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Synopsis & Review | The Locked Room by Paul Auster, Faber and Faber, 1988 (Originally Published in 1987)

Summary Synopsis

Fanshawe was the best friend of mine. He was smart, sophisticated and striking but excellent normal boy. Dropped out of Harvard, he became a crew of an oil tanker, then wandered around Paris and South France. And he wrote much of writing such as novels, poetry, dramas and notebooks. But he didn’t want to publish them.

He got back to the United States, then he married Sophie. But he suddenly disappeared from her, after three or four months he had promised he would publish the manuscripts within a year.

Sophie requested me to publish Fanshawe’s manuscripts. Then the Fanshawe’s books earned a great reputation and sold well, so we got a certain amount of money from the books. And I became a kind of agent of his books and wrote articles and reviews about him. I got the job to write a biography of Fanshawe, so I went to Paris and South France for searching the traces of him. Then I lost myself in searching for and thinking about Fanshawe…

Book Review

I think this novel is an autobiographical story of Paul Auster. The story indicates a self-reflection or self-affirmation of Auster himself.

Auster reflected his very hungry youth to Fanshawe, he got on Tanker and wandered around Europe, Paris and the South France. Episodes and histories of the narrator and Fanshawe resemble his real experiences appeared on his autobiographical essay the Art of Hunger. On the other hand, he reflected older him after he had became writer.

The main and exterior story of this novel is the narrator sought Fanshawe’s whereabouts. But the true theme of this novel is Fanshawe’s true intention, and philosophical questions to what are today’s human identity and the meaning and the meaninglessness of life and writing, and considerations on to create a story and its difficulty.

And the title The Locked Room means the locked room of the country house in South France, where Fanshawe had shut himself up. The room is the metaphor of Fanshawe’s locked true intention and mind.

Fanshawe was the alter ego or the other self of the narrator. The more the narrator pursued for and thought about Fanshawe, he felt difficulty and complexity like looking at himself or his doppelgänger. And Auster reflected himself on the two characters. So I think this complexity might be arose from the self-referring act as Auster sees Auster himself.

Different to Auster’s former two novel, this novel doesn’t modelled on detective stories. But this novel is a story of “hide and seek”, to search Fanshawe’s whereabouts and riddles. And the narrator said his act was like a detective. And, so, I think the narrator is not only detective of facts about Fanshawe, but also it seeks Fanshawe’s mind and true intention.

There’s a triple self-reflection or self-affirmation and story-telling structure was constructed by each one of Fanshawe, the narrator and Auster, I think. The narrator described things about Fanshawe. Auster described things about the narrator (and Fanshawe). By this self-reflection structure, this novel expresses and asks an answerless question of what are writing and the self.

This novel is slippery one. For example, there’s no description of content of Fanshawe’s writings, and there are no answer, result and destination. Also this novel is a writing about writing or a novel about writing novel. And words of Fanshawe’s red notebook was “their final purpose was to cancel each other out“ (§ 9, p. 313), also the notion can apply to this novel, the content of this novel is to cancel each other out. So there was no answer and solution, and only a state of contradiction was remain. No answer should be the answer of this novel and the consequence of the New York Trilogy.

The storytelling is very excellent and thrilling, also the philosophical considerings about writing and existence are significant. Auster succeed in compose this beautiful and thoughtful story by his real experiences. He splendidly expressed worth, delight agony and misery of writing and life.

Details of the Book

The New York Trilogy
Paul Auster
Faber & Faber, London, 2 Jun 2011
320 pages, £5.99
ISBN: 978-0571276554
Contents:

City of Glass
Ghosts
The Locked Room

Note | Moon Palace by Paul Auster, Faber and Faber, 1989 (in progress)

Information of the Book

Paul Auster’s 5th long novel published in 1989.

Form, Style & Structure

A story of young man, and it describes and traces his adolescence and its hard life by his first person viewpoint. And it includes many sub-episodes of sub-characters, then they connects finally. I think parts of this story might be based on Auster’s real experiences.

Background of the Work & Author

Summary Synopsis

Marco Fogg was born in Boston. He lost his parents in his childhood. So his uncle Victor brought him up. He managed to graduate Columbia University in a very poor and harsh condition, to keep a promise to uncle Victor. Then he had stayed the Central Park as a homeless for a month, he was founded and helped by Kitty Wu and Zimmer, and he recovered.

Then he found an odd job at the student department office of Columbia. The job was to go with a strange blind old man, Thomas Effing a friend or a speaker, and to hear his life full of ups and downs and to write his autobiography. The autobiography had finished, Effing passed away on purpose. Marco sent a copy of the autobiography to an estranged son Solomon Barber, then he visited to New York to see Marco…

Timeline

1883 or 1884 – Thomas Effing was born.

Thomas Effing lived in Shoreham. (§ 4)

1912 – Effing married with Elizabeth Wheeler. (§ 4)

1916 – Effing traveled the West with Edward Byrne, and painted the sceneries during 3 or 4 months. (§ 4)

August, 1916 – Edward Byrne passed away by an accident of a fall from his horse in a canyon. (§ 4) Effing stayed a cave and painted many paints and drawings. (§ 5)

March, 1917 – George Ugly Mouth, a member of the Gresham Brothers visited the cave. But he mistake Effing for his fellow Tom. (§ 5)

The middle of May, 1917 (after just one year, Effing departed from NY) – The Gresham Brothers visited the cave. Effing made a surprise attack for the three brothers at the night and terminated them. He robbed property of the Gresham Brothers, and left from the cave and went to the town of Bluff. (§ 5)

The end of June, 1917 – Effing reached Salt Lake City, then went to California through San Fransisco. At there, he changed his name Thomas Effing from Julian Barber.

1918 (After a year, he moved SF) – Effing came across Alonzo Riddle, a former colleague of his father at a party and he told the story of Julian Barber’s disappearance, so Effing realized he couldn’t stay in the US.

September, 1920 – Effing emigrated to Paris. (§ 4, 5)

1939 or 40 – Effing left from Paris, was expelled by Nazis, and sailed across New York. (§ 4, 5)

Marco Fogg’s father had passed away before he were born. (§ 1)

Marco Fogg and mother lived in a number of small apartments in Boston and Cambridge. (§ 1)

When Marco was 11, his mother Emily (29 years old) passed away by a traffic accident. Then Uncle Victor brought up Macro. (§ 1)

July, 1958 – Macro and Uncle Victor moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota. (§ 1)

1959 – They were back in Chicago (§ 1)

Autumn of 1959 – By the presence of Dora Shamsky, Marco enrolled a private boarding school, Anselm’s Academy for Boys in New Hampshire and lived the dormitory for 2 years. (§ 1)

1961 – After the second year, Marco returned home because Victor and Dora had broke up. (§ 1)

September, 1961 – Uncle Victor and Howie Dunn disbanded the Moonlight Moods, and Victor started another group the Moon Men with three young men.

The fall of 1965 – Marco (18 old) came to New York to study at the Columbia University. He had lived in a collage dormitory for the first nine months, then he lived in an apartment West 112th street for three years. (§ 1)

Spring of 1966 – When the classes ended Marco left the dormitory and moved to an apartment.

Summer of 1966 – The Moon Men spited up. Uncle Victor lived in Boise, Idaho and became a salesman of the Humboldt Encyclopedia. (§ 1)

The middle of April of 1967 – Uncle Victor passed away by heart attack. Then the funeral was held at Chicago. (§ 1)

June, 1969 – Marco managed to graduate the university, selling Uncle Victor’s books little by little at Chandler’s Bookstore, Marco had read. (§ 1)

Beginning of August, 1969 – Macro came across Kitty Wu at a party of students of Juilliard when he visited the apartment Zimmer had lived (but he had already moved). (§ 1)

End of August – Macro was evicted by the apartment. (§ 1)

Former half of September – Marco lingered on the Central Parks as a homeless. (§ 2)

The middle of September – Zimmer and Kitty helped Marco. Marco had stayed in Zimmer’s apartment more than a month. (§ 3)

16 September – Marco was examined for conscription. (He opened the letter of notice the day before!) But he was given a reprieve by a mental disorder or something. (§ 3)

October – Macro did a translation work free to charge. And it completed at the end of October. (§ 3)

The end of October, Marco found a job at the student employment office. (§ 3)

From November 1969 – Marco worked at Thomas Effing’s house, as a friend or a speaker. He stayed Effing’s house’s small shabby room. He’s job was to read books of travel literature and newspaper, to take for Effing stroll and described the sceneries in detail. Then the job was altered to hear and to write down past stories that Effing told. (§ 4, 5)

January,1970 – The talking of Effing had ended. For 20 days, Marco typed the three versions of Effing’s autobiography. (§ 5)

The begging of March, 1970 – Marco did the revisions and edited the autobiography again and again. The job was done in the begging of March. (§ 5)

Effing had Marco read Solomon Barber’s three books. And at 12, March, Effing asked Marco to send the autobiography for Solomon Barber after his pass away. And Effing told he would passed away just 2 months later. (§ 5)

Reading and stroll restarted. (§ 5)

At 1st April, Effing drew 20,000 dollars, and started hand bills out among people in the town during strolls. (§ 5)

At 0:02, 12, May – Effing passed away by he intentionally had been exposed to rain few days ago and caught a cold, pneumonia and so on. (§ 5)

Late spring or early summer of 1970 – Marco begun to live with Kitty Wu at a large loft, studio apartment on East Broadway. They spent happy days for 8 or 9 months. (§ 6)

Marco sent Effing’s obituary to the New York Times, the long version of autobiography to Art World Monthly. But they were turned down. (§ 6)

The middle of September, 1970 – Solomon Barber contacted with Marco. (§ 6)

A Friday in early October, 1970 – Solomon Barber visited to New York to see Marco by airplane. (§ 6)

(…)

Plots & Episodes (Plot & Episodes)

1 Macro Fogg

2 Thomas Effing (Julian Barber)

3 Solomon Barber

Characters

Marco Stanley Fogg – The narrator of this novel. A young man graduated from Columbia University. He lost his parents in his childhood, so he was brought up by uncle Victor.

Victor Fogg (Uncle Victor) – Emily’s older brother. A uncle of the narrator lived in the North Side of Chicago as a bachelor who brought up the narrator as a parent. A clarinetist, the career started as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra. From February 1958, he was gave lessons to students and played a member of a small combo Howie Dunn’s Moonlight Moods. September 1961, he disbanded the band, and Victor started another group the Moon Men with three young men of drummer, pianist and saxophonist. He passed away in the middle of April 1967, when he was 43 years old. A traveling musician played clarinet and was a band leader. He presented many books in the boxes to the narrator.

Emily Fogg – The mother of the narrator, a short, dark-haired pretty woman with thins wrist and delicate white fingers. She had passed away by a traffic accident when she was 29 years old and the narrator was 11 years old. Her husband had passed away, so, anyhow, Emily used his maiden name Fogg. (§ 1, pp. 3 – 4)

Marco’s father – Emily said Marco’s father had passed away before he were born. The narrator had no picture of father, can’t remember what he looked like and he knew nothing about his father. (§ 1, pp. 3 – 4)

Fogelman – The father of Victor and Emily An emigrant to the US. The word Fogel meant bird.

Kitty Wu (§ 2, 3, 6, ) – A student of the Juilliard School specialized in dance, the girlfriend of Marco and the perfect girl for Marco. A Chinese girl, youngest daughter of a general of Chinese Nationalist Party (Taiwan), grew up in Tokyo, Japan, studied in an American school. Then his father sent her for a boarding school, the Fiedling Academy in Massachusetts, US.

Dora Shamsky (§ 1, pp. 8 ) – A mid-forties widow met with uncle Victor in March 1959, lived with him and Marco.

David Zimmer (§ 1, 2, 3) – The best friend of Marco from New Jersey. He was a small person with curly black hair, wore the metal-rimmed glasses. They got to know at at Columbia University. Graduate student at Columbia in comparative literature.

Chandler (§ 1) – The owner and manager of Chandler Bookstore.

Simon Fernandez (§ 1) – A superintendent of Marco’s apartment.

Frank (§ 2, pp. 62 – 63) – A homeless man tried to rob Marco’s clarinet.

Anna Bloom or Blume (§ 3, p. 86) – A girl, Zimmer loved with.

Thomas Effing (§ 4, 5) – A strange, eccentric and intelligent, troublesome but respectable and charming blind old man had extensive knowledge, was confined to a wheelchair, employed Macro as a friend or a speaker. His favorite is travel literature. His past name was Julian Barber, and he was a painter live in Long Island, then in 1920 he emigrated to Paris. He told his past histories for Marco, and Marco wrote down them.

Rita Hume (§ 4, 5) – A caretaker of Effing. She took all of physical and meal care of Effing. Her husband had passed away 13 years ago. And he has three children.

Pavel Shum (§ 4) – A friend of Effing had passed away by a traffic accident.

Ralph Albert Blakelock (§ 4) – A friend of Effing and a painter painted a tableau Moonlight.

Thomas Moran (§ 4) An old painter. A painter lived in Paris, in the early 20th century.

Nichola Tesla (§ 4) – He built his Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham.

Julian Hawthorne (§ 4) – The son of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Charlie Bacon (§ 4) – A younger brother of Rita Hume.

Elizabeth Wheeler (§ 4) – Thomas Effing’s wife.

Edward Byrne (§ 4) – A man wanted to be a topographer, passed away by the incident of a fall from a horse in 1916.

Jack Scoresby (§ 4) – A companion of Effing and Byrne’s travel to the West. A man around 50 had been a cavalry soldier.

George Ugly Mouth (§ 5) – A member of a band of outlaws, the Gresham brothers.

Gresham Brothers (§ 5) – A band of outlaws.

Solomon Barber (§ 5, 6, 7, 8) – The son of Thomas Effing was born in 1917. A professor of American History who taught some rural second grade collages in the Midwest, Iowa, Nebraska. And a matter of fact that he is…

Locations

Utah to California (§ 1, p. 1)

New York

Boston – Marco was grown in Boston and Cambridge.

Cambridge

Chicago – Uncle Victor lived in Chicago.

Paris

Places

An apartment of West 112 St (§ 1) – Marco lived there. A studio apartment on the fifth floor of a large elevator building. (§ 1, p. 16)

Moon Palace – A Chinese restaurant actually existed near Columbia University. The restaurant with a vivid neon sign of pink and blue, was in Broadway near the apartment of the narrator, and he could see the sign from a window of the apartment. The name “Moon Palace” resembles uncle Victor’s band, and the narrator felt an absolute and spiritual inspire and an inwardness and thought the apartment was an intersection of strange omens and mysterious events, and his right place to live.

Chandler’s Bookstore – Marco sold Uncle Victor’s books little by little, Macro had read at this bookstore to feed Marco himself. (§ 1, p. 22)

Zimmer’s Apartment – Amsterdam Avenue, 120th Street. (§ 1)

Central Park (§ 2)

Zimmer’s new apartment (§ 3) – The second floor of an ancient West Village tenement building.

Abingdon Square (§ 3, p. 89)

West End Avenue and Eighty-fourth Street (§ 3, p. 94)

A cave in a canyon (§ 5) – The base camp of the Gresham Brothers.

Large loft, studio apartment on East Broadway (§ 6, pp. 222 – 224) – Marco and Kitty Wu lived for 8 or 9 months.

Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases

More than thousand books (§ 1) – Present sent by uncle Victor. Various themes of books.

Boxes (§ 1) – 76 cardboard boxes packed more than thousand books, were sent by uncle Victor. The narrator made several pieces of “imaginary furniture” in the narrator’s room by the boxes. The element and description may express Auster’s postmodernist, structural and flexible literal thought or philosophy like bricolage.

Name (§ 1, pp. 6 – 7) – Name is a thing of which make fun by children, and a tool of fancy, also is an identity and a pride of a person.

Columbus’s discovery of America (§ 1, p. 12)

The cigar box with the autographes of Chicago Cubs players (§ 1, p. 13)

Suits (§ 1, p. 13) – A tweed suit is made of finest Scottish wool.

Chess set (§ 1, p. 13) – A keepsake of uncle Victor.

Clarinet (§ 1) – A keepsake of uncle Victor.

Egg (§ 1) – It implies shape of moon?

1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing (§ 1) – At the last day Macro sold Uncle Victor’s books at Chandler’s Bookstore, the astronauts landed the moon. A historical event of the human history was carrying out, the narrator spent a misery and very hungry life.

Books were left by Uncle Victor in Boxes (§ 1) – Macro fed miscellaneous knowledge experienced the world of Victor by reading miscellaneous books were left by Victor. And he had read them, he went to sell them at Chandler Bookstore to feed with himself.

A tedious document of about a hundred pages concerting the structural reorganization of the French consulate in New York (§ 3, 87) – A document to translate. A job, Zimmer took on by a French department girl. Marco did it free to charge, he recovered from mental illness and regained will to live.

A work of keeping company with Effing (§ 4, 5) – It’s a kind of trial for Marco.

Taking a walk with Effing (§ 4, 5)

Ralph Albert Blakelock’s Moonlight (§ 4, pp. 131 -135)

Cultural Things on This Novel

Randolph Scott Westers, War of the Worlds, Pinocchio (§ 1, p. 4)

Buck Rogers (§ 1, p. 4)

Around the World in 80 Days (movie) (§ 1, p. 6)

Macro Polo (§ 1, p. 6)

Chicago White Sox, Early Wynn (§ 1, p. 8)

Chicago Cubs, Ernie Banks, George Altman, Glen Hobbie (§ 1, p. 8)

Phileas Fogg (§ 1, p. 12) – The main character of Around the World in 80 Days.

Chappaquiddick (§ 2, p. 60)

the Chicago Eight (§ 2, p. 60)

the Black Panther trial (§ 2, p. 60)

Mets (§ 2, p. 61 ; § 3, p. 88)

Cubs (§ 2, p. 61)

Music

Impressive Scenes & Important Descriptions

Riddles (Mysteries) & Questions

Thought & Philosophy

"I've made my nothing, and now I’ve got to live in it.” (§ 2, p. 52)”, “the park gave me a chance to return to my inner life, to hold on to myself purely in terms of what was happening inside me.“ (§ 2, p. 56) To be a homeless is a kind of rest and cure for Marco’s mind. A method of which his life restarted from zero.

Interpretations, Remarks & Analysis

The first grand narrative by Paul Auster. Many characters, scenes and episodes and various elements. The New York Trilogy and In the Country of Last Things are preparation for full-scale writings.

Macro’s lingering as a homeless in the Central Parks in the chapter 2, is an act by mental bad condition also a kind of his philosophical reflection to life and initiation for his recovery he needed.

Details of the Book

Moon Palace
Paul Auster
Faber & Faber, London, 5 Feb 2004
320 pages, £8.99

ISBN: 9780571142200

Note | Kafka on the Shore: Book 1 by Haruki Murakami & Philip Gabriel, Vintage Books, 2005, in progress

Note | Title by Author (& Translator), Publisher, Year (Originally Published in 19XX)

Information of the Book

Form, Style & Structure

51 chaptered long novel originally published in 2002, Japan by two volumes. This novel contains two plots. One is the plot of a 15 years old boy Kafka Tamura and, another is a around fifties old man Satoru Nakata and mid twenties man Hoshino. The two plots progresses in parallel.

Background of the Work & Author

Summary Synopsis

At the fifteenth birthday, a junior-high student boy, Kafka Tamura left his home and headed for the East. He reached Takamatsu by a long-distance bus, went to the Komura Memorial Library and only read Arabian Nights and Complete Works of Soseki Natsume everyday. The eighth day, he suddenly woke up at a Shito shrine and his white T-shirt soaked with deep blood…

The same time, a strange old man, Satoru Nakata, he was forced to do away with the cat killer, Johnnie Walker. Then he left from Tokyo…

Summaries of Each Chapter

Kafka Tamura

Kafka Tamura talked about his course of action with his alter ego, “The Boy Named Crow” at the room or studio of Kafka’s father. (The Boy Named Crow)

At his fifteenth birthday, in his home, Kafka prepared for travel, he packed belongings in a luggage and washed himself to keeping his body clean. And he built up his body and read many books to live alone. (§ 1)

On the way to Takamatsu station, the bus stopped in a roadside rest area. Kafka came across a hair dresser young girl, Sakura and chatted with her. The rest of the way, she sat next to Kafka and fell asleep, and her head leaned against Kafka’s shoulder. Kafka thought maybe she would be a sister. (§ 3)

The bus got to Takamatsu Station. Sakura gave her mobile-phone number to Kafka. Kafka went to the Komura Memorial Library, he had known by a magazine. Oshima explained the rule and history of the library to Kafka. Kafka read The Arabian Nights at the elegant reading room. At 14 o’clock, Miss Saeki held the tour of the building. (§ 5)

Kafka went to a public gym for working out. He worked out by brand-new training machines. Then he went to the Library and read The Arabian Nights. The next seven days, he spent the same way. (§ 7)

Kafka became conscious in a wood of a Shito shrine, and got into a panic. The time was 23:26. May 28. He suddenly suffered a blackout and lost the memory after taking dinner, during 4 hours. And he noticed his white T-shirt was stained with a fresh and wet darkish blood. He phoned Sakura and asked her for help. Then he met with Sakura at the Lawson’s convenience store on the corner of Sakura’s apartment. And he stayed at her apartment. (§ 9)

Kafka explained for Sakura the situation of himself in her room. Then Sakura went to the bed and Kafka tried to sleep in his sleeping bag, but he can’t sleep. They hugged and fondled in the bed. When Kafka woke up, Sakura had gone for work already. He read a messaged left by Sakura, cleaned and cleared up the room, left a message of thanks for Sakura, then he left the room, and went the Komura Memorial Library. (§ 11)

Oshima took Kafka to his brother's log cabin in thick woods on a mountain of Kochi, to conceal from police, by his green Mazda Miata. (§ 13)

Oshima left from the cabin. Kafka stayed alone in the cabin, experienced a solitary and the nature in wood. (§ 15)

Kafka had stayed in a cabin and the nature of the wood for three days, and he reflected himself and sensed the fertility of the nature. Oshima took Kafka to Komura Memorial Library and Kafka would be a member of the library. (§ 17)

(…) (§ 19)

(…) (§ 21)

(…) (§ 23)

Nakata and Hoshino

A document of interview with Setsuko Okamochi, an elementary school teacher, about a mysterious occurrence on a mountain in Yamanashi, occurred at around ten o’clock, 7 November 1944. (§ 2)

The report of the interview with Dr. Juichi Nakazawa who investigated the incident in which the children all lost conscious in a mountain in Yamanashi, and pupils suffered the phenomenon. He said only a boy, Satoru Nakata had been continued unconscious and lost his intelligence. (§ 4)

Nakata talked with a cat, Otsuka to ask the whereabouts of a cat, Goma (§ 6)

The report of the interview with Dr Shigenori Tsukayama. He said the state of the boy, Nakata suffered like a “spiritual projection” or a “vengeful spirit”. Two weeks later, the boy woke up and his boy was medially fine but he lost his memory. (§ 8)

Nakata talked with two cats, Kawamura and Mimi to hear the whereabouts of Goma. Nakata was told that a mysterious very tall man wore a strange tall hat and long leather boots mistreated cats. (§ 10)

A letter to Shigenori Tsukayama from Setsuko Okamochi. On the letter, she confessed she hit the boy, Nakata carelessly then she embraced him, after a while the incident of lost conscious happend. (§ 12)

A dog take Nakata to Johnnie Walker’s house. Johnnie Walker said to Nakata, he knew Goma’s whereabouts and said prepared a couple of theories need several pieces of counter-evidence as a mental game. (§ 14)

Johnnie Walker confessed to Nakata that he was “the infamous cat-killer” and he collected cats’ souls to create a special kind of flute, then he requested Nakata to do away with him. Five cats were in Walker’s bag, and he pulled out three cats and slashed and passed away them one by one. And, when he tried to slash a Siamese Mimi, Nakata plunged the blade into Johnnie Walker’s stomach by a steak knife, and he passed away. Nakata helped Goma and Mimi, and then his mind sank into the darkness. (§ 16)

(…) (§ 18)

(…) (§ 20)

(…) (§ 22)

Timeline

At his thirteen’s birthday, Kafka left his home and rode a bus for Shikoku. (§ 1)

At May 28, Kafka became conscious in a wood of a Shito shrine. . He suddenly suffered a blackout and lost the memory after taking dinner. And he noticed his white T-shirt was stained with a fresh and wet darkish blood. (§ 9)

On afternoon of May 30, Koichi Tamura was found passed away by someone at his home, Nakano Ward. The police estimated he was terminated at the evening of 28. (§ 21)

On the evening of May 29, some 2,000 sardines rained down from the sky in Nogata, Nakano Ward. (§ 21)

Plots & Episodes (Plot & Episodes)

Characters

Kafka Tamura – A 15 years old tall and built-up a third grade junior-high school student lived in Nogata, Nakano Ward, Tokyo.

Satoru Nakata (from § 6) – Another main character of this novel. An old man over 60 years old, lived in Nogata, Nakano Ward, Tokyo. A mentally retarded man was suffered by a mystical incident in a mountain of Yamanashi when he was 9 years old. He. can speak to cats, and he did temporary job finding cats. He graduated from elementary school, attended agriculture school. When 15, he began to work at a furniture company for 37 years. When he was 52, the company was closed, then he lived by a subsidy to handicap from the Tokyo Metropolitan government.

Hoshino (from § 20, p. 208) – A very tall mid-twenties track driver with a ponytail, a pair of pierced earrings, a Chunichi Dragons baseball cap, a gaudy aloha shirt and oversized Nike shoes. His name implies Senichi Hoshino, a famous and excellent manager of Chunichi Dragons.

Miss Saeki (from § 5) – A mid-forties woman, her face very refined and intelligent looking with beautiful eyes. Oshima said she was a little different person just isn’t bound by conventional ways of doing things. She was from a conservative old-fashioned style family, and went to a local collage to study piano. When she was 19, in 1970, wrote a song named “Kafka on the Shore”, she recorded the song at a studio in Tokyo (when she went to Tokyo, she met the boyfriend), the recored released and was hit. After the passing away of her boyfriend, he disappeared for 25 years. Then she reappeared Takamatsu for the funeral of her mother, she talked with the master of the Komura family, and she became a head of the library.

Oshima (from § 5) – A handsome young man with longish hair worked in the Komura Memorial Library.

the boy named Crow (from Prologue) – A conversation partner in the mind of Kafka.

Koichi Tamura – A fifties, world-renowned sculptor, the father of Kafka.

mother of Kafka

older sister of Kafka – 21 years old. An adopted child, but Kafka’s mother took her when she left, not Kafka.

Robert O’Connor (§ 2)

Setsuko Okamochi (§ 2, 12) – A teacher of an elementary school in Yamanashi.

Sakura (§ 3, 5, 9, 11) – A kind of funny-looking, out of balance face and slim hairdresser young girl in Tokyo, from Ichikawa, Chiba.

Dr Juichi Nakazawa (§ 4) – A doctor who examined and investigated pupils suffered the mysterious phenomenon including Satoru Nakata, in a mountain in Yamanashi.

Otsuka (§ 6) – A elderly black tomcat.

Goma (§ 6) – A one-year-old tortoiseshell cat, Nakata searched for.

a clerk girl of the business hotel (§ 7)

Shigenori Tsukayama (§ 8)

Kawamura (§ 10) – A striped black cat.

Mimi (§ 10) – A female, lovely, slim Siamese was named by Puccini’s La Bohème.

Okawa (§ 14)

A dog (§ 14)

Johnnie Walker (§ 14, 16) – A middle-aged tall and thin mysterious man wore a black silk hat, a form-fitting red coat with long tails, a black waistcoat, white trousers fitted perfectly and long black boots, who resembles the character of the logo of Johnnie Walker.

Boyfriend of Saeki (§ 17) – The eldest son of the Komura family. He went to an University in Tokyo, when he was 18. He passed away when he was 20, because he was mistaken as a spy of a hostile sect of the student mouvement and was smashed by a steel pipe or baton.

Two feminist women (§ 19, pp. 187 – 194) – A tall and small couple of a feminist group women observed and claimed inequalities of women in public facilities.

Two young office ladies (§ 20, pp. 199 – 201)

Tougeguchi (§ 20, pp. 201 – 203)

Hagita (§ 20, pp. 203 – 206)

Nakata’s second younger brother (§ 22) – A office worker of Itochu company.

Nakata’s third younger brother (§ 22) – A bureaucrat of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

Ghost of a girl (§ 23) – A ghost of a girl who seemed to be 15 or 16 years old, Kafka saw her every night in the guest room of the Komura Memorial Library. She might be a ghost 15 years old Miss Saeki.

Locations

Tokyo

Shikoku

Takamatsu – One of four prefecture in Shikoku island

Yamanashi

Nakano Ward

Kochi – A cottage of Oshima’s older brother was in.

Kobe

Places

Business hotel in Takamatsu – Kafka was introduced by the YMCA in Tokyo, so he can stay there at discount price for three days.

the Komura Memorial Library – A small private library, a large Japanese-style house we can’t comprehend it is a library at a glance, with a elegant reading room. A Japanese verse poetry haiku and tanka specialized library. The Komuras cared for poets and writers who visited Shikoku such as Bokusui Wakayama, Takuboku Ishikawa and Naoya Shiga, and they stayed at the house. So the house had became a library. Still there was the trace of Miss Saeki’s boyfriend. The library had a staff only area, there were a simple guest room with bed, bathroom and wardrobe, and a kitchen area.

A vacant room of the Library

A log cabin in thick woods in a mountain of Kochi (§ 13) –

Koichi Tamura’s office and studio in Musashino City (§ 23)

Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases

the world’s toughest 15-year-old (The Boy Named Crow)

father’s belongings (§ 1, p. 5) – These belongings of Kafka’s father are tools and necessities for the adventure, also they signify Kafka knew and owned cultural value different to Nakata.

a photo of older sister of Kafka (§ 1, p. 5) – The shape of the sister on the photo is the half of her face in shadow like Greek tragedy masks.

memory (§ 1, p. 6 ; § 23, p. 234)

work out (§ 1, p. 7 ; § 7 p. 58)

omen (§ 1, p. 8 – 9)

reading (§ 1, p. 8 ; § 5, p. 34)

library (§ 5, pp. 34 – 35) – Library is an ideal and familiar place and an second home, more like real home for Kafka. He spent much of time in a library, read many books from children’s books to novels, biographies and histories, and knew any kinds of music form Jazz, Pop to Rock.

original sin (§ 5, p. 41)

free ; freedom (§ 6, p. 46)

a purely explanation of the complex machine of In the Penal Colont by Franz Kafka (§ 7, pp. 60 – 61) – This episode implied the theme and the structure of this novel. This novel is and indirect metaphor or allegory of a meaning.

metapher (§ 7, p. 61 ; § 13, p. 114 ; § 21, p. 216, p. 220 ; § 23, p. 242)

allegory (§ 7, p. 61 ; § 21, p. 220)

darkish blood on Kafka’s T-shirt (§ 9, p. 74) – The “metaphor” of his father’s passing away (?).

"as individuals each of us is extremely isolated, while s=at the same time we are all linked by a prototypical memory.“ (§ 12, p. 103) – This phrase implies the theme and key of this novel.

(Soseki Natsume’s Sanshiro is a) typical modern Bildungsroman (§ 13, p. 114) – Kafka on the Shore is not typical modern Bildungsroman, but it’s a kind of Bildungsroman or a contemporary Bildungsroman.

Goethe said: everything’s a metaphor. (§ 13, p. 114)

the silence and the dark (§ 15, p. 139)

solitude comes in different varieties (§ 15, p. 139)

Ohima’s books (§ 15, p. 140) – In the cabin on a mountain in Takamatsu, there are many books of which Oshima had read there. The books are chiefly classics, a huge number of subjects of books on philosophy, sociology, history, geography, natural science and so on. To read the books for Kafka is to touch Oshima’s mind and personality.

It's all a question of imagination. Our responsibility begins with the power to imagine. (§ 15, p. 141)

wash himself by hard rain & sunbathe (§ 15, p. 147 ; § 17, p. 162)

contradiction (§ 17, p. 164)

khoros (§ 17, p. 165)

Tolstoy’s aphorism “happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story” (§ 17, p. 169)

The song, Kafka on the Shore (§ 17, pp. 168 – 169 ; § 23, pp. 239 – 240, pp. 244 – 247) – A song sang and composed by Miss Saeki when she was 19, realised in 1969. The lyrics is the metaphor of this novel. This novel is the representation or the expression of this lyrics.

small oil painting in a guest room of the library, the tableau Kafka on the Shore (§ 19, pp. 185 – 186) – A realistic portrait of a young boy by the shore. An about twelve boy sat on a deckchair, and a black German shepherd sat next to the boy, and the background is a summer sea. The boy might be the son of the Komura family, the boy Miss Saeki loved, and the tableau was painted 40 years ago.

red herring (§ 19, pp. 190 – 191)

analogy (§ 19, p. 191)

classical identity crisis (§ 19, p. 194)

Labyrinth (§ 21, p. 194) – Koichi Tamura’s best sculpture work.

irony (§ 21, pp. 214 – 215)

everything in life is a metaphor (§ 21, p. 215) I think this notion by Oshima, signifies the theme and the structure of this novel.

prophecy (§ 21, pp. 216 -217)

Yeats’ poem “in dreams begin responsibility”. (§ 21, p. 219)

dream ; dream circuit (§ 21, p. 219)

analogy (§ 21, p. 220)

Freud and Jung, subconscious (§ 23, p. 242)

living spirits (§ 23, p. 241, pp. 243 – 244) – Oshima said one can become a living spirit by positive feeling of love.

Sphinx ; Oedipus (§ 23, p. 247)

Cultural Things on This Novel

The Arabian Nights (§ 5, p. 40) – Kafka read the book in the Komura Memorial Library.

Aristophanes in Plato’s The Banquet (§ 5, p. 40) – Oshima talked about

Prince (§ 7, p. 58)

The Castle, The Trial and Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (§ 7, p. 60)

In the Penal Colont (§ 7, pp. 60 – 61)

complete works of Soseki Natsume (§ 7, p. 63)

Radiohead (§ 7, p. 63)

La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini (§ 10, p. 82)

Natumes Soseki’s Complete Works ; The Miner, Poppies (§ 13, p. 113)

Sanshiro (§ 13, p. 114)

Green Mazda Miata (§ 13, p. 116)

Piano sonatas of Schubert (§ 13, p. 119)

Adolf Eichmann (§ 15, pp. 140 – 142)

Cassandra (§ 17, p. 165)

Volkswagen Golf (§ 19, p. 186)

Electra by Sophocles (§ 19, p. 192)

Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder (§ 23, p. 237)

The Tale of Genji (§ 23, pp. 241 – 242)

"The “Chrysanthemum Pledge” in Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Akinari Ueda (§ 23, p. 243)

Music

Impressive Scenes & Important Descriptions

Reflection on things after hundred years.

Lyrics of the song Kafka on the Shore

Riddles (Mysteries) & Questions

What is the flute Johnnie Walker tried to create ?

What’s the relation among Johnnie Walker, Koichi Tamura and the blood was stuck on Kafka’s T-shirt ?

Thought & Philosophy

Interpretations, Remarks & Analysis

See the note of Book 2.

Details of the Book

Kafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 6 October 2005
624 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 9780099494096
Contents:

Details of the Book

Kafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 6 October 2005
624 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 9780099494096
Contents:

Summary Synopsis

Book Review

Details of the Book

Related Posts and Pages

Information of the Book

Form, Style & Structure

Background of the Work & Author

Summary Synopsis

Timeline

Plots & Episodes (Plot & Episodes)

Characters

Locations

Places

Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases

Cultural Things on This Novel

Music

Impressive Scenes & Important Descriptions

Riddles (Mysteries) & Questions

Thought & Philosophy

Interpretations, Remarks & Analysis

Details of the Book

Related Posts and Pages

Information of the Book

Form, Style & Structure

Background of the Work & Author

Summary Synopsis

Summaries of Each Chapter

Kafka Tamura

Nakata and Hoshino

Timeline

Plots & Episodes (Plot & Episodes)

Characters

Locations

Places

Key Elements, Key Words & Key Phrases

Cultural Things on This Novel

Music

Impressive Scenes & Important Descriptions

Riddles (Mysteries) & Questions

Thought & Philosophy

Interpretations, Remarks & Analysis

Details of the Book

Details of the Book

Related Posts and Pages