Reviews

Kafka am Strand by Ursula Gräfe, Haruki Murakami

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eranehreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

🌊🔪🐈 Kafka on the Shore 🐈🔪🌊

Why does loving somebody mean you have to hurt them as much?
I mean, if that's the way it goes, what's the point of loving someone?
Why the hell does it have to be like that?

Kafka on the Shore - One of the most brilliant books written by Haruki Murakami. It tells us about a boy who changes his real name to Kafka just because he loves the worls of Franz Kafka and relates with him a lot because he too suffers with a strict upbringing and a father who is more focused on his work rather than on him. He runs away from his home with just enough money to survive for a week and this whole book is all about his story alongside two other stories which co relate and end up to form a bigger story by the end.

Whatever it is you're seeking won't come in the form you're expecting.

For me this story was a complete package of a classic Murakami work, had me hooked all along it with the amazing story and such lovable characters like Nakata and Hoshino who don't know what they are doing with their life but are doing everything just because they have a gut feeling that it's the right thing to do. Hoshino follows Nakata blindly, and Nakata follows a voice that guides him by only giving him short clues.

What I mean to say is the story development is on point with the character development, the writer doesn't lose his characters in the race to develop the story which makes this story wonderful. And for me it was quite different to many of his other works like After Dark, Sputnik Sweetheart and IQ84 since this one completely satisfied me and didn't leave me with questions, making me ponder over them for weeks without getting any answers at all. Yeah I know that the stories which don't have a conclusive ending are wonderful, since it all depends on our mind and imagination how we want it to end like, but books like this are wonderful too since sometimes we don't want to bother our already lazy mind to work a little more and think of what happens after the end.

So yeah, its a wonderful book and you will surely enjoy it, though be sure you will get somethings which would be beyond your understanding but it will all make sense by the end.