Black Rain (Masuji Ibuse)

I waited six months to get my hands on a copy of this book, eager to read it because it is supposed to be one of the best in the genre. The anticipation made me a little hesitant when beginning it, putting it off for another few weeks because I had high hopes- hopes that were fulfilled.
Ibuse bases his story on interviews and diaries of survivors, using real many authentic incidents. But this is also the partially fictional tale of Yasuko and her family as they struggle with life and acceptance following the bombing of Hiroshima. Though not in the direct line of the bomb and suffering no noticeable injury or illness but having been caught in the 'black rain' that fell after, Yasuko has to worry about the future of not only herself but any children that she may have. This is one of the reasons that though of marrying age she has as of yet succeeded in securing a husband and the cause for both her and her Uncle Shizuma to begin copying their diaries from the day of the bombing and the days following. The novel goes backwards and forwards in time, giving the reader a sense of what it is like for the people who lived through the atrocity, as well as horror that was the bombing itself and the aftermath.
It's all matter of fact, never shying away from the gory detail to appease the reader, never adding drama where it isn't needed but still manages to convey the suffering.
As an Australian reading this some fifty years plus after Hiroshima you could assume that it would be difficult to understand many of the emotions and customs that come up in the book (as I did with On The Beach, feeling as though the characters were cold and lacking certain emotions or attachments, but realizing that this was because of the generational gap), but Ibuse still managed to convey an image that crosses generations and cultures.
You become involved with Shizuma's and any other's plight, the predicament that Yasuko finds herself and the desperate fight for survival during wartime. You want it to turn out to the best for them, knowing full well the horror that is nuclear warfare. It's impossible not to see how indiscriminate it is and wonder why anyone would ever use such horrific force then, and especially now when we know how awful the truth is.
It is such a superb book that should be on anyone's must read list (and sent to every leader who has nuclear capabilities).

Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)

Kafka on the Shore is what would happen if Franz Kafka and Chuck Palahniuk got together and had a baby.
I decided to read it upon reading the review written by This Person, which is very unusual considering that usually I read books without an inkling as to what the story is about. But this novel is about Kafka Tamura, a fifteen-year-old runaway, and the elderly Nakata, who never recovered from a mysterious coma when he was a child. It is hard to become taken immediately with Kafka (if at all) whom has no recollection of his mother or sister (but definitely has some sort of oedipal complex), however it is easy to fall instantly in love with Nakata. I rarely become involved with characters, I am merely an observer, but when confronted with the brilliant portrayal of Nakata I couldn't help but feel for him.
We are presented with both their stories on their journey to one another, or to themselves as the case may be. Kafka is nothing more than a boy who has suffered through the abandonment of his mother, he mental abuse from his father and his terrifying prophecy. He runs away from home and finds drawn to a private library and things begin to fall into place.
Nakata on the other hand is an illiterate elderly man living on a sub city, earning some extra money finding cats (because he can talk to them) and finding himself on a journey that he doesn't understand. Fish and leeches fall from the sky, Colonel Sanders is embodied and books are read.
The characters all seem a little too erudite, talking like they have all the knowledge in the world and as though the only way that Murakami could get his point across was having someone explain it directly. But that doesn't make it any easier to understand, the book is rife with existentialisms (a subject I will admit to not caring for), hidden meanings and some pretty strange themes that I wasn't all that comfortable with. At times it became a little convoluted.
The books starts off magnificently but starts to slide off into a tangent that is little more than predictable, trying to make sense of everything and tying it into a little bundle but in the end leaves many things inadequately explained. The novel has so much potential such as brilliantly written characters and an interesting scenario, but falters towards the end. This is my introduction to Murakami and certainly will not be the last.