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A review by beaconatnight
Kafka am Strand by Haruki Murakami
5.0
I read about six or seven of Haruki Murakami's books, but this might very well be my favorite. This is a book about coping with trauma, responsibility, and how trauma may lead to people to do regrettable things to protect themselves. So it's certainly among Murakami's darker themed books. However, like all of Murakami's books, it's also soothing with a lot of warmth and humor.
You know how often publishers promote their books by claiming that their characters really stay with you? This might be true with this book. The teenage boy who for a long time tried to get stronger to cope with the world when he is finally leaving home at his 15th birth, supported only by his imaginary friend; the "idiot" who had a strange accident in the past and is now a tabula rasa, unable to understand any complex concepts, supported only by "the governor", but who is able to speak with cats and who starts an important journey whose meaning he is unable to grasp; the beautiful woman who lost her husband many decades ago and for whom since then time has lost its meaning; the young man who was abused by his father and supported only by his grandfather, who went astray stealing motorcycles and stuff, got kicked out of the military and who is now driving a truck (and who has a particularly interesting character development); the boy who works as a receptionist of a library, and who biology has left with a conundrum of who he is, unable to fit in the simple patterns of common sense. It's a sad book that brings together characters who all, in their own ways and for their own reasons, feel a certain "emptiness".
The book is also about the worlds we create and preserve in imagination and memory. There is a thick layer of melancholic fantasy and parallels to Greek tragedy - with the Oedipus-curse causing and hovering over Kafka's journey - from which many of its symbols and allegories are drawn and by which the fate of the different characters are entangled. Well, I also felt that it gives the book a peculiarly poetic vibe, while still being very easily accessible. In fact, reading Murakami reminds me of the simple joy you felt when reading age-appropriate books as a young lad.
Rating: 5/5
You know how often publishers promote their books by claiming that their characters really stay with you? This might be true with this book. The teenage boy who for a long time tried to get stronger to cope with the world when he is finally leaving home at his 15th birth, supported only by his imaginary friend; the "idiot" who had a strange accident in the past and is now a tabula rasa, unable to understand any complex concepts, supported only by "the governor", but who is able to speak with cats and who starts an important journey whose meaning he is unable to grasp; the beautiful woman who lost her husband many decades ago and for whom since then time has lost its meaning; the young man who was abused by his father and supported only by his grandfather, who went astray stealing motorcycles and stuff, got kicked out of the military and who is now driving a truck (and who has a particularly interesting character development); the boy who works as a receptionist of a library, and who biology has left with a conundrum of who he is, unable to fit in the simple patterns of common sense. It's a sad book that brings together characters who all, in their own ways and for their own reasons, feel a certain "emptiness".
The book is also about the worlds we create and preserve in imagination and memory. There is a thick layer of melancholic fantasy and parallels to Greek tragedy - with the Oedipus-curse causing and hovering over Kafka's journey - from which many of its symbols and allegories are drawn and by which the fate of the different characters are entangled. Well, I also felt that it gives the book a peculiarly poetic vibe, while still being very easily accessible. In fact, reading Murakami reminds me of the simple joy you felt when reading age-appropriate books as a young lad.
Rating: 5/5