Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
"Kafka on the Shore" is a novel by Haruki Murakami that intertwines the stories of two main characters: fifteen-year-old Kafka Tamura and an elderly man named Satoru Nakata. Kafka, who harbors a troubled relationship with his father and is haunted by a disturbing prophecy regarding his family, runs away from home in search of his lost mother and sister. His journey leads him to Takamatsu, where he encounters a unique cast of characters, including Oshima and Miss Saeki, who help him navigate his complex feelings of longing and identity.
Nakata, on the other hand, lives a life marked by a mysterious accident that has left him with no memory and an extraordinary ability to communicate with cats. As the narrative unfolds, Nakata’s path intersects with Kafka’s, revealing deeper connections between them. Themes of individual quests, the search for completeness, and the nature of freedom are prevalent, with characters often reflecting on their desires and responsibilities. The novel combines elements of magical realism, featuring whimsical occurrences like raining fish and talking animals, which serve to enhance the story's exploration of identity and human experience. As with much of Murakami's work, "Kafka on the Shore" invites readers to consider the nature of reality and the transformative power of art and music.
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Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published:Umibe no Kafuka, 2002 (English translation, 2005)
Type of work: Novel
The Work
Fifteen-year-old Kafka Tamura has a bad relationship with Koichi, his sculptor father, and his mother left with his sister when he was four. The insensitive Koichi has told the boy that one day he will have sex with both his mother and sister, a prophecy tainting his desire to find them. Kafka runs away from home, and Murakami alternates his story with that of Satoru Nakata, an elderly man from the same Tokyo neighborhood. Nakata has lost his memory and the ability to read and write following a mysterious accident when he was a schoolboy in 1944. He lives on a government subsidy and the money he makes from finding lost cats, with which he can communicate much better than with humans. Nakata is an extreme example of Murakami’s patented passive protagonists. He simply accepts what life offers, enjoying its simple pleasures.
Kafka makes his way to Takamutsu on the island of Shikoku and to the Komura Memorial Library, where a wealthy man’s collection resides. He meets Oshima, a library assistant, and Miss Saeki, the library director. She was once famous for composing and singing a popular song, “Kafka on the Shore,” but retreated from the world following the death of her lover, the son of the Komura family. Kafka becomes Oshima’s assistant in exchange for room and board and finds himself visited by the spirit of the younger Miss Saeki, whom he suspects may be his mother. He also meets Sakura, a young hairdresser, and is torn between wanting to have sex with her and wanting her to be his lost sister. Kafka and Oshima discuss the Oedipal nature of his quandary.
Nakata flees Tokyo after a psychopath calling himself Johnnie Walker, actually Kafka’s father, forces the old man to kill him. Nakata makes his way to Takamutsu, site of his accident, with the help of Hoshino, a young truck driver. There, his and Kafka’s destinies overlap. The characters are similar in their reliance upon daily routines to give the impression of order in a disorderly world.
Kafka on the Shore is another of Murakami’s quest novels, with neither protagonist truly understanding what they are seeking. Kafka, Nakata, Oshima, Miss Saeki, and Hoshino resemble each other in being incomplete. The sexually ambiguous Oshima tells Kafka about the Greek belief that all people are searching for their missing halves. Murakami uses quests to explore such themes as individual freedom and the individual’s responsibility to a larger good.
Kafka on the Shore is one of Murakami’s most whimsical novels, with several talking cats—or at least cats who talk to Nakata. Hoshino meets a metaphysical construct taking the form of Colonel Sanders, the Kentucky Fried Chicken symbol, and battles a creature out of a science-fiction film. Nakata, who has the power to make fish rain from the sky, discovers he is seeking an entrance stone mentioned in Miss Saeki’s song. As with Latin American Magical Realism, these fairy-tale elements seem logical within the context of the novel. More important, Murakami uses whimsy to delineate character and reveal themes.
The usual frequent references to Western arts appear throughout Kafka on the Shore. Kafka listens to such popular music acts as Radiohead to maintain his sanity. Kafka renames himself because of his admiration for Franz Kafka’s short story “In der Strafkolonie” (1919; “In the Penal Colony,” 1941). The novel’s fantastical qualities resemble those in Sir Richard Francis Burton’s Arabian Nights (1850), a rare edition of which Kafka reads at the library. Murakami departs from his usual practice by having Kafka read and discuss Japanese literature: Kof (1908; The Miner, 1988)by Soseki Natsume. The magic powers of the arts are illustrated when Hoshino, a bit of a slacker, is transformed by hearing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Archduke Trio (1810-1811) in a coffee bar.
With its allusions, libraries, librarians, and cats, Kafka on the Shore recalls other Murakami novels. Additional similarities include Kafka’s retreating to a mountain cabin, as in A Wild Sheep Chase. In this solitude, Kafka begins to find himself. Understanding the difference between letting things happen and exerting some control over his destiny, Kafka makes progress toward discovering his identity.
Review Sources
The Atlantic Monthly 295 (June, 2005): 124.
Booklist 101, no. 6 (November 15, 2004): 532.
Kirkus Reviews 72, no. 23 (December 1, 2004): 1110.
Library Journal 130, no. 1 (January, 2005): 99.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 23, 2005, p. 3.
The New Leader 88, no. 1 (January/February, 2005): 28-29.
New Statesman 134 (January 24, 2005): 52-53.
The New York Times 154 (January 31, 2005): E10.
The New York Times Book Review 154 (February 6, 2005): 1-10.
The New Yorker 80 (January 24, 2005): 91.
Newsweek 145, no. 4 (January 24, 2005): 67.
People 63, no. 2 (January 17, 2005): 55.
Publishers Weekly 251, no. 49 (December 6, 2004): 42.
The Times Literary Supplement, January 7, 2005, pp. 19-20.