Kafka On The Shore (Vintage Magic)

カフカ少年とナカタさんの足跡が交錯し、話の展開につながる。図書館での場面 とりわけオオシマさんと佐伯さんの出る辺りから面白くなってくる。ただ 全般的に幻想的なイメージが強く、擬人化はいいとしても 謎の石とか、魚が空から降ってくるなど何がどうなっているのか、理解し難い面がある。同じ著者のノルウエーの森が純愛を語っているのに対して、これはミステリー的かつファンタジー。 ただ 最後の章あたりでホッと救われるような読後感を味わった。YY

村上春樹さんの小説が好きで、英語の勉強にもなるかと思いKindle版を購入しました。 少年カフカの日本語版を何度か読んでいたいので、全体としては読み進めやすかったです。 難しい単語も出てきましたが、ギブアップするほどではなく、Kindleの機能を使って訳を確認したり、自分の記憶を頼りにしたりして読み進めました。全体的にはものすごく難しい英語表現は少なかったように思います。 英語版でもカフカ少年の成長過程での戸惑いや、恋、友情、葛藤などを感じることが出来ました。 他の英訳本も含めてもう少しリーズナブルな価格になるとありがたいです（ということで、星を一つ減らしました）。

Super Excellent

This beautiful written book played with literacy methods using two main characters. The chapters switch back and forward between those two characters. It amused me that one character use a first person narrative while the second main character used third-person narrative. He even spoken as himself in third person. Without giving away too much information, the mystery inquired me with it’s puzzling metaphysic events and characters with fleshed-out personality. I consumed the book to the end. The third-person narrative chapter is a favorite of mine because so many thing happened unpredictablely. I highly recommend this delicious reading of a book.

it arrived in good condition!!! so worth it 🥰

平易な英語（ハリポタよりちょっと難しいくらいか？）でぐいぐい引っぱり 飽きることなく最後まで読み通せます。 村上春樹の文章力は評価が高いですが，翻訳版でも 展開のうまさや構成力が生きている，というのが， どんどん読めてしまう理由だと思います。 もちろん，翻訳もうまいと思います。 面白かったのが，知的障害者のナカタさん，「フクシのお世話になっている」そうですが， 「SUBSIDY」と言うべきところを「SUB CITY」と言ってるところです。 「副・市」でしょうか？ 原作は１０００ページくらいある上下巻ものですが， このVINTAGE版は，ちょっと大きいけど４７０ページ弱の１冊に収まっていて お得な感じもします。 内容は難解だと思います。 最後までがーっっと読ませておいて，「あれ，終わり？」という感じです。 物語をわざと収束させず，色々な謎をオープンなままにしているのです。 そういう話をあれこれ解釈して咀嚼するのが好きな方にとっては 余韻の残る傑作と感じられると思います。

現実離れしたイリュージョンの世界。ハリーポッターファン向き。英訳は優しく良いので英語の学習者には良いかも。

ちょっと遅れることが予想できたので当人には先に目録を渡しておきました。

First of all, the gift edition hardcover is a stunning book which has fantastic art at the front. It is eye catching and has got several compliments by people. For the book itself, it is breathtakingly well written with an easy prose of writing. It makes the book spellbindingly hard to put down, you must resist the urge to finish it in one go unless you want to 😂. The way he writes, is easy to follow and read. It's not as dense as Norwegian Wood, perhaps because it is longer (500ish pages). It is still quite heavy in topics, intensity and themes. I loved the profoundness of the topics and story, although it won't be for everyone the themes can be overwhelming and very adult / mature. It's written in two perspectives where the chapters alternate between the two characters, which is an interesting take! The story was great and was my first surrealist book. It read well and the overall message was great. I'd reccomend it if you are willing to get past some adult themes and some unsavoury scenes (usually marukami stuff)!

Well, this was impressive. I have read one other Haruki Murakami novel some years ago, that being Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and while I really enjoyed that book, this one I loved. And besides, I can feel echoes of that one in this one, and those kind of connections bring me great joy, whether I am projecting them or not. What to even say about this book? What to say about Haruki Murakami? His works have the interestingly dichotomous ability to mix feelings of the small and the large, the personal and the sweeping, the banal and the mystical. Often while reading I'll find myself thinking... "What the f***?" And I can answer this only with the mantra: "No idea, it's Murakami." Some people maybe can't get behind that and still enjoy the novel, but I love it. The bizarre occurs without explanation, and the dreamlike is commonplace. He leads you from one question to the next so effectively that even when you don't circle back around for the answers, you're having too much fun to mind. And Murakami's sheer skill... His prose is excellent by default, and ranges into the beautiful. He paints a vivid picture without being overly descriptive, and he allows you to sink into a sort of flavor of a mood. There seems to be a very human understanding that bleeds through onto the page, and not just in his prose but in his character work. He taps into the heart of things, and reminds you why life's simple pleasures are pleasures in the first place. This is a man who seems to truly live, a man who knows how to take his loves and interests and inject them into a story that sticks with you. Kafka on the Shore is at its heart the inexorable, tidal pulling of two disparate storylines. That of Kafka Tamura, 15-year-old runaway haunted by a dark prophecy, and that of Satoru Nakata, an old man who suffered a childhood affliction that left him... different. How these two stories interact and interweave will leave you feeling like you're reading a riddle at times. Thematically he is playing with dreams, imagination, and responsibility. The darkness of the human subconscious. Ghosts. Memory. Time. Libraries.... Honestly, I find the book hard to capture in words, futile devices that they are. There were sections of it where I even doubted the reality of what I was reading. I mean, my favorite character in the book was probably Colonel Sanders. Do with that what you will. So much of this story takes place in that dark, ethereal labyrinth of your mind that it feels like you can only accurately explain half of it. And that second, unexplainable half is where the true magic lies. Which is, I believe, why I'm so drawn to his stories; they leave much to the imagination, and there is plenty leftover to ponder. Nothing is so tantalizing as the unknown, and Murakami understands that deeply. But as strange as the novel is at times, it really is beautiful. Emotionally effective, to say the least. I want to use the word gorgeous, even. The character work feels genuine, borderline romanticized. And the entire work is so intricately interwoven that it feels like the kind of thing you could jump right back into when you finish, which may have even been Murakami's intention. If you can't tell by the unfiltered praise, I loved this book. It belongs on my favorites shelf, I think. I don't think it's for everyone. It was overtly sexual in a way that caught me off guard, and in a way that I can imagine will make some readers uncomfortable. There are also scenes of overt, sometimes shocking, violence. But I don't fault Murakami for exploring the dark recesses of the human experience, or of stories in general. In fact, I think it would feel strange were those areas of darkness missing. Having just finished, I have that same sort of melancholic regret that I sometimes have when I finish a Ghibli movie; a long journey well-ended, characters coming full-circle with lessons learned, a strange new world that I want to stay in a little while longer. Needless to say, I'll be reading more of his work. "Time weighs down on you like an old, ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to slip through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won’t be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there—to the edge of the world. There’s something you can’t do unless you get there."

Even though the book itself is beautiful, I will be giving it a bad review because some of its pages were glued together, so they would tear when I opened them.

Book in good

The book keeps me interested with the characters most of the time. Still having a lot of questions about the past of Miss Saeki, and the mission of Nakata but the book gave me a lot of reflection of our choices and it's impact on fate. Some things is just simply meant to be.