Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Kafka on the Shore is at once familiar and unfamiliar to readers of past Murakami stories: in story and in plotting it is reminiscent of past works of Murakami; the Tamura Kafka storyline is in many ways a re-telling of Hard-Boiled Wonderland, and the split narrative style also reminds one of that book. Indeed, many times throughout the book I found myself thinking that Kafka on the Shore felt like a kind of summation of Murakami's works, all the way from Hear the Wind Sing through After the Quake in terms of style and plot elements. Despite the many familiar elements, there are several significant deviations from the usual formula, starting with the protagonist Tamura Kafka. Unlike the typical 30-something "everyman" familiar to readers of Murakami, Kafka on the Shore features the young and proactive Tamura Kafka and to the best of my knowledge is the first of Murakami's novels to be written half in the third person, giving Murakami a bit more freedom in telling this tale from different characters' perspectives. More important than narrative technique was Murakami's approach to the story: whereas many of Murakami's novels are full of a sense of loneliness and a feeling that the characters are chasing after something which is already beyond their reach, Tamura Kafka is very much in charge of his own destiny as his choice at the climax of the novel indicates. Although Kafka on the Shore started off wonderfully, by the second half of the book, the plot became unusually linear and predictable for a Murakami novel. The Nakata/Hoshino plotline in particular was cryptic without the scope or wonder of Wind-Up Bird, for example. Oshima, one of the most interesting characters Murakami has created (and that's saying a lot) is sadly underused in the second half. Murakami's use of corporate icons and feminist figures is awkward and a bit forced. In general, what starts off with the potential to be Murakami's masterpiece falls a bit short in the end. Part of the problem is that Kafka on the Shore feels like Murakami is undergoing a shift in style and in substance but it is a little unclear where he is trying to go to. Unfortunately, his latest novel, After Dark, does not clear up the issue either. As Murakami has aged, his protagonists have gotten younger (a 15-year old boy in Kafka and a 19-year old woman in After Dark) ... but they often seem like a middle-aged "everyman" trapped in a young person's body. It will be enjoyable to see what direction Murakami takes in the future, but compared to his works of the '80s and early '90s, Murakami's recent works have retained his energy ... but lost a bit of the soul that make a Murakami novel an experience greater than the sum of its parts.