Kafka on the Shore



"On my fifteenth birthday I'll run away from home, journey to a far-off town, and live in a corner of a small library. It'd take a week to go into the whole thing, all the details. So I'll just give the main point. On my fifteenth birthday I'll run away from home, journey to a far-off town, and live in a corner of a small library."

Kafka on the Shore (Japanese: 海辺のカフカ, Umibe no Kafuka) is a 2002 novel by Haruki Murakami that features two distinct plots. The first is about fifteen year-old Kafka who has run away from home in order to avoid fulfilling an Oedipal prophecy. The second follows Nakata, an older, mentally slow man who has the ability to talk to cats. Things only get stranger from there.

""First of all, ," Oshima announces. A dumbfounded silence follows on the part of everybody. I gulp and shoot Oshima a glance. "," he says."
 * Arc Words: Cryptic references to an "entrance stone" start showing up about halfway into the book.
 * Asleep for Days: When Hoshino and Nakata arrive in Shikoku, Nakata promptly goes to sleep for 34 hours. He pulls this off at least two more times.
 * Astral Projection: Discussed by Oshima and Kafka when Kafka realizes that his ghost girl is probably . The conversation also opens Kafka to the possibility that he.
 * Author Appeal: As usual in the case of Murakami, music, especially classical music and opera.
 * Beat Still My Heart:
 * Bishonen: Oshima is described as "pretty, rather than handsome" with a clean look and a charming smile.
 * Blood-Splattered Innocents: A few days after running away, Kafka blacks out for about four hours and wakes up with his shirt stained with someone else's blood. Despite apparently no one being around for him to have attacked,.
 * Blue and Orange Morality: Colonel Sanders claims to not know what "right" or "wrong" are and only cares about keeping the timeline in order.
 * Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: When Nakata is describing Johnnie Walker, he makes some general observations about his clothes before
 * This really isn't that "squicky", except the reader knows how Johnnie Walker gets those souls.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Sakura might be Kafka's sister.
 * Brought Down to Normal:.
 * Catch Phrase: Nakata, with "[food item] are one of Nakata's favorites."
 * Chekhov's Gun: Discussed by Colonel Sanders and Hoshino.
 * Childhood Friend Romance: Miss Saeki had one...it ended badly.
 * Discard and Draw:.
 * Dogs Are Dumb: "Cats know everything" says one cat, "unlike dogs."
 * Dream Land: Near the end of the book, Kafka infiltrates a dream of Sakura's.
 * Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: Near the end of the book,.
 * Every Man: Hoshino.
 * Erotic Dream: Nakata's teacher has one which sets off a bizarre chain of events. Also Kafka has several which may or may not have been dreams.
 * Faux Symbolism: Kafka's in-universe reaction to the lyrics of "Kafka on the Shore", not that he considers it a bad thing.
 * A Form You Are Comfortable With: Colonel Sanders is actually a sort of conceptual being. He considered taking on the form of Mickey Mouse, but decided against it. This may also be the case with Johnnie Walker.
 * Gaydar: Hoshino quickly pegs as a homosexual.
 * Homoerotic Subtext: Oshima and Kafka frequently compliment each other's looks, Kafka blushing in response a few times.
 * I Cannot Self-Terminate:
 * Ill Boy: Oshima is a hemophiliac.
 * Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Something like that.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: Nakata and Hoshino, a truck driver in his twenties who thinks that Nakata resembles his own grandfather.
 * Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Especially Nakata's side of the story, which is partly divulged through military documents and personal correspondence.
 * Kick the Dog: When Nakata was little, his teacher hit him in the head for catching her with her pants down, resulting in him being mentally disabled.
 * Or, if you take the magical realism angle, it's the influence of the shiny thing in the sky. After all, blunt trauma usually doesn't qualify people to speak to cats, does it?
 * Two words: Johnnie. Walker.
 * Like Brother and Sister: Whether Kafka and Sakura actually are siblings or not, Sakura sees their relationship this way.
 * Magic A Is Magic A: Johnnie Walker and his quest for a are bound by very strict and specific rules.
 * He must.
 * He cannot.
 * He is bound to complete the and cannot get out of it through suicide.
 * Magic Music: Presumably the case with.
 * Magical Realism: It's by and large an average story, except for the talking cats.
 * And the fish. (Or not.)
 * And the whole dream thing.
 * Not to mention the Greek tragedy angle.
 * Of course there's the whole "Johnnie Walker" part as well.
 * Which leads us to the entrance stone.
 * And the soldiers.
 * And Colonel Sanders.
 * May-December Romance: Kafka and Miss Saeki.
 * Meganekko: Oshima.
 * Middle Child Syndrome: Hoshino.
 * Mind Screw:
 * Dives headlong into this with Johnnie Walker's introduction..
 * With the exception of the first time, whenever Kafka, the narration switches to second-person, with inconsistent use of the boldface type that comes in whenever Kafka is normally talking to himself/the boy named Crow. The effect is rather confusing.
 * Missing Mom: Kafka's mom left when he was very young, taking his sister with her.
 * Mrs. Robinson: Miss Saeki, who might also be Kafka's mother.
 * New Weird
 * One-Hit Wonder: It was also her only song--there wasn't even a different song for the B-side.
 * Or Was It a Dream?
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: In some ways more subtle than others.
 * Kafka's side of the story is written in first-person present tense; Nakata's is written in third-person past tense.
 * Kafka talks to himself/the boy named Crow talks to Kafka in unquoted boldface type, as does Johnnie Walker's dog.
 * A letter from Nakata's childhood teacher has the text left-aligned; the rest of the book is justified.
 * Parental Incest
 * Parrot Exposition: Oshima has some fun with this when the Straw Feminists come around.
 * Perpetual Frowner: Kafka.
 * Ravens and Crows: Kafka's alter-ego is "The boy named Crow"; the name "Kafka" itself also means "crow".
 * The Runaway: Kafka runs away from his dad's home because he is afraid of fulfilling a prophecy that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother and sister.
 * Things
 * Selective Obliviousness:.
 * Shout-Out: Oshima quotes Macbeth and Electra and makes references to several other pieces of literature.
 * Shrug of God: Murakami specifically states in his blog that the interpretation of, as well many other parts of the novel, are all up to the reader.
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: Oshima is charming, well-read, and physically weak. His older brother is an asocial surfer..
 * Sidetracked by the Analogy: Frequently by Nakata, the analogy given by Hoshino.
 * Speaks Fluent Animal: Nakata uses his ability to find people's lost pets.
 * Starfish Alien:.
 * Strange Minds Think Alike: When Kafka encounters a ghostly girl in his room, he likens the atmosphere to being at the bottom of a crater lake. "Kafka on the Shore"'s lyrics also mention of a crater lake.
 * Straw Feminist: Two of them show up at Komura Library to inspect how woman-friendly the facilities are. They complain about the lack of gendered bathrooms and the card catalog.
 * Up for debate since the encounter doesn't follow the usual model (Straw Feminist(s) launches rhetorical volley, Man/Society slaps them down or discredits them, Straw Feminist(s) slink away or recant), and actually leads to a discussion on how narrow-mindedness is a destructive state of mind.
 * And bear in mind that the two women are not asking for anything inconceivable or exaggerated. Their requests are very reasonable actually and they seem like nice enough people otherwise.
 * Surprise Incest: Kafka has sex with two women who might be his mom and sister.
 * Suspiciously Apropos Music: In-universe; Kafka finds "Kafka on the Shore"'s lyrics to be oddly prescient.
 * Thanatos Gambit:
 * Third Person Person: Nakata.
 * Title Drop: Dropped by Oshima when he reveals that "Kafka on the Shore" is a song in-universe.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Nakata brings up eel at every opportunity.
 * Transsexualism:.
 * Two Lines, No Waiting
 * Wham! Episode: In chapter 38, Nakata and Hoshino finally find the place they're looking for. And where should it be but ?
 * Wham! Line: Oshima certainly knows how to shut up Straw Feminists.


 * You Keep Using That Word: Oshima corrects the Straw Feminists on their use of "gender".
 * Your Soul Is Mine:.