
Kafka on the Shore
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Narrated by:
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Sean Barrett
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Oliver Le Sueur
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By:
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Haruki Murakami
About this listen
With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
This magnificent novel has a similarly extraordinary scope and the same capacity to amaze, entertain, and bewitch. A tour de force of metaphysical reality, it is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle - yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.
Extravagant in its accomplishment, Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world's truly great storytellers at the height of his powers.
©2005 Haruki Murakami (P)2013 Random House AudioCritic reviews
Featured Article: 10 Famous Japanese Authors You Have to Hear
Thanks to the work of translators and publishers, Japanese literature is now more accessible than ever to English-speaking audiences. If you've ever wanted to learn more about Japanese culture and literature, you cannot go wrong with listening to audiobooks from Japan. We've compiled a list of the most famous Japanese authors who have helped define Japanese literature, and their notable works across genres and time periods.
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Performance
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A Murakami novel ruined by the wrong narrator
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海辺のカフカ(上)
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Overall
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Performance
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「君はこれから世界でいちばんタフな15歳の少年になる」――15歳の誕生日がやってきたとき、僕は家を出て遠くの知らない街に行き、小さな図書館の片隅で暮らすようになった。
By: 村上 春樹
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The Invisibility Cloak
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Overall
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Performance
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The hero of The Invisibility Cloak lives in contemporary Beijing—where everyone is doing their best to hustle up the ladder of success while shouldering an ever-growing burden of consumer goods—and he’s a loser. Well into his forties, he’s divorced (and still doting on his ex), childless, and living with his sister (her husband wants him out) in an apartment at the edge of town with a crack in the wall. He gets by just by making customized old-fashioned amplifiers for the occasional rich audio-obsessive. Then an old friend tips him off about a special job....
By: Ge Fei
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A seemingly schizophrenic odyssey
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If you could sum up Kafka on the Shore in three words, what would they be?
Surreal, Metaphorical, Beautifully writtenWhat was one of the most memorable moments of Kafka on the Shore?
Johnnie Walker, the cat killer, was my most memorable moment. The detail in the writing gives a horribly wonderful graphic account of a confusing and disturbing scene.What does Sean Barrett and Oliver Le Sueur bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
They are both wonderful narrators. They bring a clarity to the words and a shape and texture to the story that I could never get by reading it myself. Their narration was absolutely critical to my enjoyment of the book.If you could rename Kafka on the Shore, what would you call it?
A Man who Talks to CatsAny additional comments?
As has been my experience with other Murakami books, much of the symbolism and motif's were hard for me to grasp, which leaves me with many questions once the book is finished. As usual with Murakami, the reader doesn't necessarily get a tangible closure.Another solid Murakami tale
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Great performance!!!
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One of Murakami's Greats
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interesting piece
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Enjoyed a lot, though got a little less interesting towards end
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Amazing
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weird and incredibly interesting
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.
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One of the best
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