Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore
Finally got round to reading Kafka on the Shore by Murakami Haruki. This link takes you to his official website complete with haunting music, cityscapes and black cats.
The book I have is a small, slippery paperback version that I picked up at the airport. I've managed to snap it's spinal chord and I fear it's not long for this world. The cover design is by Chip Kidd who sounds like a character in one of Murakami's novels. The print is very small, a factor that put me off reading it for a month. I'm now on page 359 out of 489 and am totally hooked.
In fact, I was gripped by the start of a novel for the first time in a long while. I like the parallel narratives, and am enjoying the way Murakami takes you on a journey through Japan, a journey to places I have been and seen. Much of the journey is spent in the countryside. Reading it in English, but being set in Japan, I feel as if it has been written for me and those like me - those with a fair knowledge of Japan as a setting, but who interpret Japan in the English tongue. It doesn't feel unnatural in the slightest to me, to be reading this Japanese novel in English.
I think that a lot of the credit for this must go to the translator, Philip Gabriel. The novel reads very smoothly. (You can read a short interview with him here). Every now and again, I find myself guessing at what the original version of the Japanese novel said, especially in parts of the dialogue. David Mitchell, ex-Hiroshima novelist, criticizes a homogeneity in tone among the cast in his review in The Guardian. He also felt the Americanization would annoy some non-Americophones citing "Jeez Louise!" as an example. I'm certainly no Americophone, but the only part of the English version that jarred so far for me, was when one of the characters asked for his rice to be "super-sized". But having said that, in a novel with characters like Colonel Sanders and Johnnie Walker popping up, it doesn't seem so strange for the text to be McDonaldized.
So far, I reckon both Murakami and Gabriel have really hit the mark in this novel. Hoping that the last 130 pages don't disappoint.
posted by jh at 28.3.06
6 Comments:
Haven't read Kafka on the Shore, but really enjoyed both A Wild Sheep Chase and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles. One of the best descriptions I've read of Murakami's writing is that he can juggle an incredible amount of eggs at one time, and it doesn't matter that he never bothers to catch some of them - so many possible connections and interpretations...almost like Ulysses -
"almosting it"
Jealous to see those flowers blooming in Hiroshima...
Don't get too envious. It was snowing again today, Tim.
Just finished Kafka OTS.
The eggs were certainly "juggled". He might have dropped one or two, but he also managed to impressively scramble some while he was at it.
Very entertaining, but perhaps(??) not his best.
Murakami is ace, Ace, ACE! I quite liked "Jeez Louise", but frankly I don't think a translator can go wrong with him. As you say, with Colonel Sanders and Johnnie Walker in the cast list a stray idiom here and there just adds to the fantastic world he creates. I love his self-confessed "wonkiness" and like you in this particular book I enjoyed visiting the places I knew really well, in my case from my hitchhiking days.
JB: Snap! My hitchiking days took me there too. I love Shikoku and have been back under my own steam a fair few times too.
Nice... one of my favourites as well. Glad you got around to reading it--the double narratives totally propelled it along. I'm actually reading "After the Quake" now--pretty cool snapshots of Japanese people's lives with teh Kobe Quake as the backdrop. I think you've already read this one, no?
Well I'm starting to settle in Sendai... still in transition (as much as my life has been) but gotta go interview students for level placing this morning.
Keep the posts coming!
Agree about the egg thing.
Dance Dance Dance is his best novel in terms of catching them I think. Actually, his best all round.
Kafka tends to read like a list of references to better books and songs than his.
Post a Comment
<< Home