Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami

Title: Kafka on the Shore
Author: Haruki Murakami
Date Finished: Jan 22, 2009 #3
Published: 2005 Pages: 467
Rating: 4.5/5

When I first decided to read Kafka on the Shore for Bellezza's Japanese Literature Challenge, I didn't know anything about Murakami or the book itself. All I knew was that I had seen it around a lot and that I was intimidated by it. Funny how those prejudices form for no apparent reason. Even though I had a few fears or concerns about how the reading was going to go for the book, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this book is to read. Understanding it might be a different thing all together, but I was swept away by the writing.

In Kafka on the Shore, Murakami weaves together the story of Kafka and Nakata. Kafka is a young boy of fifteen who suddenly runs away from home and finds refuge and new friends at a library. He is fighting to prevent his father's prophesy from coming true--a Oedipal prophesy that Kafka will kill his father and sleep with his mother and sister who abandoned him when he was four. Nataka, an elderly gentleman who lost many of his intellectual capacity during a WWII incident, has the ability to speak with cats and works to find lost cats. One lost cat in particular leads him on a whirlwind scavenger hunt for something, but even Nakata doesn't know what that something is. Each chapter alternates between Kafka's and Nakata's story, and it isn't clear until well into the story how the two are connected with one another. But unbeknownst to each other, they are both searching for the answers and meaning to the same secret--a secret that will free them both.

What a book! There is so much packed into these 467 pages that I'm sitting here in front of the computer screen drawing a blank one what to write about. Where to start? It is safe to say that all my expectations of this book were fully met and every intimidation I was feeling was a waste of time. True, it took me about two weeks to complete this one (stopping for a shorter read in the middle), but Kafka is at once a poetically written book but it is also incredibly accessible:

"Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me. What I've done up till now, what I'm going to do--they know it all. Nothing gets past their watchful eyes. As I sit there under the shining night sky, again a violent fear takes hold of me. My heart's pounding a mile a minute, and I can barely breathe. All these millions of stars looking down on me, and I've never given them more than a passing thought before. Not just stars--how many other things haven't I noticed in the world, things I know nothing about? I suddenly feel helpless, completely powerless. And I know I'll never outrun that awful feeling" (Kafka narrating, 135).

Murakami gives us so much to think about in this book, and after finishing I still felt like there were so many pieces of the puzzle that needed to be fit together. But despite the philosophy and theory and deep thinking, this book is also a thriller. I found myself holding my breath at some passages, not knowing what was going to happen, having to keep turning the pages to discover the outcome of the latest conflict. Another element I wasn't expecting in the least, was the magical element. I just found out that this book won the World Fantasy Award a few years back, and I had no idea that I would be encountering magical rocks, strange "concepts" that disguise themselves as pop culture icons, a man who can talk to cats and cats that talk back, fish that rain from the sky--and really that's just the beginning.

So again, Wow, what a book! I would recommend this book, especially if you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary and something that will make you think [a lot]. There is some sexual content in the book--and Kafka is fifteen so his hormones are raging, but I didn't find it overwhelming or tastelessly done. All in all, this is a book that will stick with me a for a while as I continue to mull everything over to try and fit those pieces together. And I'll definitely be pursuing more Murakami in the future. Maybe Wind-Up Bird Chronicles?

Others who've also read it (let me know if I missed yours!):
Tanabata; Gautami; C.B. James; Charley; Bellezza; Nymeth; Terri B.

The book concludes my 1% Well-Read Challenge and Japanese Literature Challenge. I hope to eventually do a 2008 Challenge wrap-up posts and cheat to include these. It's just one book, right?? :)

Mistress Oriku - Matsutaro Kawaguchi

Title: Mistress Oriku - Stories from a Tokyo Teahouse
Author: Matsutaro Kawaguchi
Date Finished: Dec 31, 2008 #73
Pages: 270
Rating: 3.5/5

I stumbled upon this book while searching for others for the Japanese Challenge. I was looking specifically for Snow Country by Kawabata, and this one just happened to take its place on the shelf. Lucky me! This is my second read for the Japanese Challenge, and it was a great companion to Snow Country.

Mistress Oriku is a collection of eleven interrelated stories about the proprietress of a fancy teahouse outside Tokyo. Oriku is an extremely likeable character--she is middle aged, independent, kind, loving, and a little bit of a firecracker. The stories tell of how Oriku came to run the teahouse and the relationships that she has created over the years. While Oriku isn't a geisha like the characters in Snow Country, her teahouse is a sort of hotel where guests come to stay, especially when the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Because of the circumstances, Oriku encounters many colorful characters--especially artists and actors.

I loved getting a closer look at the Japanese culture through this book. It is set mostly around the turn of the century (I'm not sure when the book was originally written and couldn't find anything on the Internet). The Japanese arts were in full swing and this book felt like a really nice cross between Memoirs of a Geisha and Snow Country. While Snow Country focuses mostly on the relationship of the two main characters, Mistress Oriku is a well-balanced combination of relationships and events.

If you're looking to learn more about pre-WWII (or even pre-WWI) Japanese teahouse culture, I'd recommend this book. It was a fairly quick read, the stories were all captivating, and there is a ton of dialogue, which was a great switch after the absence of dialogue in Lolita. Sometimes the stories are subtle, but sometimes they can be quite funny (though not laugh out loud funny...), and there is a constant sense of the end of the era--especially with the bittersweet ending. A good read to wrap up the year!

Happy New Year!

Snow Country - Yasunari Kawabata

Title: Snow Country
Author: Yasunari Kawabata
Date Finished: Sept 13, 2008 #53
Pages: 142
Rating: 3.5/5

As I delve into my first experience with Japanese literature, I find myself becoming entranced by the culture--luckily I've got a few other books on my shelf so I can continue to learn more. I can't believe I haven't read any Japanese lit before now! I did read Memoirs of a Geisha and really enjoyed it, but it just isn't the same experience.

Snow Country is at the same time beautiful and lonely written in lyrical prose reminiscent of a haiku. In the introduction, the translator (Edward G. Seidensticker) notes, "The haiku manner presents a great challenge to the novelist. The manner is notable for its terseness and austerity, so that his novel must rather be like a series of brief flashes in a void. In Snow Country Kawabata has chosen a theme that makes a meeting between haiku and the novel possible" (7).

The story is about a man, Shimamura, from Tokyo who travels to the isolated snow country and there meets Komako, a beautiful and young geisha. After a reluctant start, the two strike up a friendship that evolves into a love affair. But as the novel and their affair progress, it becomes clear that the two can never really fully give each other to one another. Their lives--he a big city dilettante and she a country geisha--are quite incompatible.

This is a slow novel with much focus on the characters and their interaction with one another. There are a few moments of tension--usually involving Komako's rival Yoko--but other than that this book for me was more about beauty of the words on the page (yes, unfortunately I can't read Japanese, so it is a translation). I read this one rather quickly and mostly before bed when I was tired, so I am sure that I missed a lot of the symbolism. Also, especially at the beginning of the novel, there were a lot of flashbacks and often I had to re-read to figure out when the action was taking place. The ending to me came out of nowhere, but Seidensticker insists in his introduction that it fits perfectly. That's why he's the expert. ;) But I think this passage aptly portrays the feeling of the novel:

"Now that he knew Yoko was in the house, he felt strangely reluctant to call Komako. He was conscious of an emptiness that made him see Komako's life as beautiful but wasted, even though he himself was the object of her love; and yet the woman's existence, her straining to live, came touching him like naked skin. He pitied her, and he pitied himself" (106).

Kawabata wrote this in several segments from 1937-1948. In 1968 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

CJ from My Year of Reading Seriously initially brought this book to my attention last year when she read it for the challenge--she provides some really beautiful quotes from the book and I immediately put it on my amazon wish list. (Let me know if you've reviewed it and I'll add it to the list--my Google reader says she's it, but poor reader is usually wrong)

**By the way, speaking of haikus, Fyrefly is giving away a $20 Amazon Gift Card for a haiku of your recent reads in honor of BBAW. Check it out at Fyrefly's Book Blog.

So I'm an amateur, but this is what I came up with:

Passionate affair
In the Japan Snow Country
Heartbreak is fated.