Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Kafka On The Shore

murakami never write women ever again challenge please

this book reminded me why i love the breath of life you can only find in magical realism and how beautifully a mind can color the hue of ink with an overlay of psychology and descriptions that shape words into a hand capable of rolling the film within the wrinkles of your brain

and then i got to the scene with

sakura who casually touches a fifteen year old runaway boy with no family to go back to and the whole maybe incest situation with miss saeki who indulges the yearning of, again, a FIFTEEN year old boy and has sex with the ghost of her dead lover by proxy

and also any other woman that exists in this book

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_claraaaadesa's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

really disappointed!

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dadtsunami's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny inspiring mysterious reflective

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

FIRST AND FOREMOST. READ CWs. DID WOMEN SO DIRTY. WHY DID HE HAVE TO WRITE MISS SAEKI AND SAKURA LIKE THAT, ? not to be a "separate the art from the artist" mf, but all of those gross parts aside, a very very very cool narrative. i really enjoyed it and had a hard time putting it down.. the reflective search for inner strength/resilience from kafka contrasted by the otherwordliness of nakata??? and their connection? OKAY pincer movement. fav quote "I thought this the first time I laid eyes on you, that the shadow you cast on the ground is only half as dark as that of ordinary people" or "eel = knife = Johnnie Walker?"

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finnertysea's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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cocoanatomical's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I really love Murakami’s writing, finding the magical in the unexpected, extraordinary situations evolving out of everyday encounters… The magical realism of it all.
I also loved the fact that there aren’t any clear answers in the end. Things remain open and you tend to ask yourself whether these questions were that important in the first place. It left me with the feeling of life as an ongoing journey full of change and self discovery.

I also really enjoyed having a disabled and a trans character in the book. The representation remains flawed but I generally really liked how they were portrayed and that for the most part Oshima’s right pronouns were used and respected continuously. Both of them were really likable characters.

Nakata’s ability to speak to cats is a personal highlight of mine

What annoyed me the most is the constant objectification and sexualization of the female characters. As well as the overall lack of agency these characters hold within the story. They’re pretty flat in my opinion and only exist in relation to the male characters. Some parts were pretty difficult to read through. I know Murakami can do better and this was just not it for me.

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rosies_book_shelf's review against another edition

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miak2's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

"This is pretty obvious, but until things happen, they haven't happened. And often things aren't what they seem." p.324

It took me two years to finish this book. Two crazy, college-filled, covid-impacted years, but I'm glad I finally did. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with this book. On one hand, it's absolutely beautifully written. Murakami is such a talented author, and this book felt so profound. Did I understand most of it? Heck no. But I finished it with the distinct feeling that I've read something life-changing.

I loved every second of Nakata's story. He was such a charming and loveable character, and his sections were infused with the type of magical realism that I so adore. On the other hand, I felt a little disconnected from Kafka's story. Parts of it were gripping, and others just made me scratch my head.

And here's where we get to my major gripes with this book. I understand that the oedipal curse was central to it, but I'm not sure I understand why. So, perhaps this is an issue of user-error, but these parts (and you know which ones) just felt pointlessly uncomfortable. Actually, in general, this book was uncomfortably sexual in places that it did not need to be, both in its descriptions of sexual acts and in its need to bring up 'banging some hot chick' every other chapter. For example, in a critical moment towards the end of the book, one character thinks:

"Once we finished here I'm going back to Nagoya, to my apartment, and call up some girl and get it on."

Why? Why include this? Little (often misogynistic) moments like this are just peppered casually into the prose, often sandwiched between really profound statements. I just- can't comprehend this.

Tl;dr This was a really special, magical book that's hindered by its weird and often unnecessarily references to sex.

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evestasha's review

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

it feels dreamlike. i actually want to commend murakami for managing to capture such state in his writing.

oshima, though. i love him. kafka and hoshino come close second.

i have not much to say about this book. it feels like i'm both losing and gaining brain cells at the same time the longer i read it. it's actually easier to read than i thought, which is super nice.

ah, but, on the other hand, i had a lot of "wtf" moments reading this. the scenes with sakura, the thing with kafka and saeki, the cat killer... yeah, while my reading experience was fine (not great, since i lost brain cells reading it, but not bad either because i think that's the point of the book), these scenes was... yeah.

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