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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
[[File:umibenokafka_7021.jpg|frame]]▼
| title = Kafka on the Shore
| original title = 海辺のカフカ
| caption =
| central theme =
| elevator pitch =
| genre = Magical realism, Fantasy
| publication date = 2002
| source page exists =
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
{{quote|
'''''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. [[Mind Screw|Things only get stranger from there]].▼
▲{{quote| ''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. [[Mind Screw|Things only get stranger from there]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[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.
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* [[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
* [[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", [[Tropes Are Tools|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]], [[You Wanna Get Sued?|but decided against it]]. This may also be the case with Johnnie Walker.
* [[Gaydar]]: Hoshino quickly pegs {{spoiler|Oshima}} 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]]: {{spoiler|Johnnie Walker has to request that Nakata kill him, since "the rules" prevent him from simply committing suicide.}}
* [[Ill Girl|Ill Boy]]: Oshima is a hemophiliac.
* [[Impaled
* [[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 [[Caught
** 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.
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* [[Mrs. Robinson]]: Miss Saeki, who might also be Kafka's mother.
* [[New Weird]]
* [[One
* [[Or Was It a Dream?]]
* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: In some ways more subtle than others.
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** Things {{spoiler|[[You Can't Fight Fate|go south.]] }}
* [[Selective Obliviousness]]: {{spoiler|Saeki's lover was killed by student revolutionaries who mistook him for a university official and refused to listen to his denials of this}}.
* [[Shout
* [[Shrug of God]]: Murakami specifically states in his blog that the interpretation of {{spoiler|Saeki and Kafka being related}}, 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. {{spoiler|Subverted when Kafka finally meets Oshima's brother. Oshima is really just as asocial, but Kafka is somehow able to tease conversation out of both brothers}}.
* [[Sidetracked
* [[Speaks Fluent Animal]]: Nakata uses his ability to find people's lost pets.
* [[Starfish Alien]]: {{spoiler|Johnnie Walker's true form is something like a living blob of dough}}.
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* [[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.
* [[
* [[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 {{spoiler|Komura Memorial Library}}?
* [[Wham! Line]]: Oshima certainly knows how to shut up [[Straw Feminist|Straw Feminists]].
{{quote|
A dumbfounded silence follows on the part of everybody. I gulp and shoot Oshima a glance.
"{{spoiler|I'm a woman}}," he says.'' }}
* [[You Keep Using That Word]]: Oshima corrects the [[Straw Feminist|Straw Feminists]] on their use of [[You Keep Using That Word/Less Pedantic|"gender"]].
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{{reflist}}
{{World Fantasy Award Novel}}
[[Category:World Fantasy Award]]
[[Category:Lit Fic]]
▲[[Category:Haruki Murakami]]
[[Category:New Weird]]
[[Category:Japanese Literature]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Literature]]
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