So is he actually good or just a meme?

So is he actually good or just a meme?

He gets praise, but the top review on goodreads for this book in particular (supposedly his best) is one star and says its unreadable. Whats the truth?

Read it and find out fag

Are you literate? Read the book and decide for yourself.

Some of us are adults with jobs and girlfriends whose time is actually valuable.

You wouldn't be here if your time were valuable.

literally kys

This is the top commend defending this book

>I think you need to back up a bit in your reasoning. Why do you need to gain per-se at all? Kafka on the shore can't be fully understood because the author draws from many metaphysical sources. That plane of thinking is never clearly defined. But, to get a better understanding of Kafka on The Shore you have to read two of his other books, Hard Boiled Wonderland, and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. Furthermore, I don't believe Murakami is popular for writing books that are "telling" and that's the beauty of his writing. Just like Virgina Woolf wrote stories that have absolutely no plot, which was unheard before her doing so. Much of the literature we read has something telling or something directly communicable. Murakami creates, instead, a feeling that is tied to the environments of his characters. You don't always understand what is occurring in a "this is coming together kind of way" to point to a realization about the character or about life. But there is a sense that you get with each event that he constructs beautifully. And the last thing I have to say, and what I am going to say goes well for most of people's contemporary attitudes about most of the material we consume, and that is, we look and value stories by their content. If you want to know why Murakami has gained acclaim just looking at the bizarre events striking his novels, it is not enough. Murakami has gain acclaim also for his writing style, which is clever, crisp--he simply paints well with words. And just as Marcus Bird has commented many of the plot elements that make-up his novels are difficult to pull off while not losing control of his story. Writers probably understand this better.

In otherwords "He MEANT it to be shit and unreadable so its good!"

Tells you everything you need to know

Imagine being so stupid that you think Murakami is unreadable. It's just unfathomable.

His books are not "unreadable", they're just not very good. However, if you want to keep up with current fashions then it's useful to be familiar with them.

I've only read Norwegian Wood and enjoyed it, although didn't love it. It was very comfy and I cared about what was happening to the characters. Maybe a 7/10.

Kafka on the Shore sounds very different and much less conventional. So there is some variation in Murakami's work, and therefore you shouldn't judge him on the reactions to Kafka alone.

I want to read more Murakami in the future but he's not high up the priority list for me.

...

...

I've only read A Wild Sheep Chase. Is all his stuff magical realist like that?
I didn't care much about the plot (luckily, as it isn't resolved); I enjoyed the book just because I liked hearing the narrator talk.

All his books are shit, yet

then read one fucking chapter and judge if its worth to read the fucking rest, download a fucking preview chapter somewhere else, goddamn

Kafka on the Shore is enjoyable. Not as good as Wind Up Bird. Just read it you faggot and make your own opinion.

Norwegian Wood is garbage btw

He's actually good but disdained because he's readable, popular, and focuses on subjects some readers and critics deem frivolous.

Kafka on the Shore is not his best and was, for me, a little uneven. Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or the Wind-up Bird Chronicle are at the top for me. A Wild Sheep Chase is also great.

the japanese are a vapid soulless race, completely incapable of sincerity or a full emotional range. Their language, culture and religion is inferior to the Han. There is basically no reason to engage with them at all. They are the worst people alive

All his books hinge around an old person fucking a young person senpai. I like his stuff but he's as caught up on blowing loads in barely legal teens as the producers over at the casting couch.

or the quiet misunderstood student that hangs out in fucking jazz clubs. I gave HM enough chances to impress; he's simply not that great.

What is it about the others that puts them above Kafka on shore?

This is not true. 1Q84 is the only one that does this.

Meme

t. Raped at Nanking

thats pretty much what hes good at. bare bones plot with interesting dialogue and tongue in cheek humor and some magical realist weirdness/symbolism that may or may not be important.
theyre good reads generally

savage af

when will people realize you dont read murakami for the endings

Same thing with Stephen King. He's literally never on the top 100 lists... just because people don't like his endings. So sick of all the pseuds on this board.

It's samey shit anyway though. Like, it's generally entertaining and all, but if that's what I wanted I'd just reread Wodehouse.

He's got a point

Nah, it's a thing in his short story collection Men Without Women too.

I need to revisit Kafka on the Shore. I may be selling it short, but for me the Oedipal plot wasn't landing and felt shoehorned.

The novel has a lot going for it, but Hard Boiled Wonderland is basically unimpeachable in how tight its narrative structure is, while Wind-Up Bird is a sprawling, almost serial in structure world unto itself--kind of like Mulholland Drive: the Book in how its surreal, loosely connected tangents still coalesce into a unified dream-like experience.

A Wild Sheep Chase is a good representation of his fictional project in a more average-length novel.

That's the only Murakami I've read, and I thought it was well below par for what I usually read. I've thought about reading another book of his, but someone would have to convince me of the comparative superiority of one of his other works to nudge me into it.

Murakami writes wish fulfillment fantasies for weebs

I've read "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" and it was garbage. I learned my lesson and stayed away from the rest of his books.

He's an enjoyable writer. A little bit entry-level for Veeky Forums's standards maybe, but if you're not a literature fanatic then he's a good gateway author towards more serious writers