Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Kafka am Strand by Haruki Murakami

40 reviews

valjeanval's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I picked this one up at the library to celebrate Banned Books Month. I've read a bit of Murakami in the past, so I expected some weirdness, and I was right to expect it. This book is an Oedipal myth, and it gets very mythy with talking cats, personality displacement, and portals to pocket dimensions. I couldn't see the exact reason why it was banned, but probably statutory sex scenes with people who may be mother/son but it could also be the fact that it features a trans man who is particularly nuanced and treated like a human being by basically every character. You just never know with book banners.

My husband often asks me if I'm liking whatever I'm reading, and I often found that questions hard to answer with this one. This book is profoundly uncomfortable and occasionally horrific. It's also Murakami, so there's a great deal I probably need four or five re-reads to interpret. Did I like it? Kind of? When I wasn't horrified? It's hard to explain. I had similar feelings after 1Q84. I like reading Murakami, though, because it really makes my literary interpreter brain kick into gear. Even when I don't understand points of the story, I enjoy thinking about them and why they are there. This book made me think about Japanese civilians in WWII, Greek Mythology, classical music, poetry, libraries as memories, memories as libraries, why people help others, capitalism, philosophy, and lots more, so it felt worth my time. That said, definitely check out some trigger warnings before reading this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Incest

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

ambivalentneb's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

My favorite book I’ve read thus far, at the start simple but it slowly gets more and more metaphysical until it’s confused and then it all just falls into place.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Rape, Grief, and Murder

Minor: War

das_'s review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.5

A quite interesting mystery full of self-discovery at its core, with quite an unusual narrative that tells this story from multiple angles at once, this book seemed quite promising from the start. However, the overly casual dialogues that oscillate between intentionally inarticulate and pseudo-intellectual quickly got on my nerves, and the subsequent attempts to make light of pedophilia as well as incest were only the last straw. I'm fairly confident that this is the worst book that I've read in the past decade or so.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Murder

dsalazar's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Weird… liked it and was sucked in. A bit slow at certain parts but overall I enjoyed it especially the character building. The characters themselves were complex but the pacing took me out of it every so often. Filled with a lot of disturbing themes centered around incest and age gaps but weaved seamlessly into a broader theme of soulmates and time-bending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture

samcsmith's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gore, Incest, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Ableism, Rape, Self harm, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and War

centaurstesticle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and War

jodean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

If I understood a thing about this book, I can't put it into words. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Minor: War

jayvdw's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This book is a fever dream. It may not feel like it while reading, but the moment you close the book and try to really think about everything, that is the moment it hits you.

After finishing the book the first thing I did was browse the internet for almost an hour, reading and listening to different theories. The book is complex and like Murakami said: the book consists of several riddles with no answers, instead the riddles combine, and the possibility of an answer emerges. In my eyes, this means there is no one way to interpret the book. Each and every person will have their own view of the meaning and full story. 

I loved how the book combined Western and Eastern philosophy and mythology. This only enriches the fever dream-like feeling of the book. In addition to this, the book talks about many different important themes and makes you think about them. 
 
Overall, the book is wild and crazy, it brings out the magic within the mundane. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a more complex story. Even after finishing the book, it will still haunt your mind and you will wonder what it all could really have been about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Blood, and Death of parent

Moderate: Incest, Suicide, Grief, and War

clusterf_cked's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bananaza55's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Rape, Blood, Grief, and Murder