I’m still in the middle of this, but I’m really enjoying the style in which it’s written and its dreamy quality. For some reason I keep picturing it as a movie (This is a little odd to me, because I rarely watch T.V. and few movies)...

”...I think where a person is born and dies is very important. You can’t choose where you’re born, but where you die you can—to some degree.” (Pg. 291)

”...A world full of geniuses would have significant problems.” (Pg.327)

Hoshini is becoming one of my favorite characters, though I didn’t really care for him at first. A truck driver who gets into Beethoven and learns to let go and go where life (and Nakata) decide to take him.

Besides the general statements about life experiences that are poetic and insightful…the story was a mish mash of weird events. I did not appreciate the gross violence. The military reports were very interesting.

Maybe this book is about the belief that when you believe something will happen…you make it happen.

The gender study was totally absurd. I couldn’t believe what I was reading, had to chuckle.

Did you know that Murakami also translates raymond carver into japanese?

Am I right to think there’s a reference to Picnic at Hanging Rock in this story?

i enjoyed this book. it was very strange but i like the way that it was written. it was like dream.

”Hoshino looked up from his map again and gazed into Nakata’s eyes. He frowned, looked at the sign, and slowly read it again. He patted a Marlboro out from the box, put it between his lips, and lit it with his plastic lighter. He slowly inhaled, then blew smoke out the open window. “Are you sure?”

”Yes, this is it.”

”Chance is a scary thing, isn’t it?”

”It certainly is,” Nakata agreed.” (Page 137-138)

I’ve never read anything by Haruki Murakami before, but I was eager to because he’s a Japanese author and the original book was written in that language. I really enjoyed the small glimpses of day-to-day Japanese life that the book offers.

But the plot was uneven and quirky. Even now, days after finishing the book, I don’t know what to make of it. This is simply one of the oddest books I’ve ever read.

The author does a great job of developing the characters and injecting a sense of mystery into the plot. These two things kept me turning the pages. I continued reading because I genuinely wanted to find out what was going on and I genuinely cared about the characters.

I didn’t have a problem with some of the stranger plot elements: A man who can talk to cats, fish and leeches raining from the sky, government documents describing events that might have something to do with aliens, etc.

What I did have a problem with was the ending, which did nothing to tie up loose ends or bring the story to a graceful close. The author brought the story speeding toward a titillating conclusion, only to allow it to peter out. It was a huge letdown.

I found myself feeling disappointed and a bit bitter. After all of that weirdness, the characters calmly went back to their lives as if nothing had even happened and I, the reader, was left to wonder whether I should bother to read the other novel by this author, which was sitting on my desk.

After a few days of thought, I made my decision: I took it back to the library, unread.

Kafka on the Shore features the journeys of Kafka, a 15-year-old desperate to escape his father’s gloomy Oedipal prophecy and Nakata, an old man left with only half a shadow and the ability to speak with cats as they drift towards each other during a dreamy early summer. I really enjoyed Murakami’s latest work and found it hard to put down. The author’s devices of alternating Kafka’s story with Nakata’s and speckled with wartime records of an incident in the mountains definitely kept me hooked. Those who enjoy philosophy, music, and the possibility of secret worlds will definitely enjoy Kafka on the Shore.

it shouldn’t have taken me this long to finish this.

I’m a bit wishy-washy on the Oedipal aspects of the story, though I was quite fond of the parallel storyline about the old man and the trucker who joined him on his unusual quest. Murakami is still a masterful writer, however, and despite my qualms with some of the story, “Kafka on the Shore” is an absorbing read.

Not as good as most of his other books.

I waivered back and forth on whether or not to give this book the thumbs up or the thumbs down. Ultimately, I’m happy that I read it. I guess there’s perhaps a ridiculously high standard after Wind-up Bird.

So far so good. I put down the Sheep Chase, but seem to be having better luck with this one. One character actually has conversations with cats- two-way conversations. Curious.