshima's gender —yet for whatever reason, the writing compelled me, and I kept reading, and reading, and reading more. I haven't read Oedipus Rex in a while and I remember thoroughly hating it, in all honesty. But I read this, and I couldn't read anything more for a few days because I couldn't get this out of my mind.
I don't know what draws me to it. Perhaps it's the surrealism, the incredibly flawed cast of characters, or several real-life coincidences I experienced (is that the right word?) regarding the book. Minor things, but considering how much of a role coincidence plays in this book, it was kind of creepy to me in the moment. It's probably a mix of these things that kept me reading to the end.
I left this book not knowing what to take from it. I spent a long, long time thinking about what made this book so enjoyable to me. I think the writing is flat and dated, the characters aren't very compelling, and the plot was strange, to say the least. But the experience of reading this book left me with such a strange and surreal feeling afterwards that I can't help but enjoy it.
I think a lot of people who have read this book have had similar experiences. This isn't the kind of book I particularly recommend for the plot or the writing, but rather, how I felt reading it. And for that, it gets a 4.25 stars for me, no matter how much I dislike about it.
There are so many things that I dislike about this book, namely the (spoilers)
I don't know what draws me to it. Perhaps it's the surrealism, the incredibly flawed cast of characters, or several real-life coincidences I experienced (is that the right word?) regarding the book. Minor things, but considering how much of a role coincidence plays in this book, it was kind of creepy to me in the moment. It's probably a mix of these things that kept me reading to the end.
I left this book not knowing what to take from it. I spent a long, long time thinking about what made this book so enjoyable to me. I think the writing is flat and dated, the characters aren't very compelling, and the plot was strange, to say the least. But the experience of reading this book left me with such a strange and surreal feeling afterwards that I can't help but enjoy it.
I think a lot of people who have read this book have had similar experiences. This isn't the kind of book I particularly recommend for the plot or the writing, but rather, how I felt reading it. And for that, it gets a 4.25 stars for me, no matter how much I dislike about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Incest
justin_stark's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Animal death
kayliee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Sexual content
swanwords's review against another edition
I couldn't finish this book. I have a number of complaints, chief among them is Haruki Murakami's complete and utter lack of understanding of PEOPLE. While I understand sometimes words get lost in translation, Murakami's writing skills seem to be afflicted more by his inadequate character development than translation errors.
The book is partially based on the Oedpius complex. However, it reads like a hollow story about, well... nothing. Another person in these reviews said that none of the characters in the book seem to understand that they are dealing with a 15-year-old and I couldn't agree more. The author's side characters are devoid of emotions, especially guilt.Why wouldn't you call the police if a 15-year-old runaway shows up at your library? Why wouldn't you call the police after that 15-year-old is orphaned? Why would you molest a 15-year-old after he was just injured on the side of the road and had no one else to call? The characters in this book are senseless, like sad puppets in a boring play.
There were some moments where the book was mildly interesting and these mainly centered around the other character, Nakata. His story was engaging until he encountered an out-of-place character that kills cats (graphically). Murakami attempts to weave some sort of philosophical, fantastical meaning into this man's life but fails. The book seriously DRAGS after Nakata's turning point.
Lastly, I think it's a well-known issue the way that Murakami talks about women and the fact that his novels are held in high regard "in spite of" is disappointing. The author outwardly criticizes all of his female characters and jests about the concerns of feminists. He fabricates feminist concerns as well, such as there being no female restroom in an all-gender restroom. Murakami's implicit biases are clearly a driving force in his literature and I find that his writing is not even close to being good enough for this to be excused.
The book is partially based on the Oedpius complex. However, it reads like a hollow story about, well... nothing. Another person in these reviews said that none of the characters in the book seem to understand that they are dealing with a 15-year-old and I couldn't agree more. The author's side characters are devoid of emotions, especially guilt.
There were some moments where the book was mildly interesting and these mainly centered around the other character, Nakata. His story was engaging until he encountered an out-of-place character that kills cats (graphically). Murakami attempts to weave some sort of philosophical, fantastical meaning into this man's life but fails. The book seriously DRAGS after Nakata's turning point.
Lastly, I think it's a well-known issue the way that Murakami talks about women and the fact that his novels are held in high regard "in spite of" is disappointing. The author outwardly criticizes all of his female characters and jests about the concerns of feminists. He fabricates feminist concerns as well, such as there being no female restroom in an all-gender restroom. Murakami's implicit biases are clearly a driving force in his literature and I find that his writing is not even close to being good enough for this to be excused.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Misogyny
lilaceous's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
characters - ⭐️
plot - ⭐️
engaging to read - ⭐️
would recommend - .5⭐️
would read again - ⭐️
i lovedd reading this book. it’s well written, unique, and good weird. the first half delighted and surprised me in so many ways. that being said, there are some upsetting sexual relationships in the second half that make this a hard book to recommend.
i lovedd reading this book. it’s well written, unique, and good weird. the first half delighted and surprised me in so many ways. that being said, there are some upsetting sexual relationships in the second half that make this a hard book to recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Gore, and Rape
evelphysicist's review against another edition
I just can’t get over the main character associating everything horny with his sister.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Incest
chamomiledaydreams's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
This book gets a lot of hype, with plenty of Murakami fans citing it as their favorite of his works. Honestly, though, it was just OK. There are many details that intrigued me and made the story worth reading, but even the bits I adored didn't feel fully fleshed out or satisfying.
Let's tackle Nakata's character, to start. I loved the flashbacks to WWII and the idea of someone who suffered an inexplicable period of unconsciousness in their formative years and woke up completely different. On the one hand, Nakata's an ableist stereotype: He's an asexual old man who cannot read or write and who clumsily refers to himself in the third person (at least, in the English translation).
Yet I found him quite endearing. He often apologizes for being dumb and asking questions, but that underscore his engagement with the world and his dedication to trying his best. Plus, he seems more intentional and profound than many of the other characters, wise and mystical beyond his alleged cognitive abilities. Talking to cats is a major point in his favor, as well, although I was disappointed that it did not remain an ability of his through to the end.
Now let's address Oshima, who is 80% of what I enjoyed in this novel. When those two women begin harassing him in the name of feminism, I flinched away from the page, perplexed by what Murakami was trying to say. His depictions of women never sit right with me, and I was worried that he was dismissing all efforts to attain gender equality. Of course, he wrote two of the worst feminists possible and made their demands outrageous. But why did he feel the need to include such a scene at all?
Then Oshima turns the tables on them by proving that he isn't a typical "patriarchal male," explaining that he was assigned female at birth and going into all sorts of uncomfortable personal information, including his favorite sexual positions and his unconventional puberty. In that moment, Oshima went from a cool librarian that I admired to an explicitly queer character whose presence surprised and pleased me. I appreciate that Murakami and his characters rarely misgender Oshima, and I'm glad that he was a major player in this story.
However, I wasn't a big fan of the protagonist Kafka or his love interest Miss Saeki. She was characterized a bit like Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations," except she was much kinder and wiser. Even though Kafka is the crux of this story, I never felt too invested in his personal problems. Yeah, sure, his dad is awful, and it sucks that his mom left when he was young. But I didn't enjoy how the main female characters (Sakura and Miss Saeki) were so fiercely drawn to him, especially because he seemed pretty bland to me. Not to mention the emphasis on Oedipal incest, which understandably made me very uncomfortable. I endured every one of Kafka's chapters in the hopes that Oshima would make an appearance at some point.
"Kafka on the Shore" also features the most viscerally disturbing scene in a Murakami novel that I've read to date. His stories are often sexually explicit and can become violent at times. Honestly, though, the way that he writes violence has never upset me. Those moments are dark, but they're never so immersive that I can't remain comfortably detached from them. Yet I seriously considered skipping the scene that involved cat mutilation, because it made me feel physically ill. At the time, my cat was sitting on my lap and purring, and I felt like I was betraying him somehow by reading such awful descriptions about feline evisceration. I read that chapter as fast as humanly possibly, hoping to get it over with while struggling to decipher its meaning to the rest of the story.
All this to say, there are plenty of details in this novel that I enjoyed. I liked the characters Nakata, Oshima, and even Hoshino. But the main plot of this story, and the constant emphasis on Kafka's teenage angst, never won me over. It's probably just the asexual in me, but how hard can it be not to sleep with your mother and sister? Kafka could stand to take a letter out of Nakata's book.
One final note: Is Nakata's asexuality ableist? I would say so. Nakata himself explains that he "used to be normal ... but something happened," resulting in an "emptiness" that negates any and all desires. He later mentions that, had he "been [his] normal self," he would have followed in his brothers' footsteps and "gotten married and had a family."
But even though Nakata's lack of sexual attraction has supernatural origins and is inexplicably tied to his disability, Murakami isn't consistent with the message that emptiness equals asexuality, as demonstrated when Hoshino reflects that he himself is empty, even more so than Nakata. Hoshino is referring to having a purpose in life and finding meaning in his existence. Nakata has this while Hoshino was not. Thus, we have a presumed allosexual character calling himself empty relative to a confirmed asexual character.
So yes, I do think that making Nakata asexual is rooted in ableism. But I don't think that Murakami villainizes Nakata because of this. In fact, Murakami appears willing to explore different ways of existing in the world, contrasting Nakata's asexual life with Hoshino's allosexual one and ultimately uplifting and celebrating Nakata for his wisdom and pleasant attitude. Nakata is a hero in this story, and while there are several moments that mourn for his lost allosexuality, his story is not diminished because of this. Besides, who's to say that he wouldn't have been asexual no matter what? Given the lack of common knowledge surrounding asexuality (both today and when this book was written), Murakami could have done a lot worse in his depictions of Nakata.
Let's tackle Nakata's character, to start. I loved the flashbacks to WWII and the idea of someone who suffered an inexplicable period of unconsciousness in their formative years and woke up completely different. On the one hand, Nakata's an ableist stereotype: He's an asexual old man who cannot read or write and who clumsily refers to himself in the third person (at least, in the English translation).
Yet I found him quite endearing. He often apologizes for being dumb and asking questions, but that underscore his engagement with the world and his dedication to trying his best. Plus, he seems more intentional and profound than many of the other characters, wise and mystical beyond his alleged cognitive abilities. Talking to cats is a major point in his favor, as well, although I was disappointed that it did not remain an ability of his through to the end.
Now let's address Oshima, who is 80% of what I enjoyed in this novel. When those two women begin harassing him in the name of feminism, I flinched away from the page, perplexed by what Murakami was trying to say. His depictions of women never sit right with me, and I was worried that he was dismissing all efforts to attain gender equality. Of course, he wrote two of the worst feminists possible and made their demands outrageous. But why did he feel the need to include such a scene at all?
Then Oshima turns the tables on them by proving that he isn't a typical "patriarchal male," explaining that he was assigned female at birth and going into all sorts of uncomfortable personal information, including his favorite sexual positions and his unconventional puberty. In that moment, Oshima went from a cool librarian that I admired to an explicitly queer character whose presence surprised and pleased me. I appreciate that Murakami and his characters rarely misgender Oshima, and I'm glad that he was a major player in this story.
However, I wasn't a big fan of the protagonist Kafka or his love interest Miss Saeki. She was characterized a bit like Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations," except she was much kinder and wiser. Even though Kafka is the crux of this story, I never felt too invested in his personal problems. Yeah, sure, his dad is awful, and it sucks that his mom left when he was young. But I didn't enjoy how the main female characters (Sakura and Miss Saeki) were so fiercely drawn to him, especially because he seemed pretty bland to me. Not to mention the emphasis on Oedipal incest, which understandably made me very uncomfortable. I endured every one of Kafka's chapters in the hopes that Oshima would make an appearance at some point.
"Kafka on the Shore" also features the most viscerally disturbing scene in a Murakami novel that I've read to date. His stories are often sexually explicit and can become violent at times. Honestly, though, the way that he writes violence has never upset me. Those moments are dark, but they're never so immersive that I can't remain comfortably detached from them. Yet I seriously considered skipping the scene that involved cat mutilation, because it made me feel physically ill. At the time, my cat was sitting on my lap and purring, and I felt like I was betraying him somehow by reading such awful descriptions about feline evisceration. I read that chapter as fast as humanly possibly, hoping to get it over with while struggling to decipher its meaning to the rest of the story.
All this to say, there are plenty of details in this novel that I enjoyed. I liked the characters Nakata, Oshima, and even Hoshino. But the main plot of this story, and the constant emphasis on Kafka's teenage angst, never won me over. It's probably just the asexual in me, but how hard can it be not to sleep with your mother and sister? Kafka could stand to take a letter out of Nakata's book.
One final note: Is Nakata's asexuality ableist? I would say so. Nakata himself explains that he "used to be normal ... but something happened," resulting in an "emptiness" that negates any and all desires. He later mentions that, had he "been [his] normal self," he would have followed in his brothers' footsteps and "gotten married and had a family."
But even though Nakata's lack of sexual attraction has supernatural origins and is inexplicably tied to his disability, Murakami isn't consistent with the message that emptiness equals asexuality, as demonstrated when Hoshino reflects that he himself is empty, even more so than Nakata. Hoshino is referring to having a purpose in life and finding meaning in his existence. Nakata has this while Hoshino was not. Thus, we have a presumed allosexual character calling himself empty relative to a confirmed asexual character.
So yes, I do think that making Nakata asexual is rooted in ableism. But I don't think that Murakami villainizes Nakata because of this. In fact, Murakami appears willing to explore different ways of existing in the world, contrasting Nakata's asexual life with Hoshino's allosexual one and ultimately uplifting and celebrating Nakata for his wisdom and pleasant attitude. Nakata is a hero in this story, and while there are several moments that mourn for his lost allosexuality, his story is not diminished because of this. Besides, who's to say that he wouldn't have been asexual no matter what? Given the lack of common knowledge surrounding asexuality (both today and when this book was written), Murakami could have done a lot worse in his depictions of Nakata.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Incest
Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, and Acephobia/Arophobia
bananaza55's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Blood, Grief, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Rape, and Murder
luciuh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
woooww!!!!! this is my first murakami book and i can firmly say that 1) he’s an amazing author and that 2) he’s an absolute freak. i think this is one of those books where i understood so much reading it, but still feel that there is so much more to understand about it. it’s characters exist in this strange state of conscious and unconscious, magical realism to a T… if only he would write women well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Animal death
Moderate: Gore