Norwegian Wood

by Haruki Murakami

book data

7742 ratings, 3.95 average rating, 782 reviews (more data...)

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5		31%
4		39%
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2		4%
1		1%

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published

May 17th 2001 (first published 1987) by The Harvill Press

binding

Paperback, 480 pages

isbn

1860468187 (isbn13: 9781860468186)

description

In 1987, when Norwegian Wood was first published in Japan, it promptly sold more than 4 million copies and transformed Haruki Murakami into a p...more

[close] In 1987, when Norwegian Wood was first published in Japan, it promptly sold more than 4 million copies and transformed Haruki Murakami into a pop-culture icon. The horrified author fled his native land for Europe and the United States, returning only in 1995, by which time the celebrity spotlight had found some fresher targets. And now he's finally authorized a translation for the English-speaking audience, turning to the estimable Jay Rubin, who did a fine job with his big-canvas production The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Readers of Murakami's later work will discover an affecting if atypical novel, and while the author himself has denied the book's autobiographical import--"If I had simply written the literal truth of my own life, the novel would have been no more than fifteen pages long"--it's hard not to read as at least a partial portrait of the artist as a young man.

Norwegian Wood is a simple coming-of-age tale, primarily set in 1969-70, when the author was attending university. The political upheavals and student strikes of the period form the novel's backdrop. But the focus here is the young Watanabe's love affairs, and the pain and pleasure and attendant losses of growing up. The collapse of a romance (and this is one among many!) leaves him in a metaphysical shambles: <blockquote> I read Naoko's letter again and again, and each time I read it I would be filled with the same unbearable sadness I used to feel whenever Naoko stared into my eyes. I had no way to deal with it, no place I could take it to or hide it away. Like the wind passing over my body, it had neither shape nor weight, nor could I wrap myself in it. </blockquote> This account of a young man's sentimental education sometimes reads like a cross between Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Stephen Vizinczey's In Praise of Older Women. It is less complex and perhaps ultimately less satisfying than Murakami's other, more allegorical work. Still, Norwegian Wood captures the huge expectation of youth--and of this particular time in history--for the future and for the place of love in it. It is also a work saturated with sadness, an emotion that can sometimes cripple a novel but which here merely underscores its youthful poignancy. --Mark Thwaite [close]

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Kate rated it:

(review of isbn 0099448823)

09/14/07

bookshelves: alltimefavourites, reviewed

Book Review: Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood (Vintage, London, 2000)

I have never been good at reading translations. It's always in the back of my mind that what I'm reading is not the piece in its original forms: it is not how the author originally wished it to be presented. I don't know, therefore, whether it is to Murakami or Norwegian Wood's translator Jay Rubin who I should give the credit for keeping me thoroughly engaged with this one.

I immediately connected to Toru, the narrator...more Book Review: Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood (Vintage, London, 2000)

I have never been good at reading translations. It's always in the back of my mind that what I'm reading is not the piece in its original forms: it is not how the author originally wished it to be presented. I don't know, therefore, whether it is to Murakami or Norwegian Wood's translator Jay Rubin who I should give the credit for keeping me thoroughly engaged with this one.

I immediately connected to Toru, the narrator and protagonist, because he was a university student, a reader, who was 19 and turning 20. Even though the character is in 1960s Japan, so much of the mundane aspects of his every day life were things that I could connect to.

I found the exploration of 'normal' and 'not-normal' incredibly intriguing. Whilst Naoko and Reiko spend most of the novel in a sort of hospital, I never got the impression that they were any more strange than Toru (a self confessed loner), Midori (who has a strange fascination with pornography, and can't cry at her father's funeral), Nagasawa (who doesn't seem to have any real emotions or attachments) or Hatsumi (Nagasawa's long-suffering girlfriend, who comes off as very repressed). Where the difference lies, I think, is that Naoko and Reiko feel unhealthy through their lack of normality, and worry that the way they act, the way they think, hurts others as well as themselves.

Suicide is an issue that runs throughout the novel, and with it (of course) does death. The messages coming through about these things were interesting. It seemed to me that Toru was unsure exactly what death meant to him, except for that 'Death exists, not as the opposite to, but as a part of life.' Looking back at the novel as a whole, I think death is handled in the same sort of way as in the Harry Potter series. (Odd comparison, I know) It has that same questioning nature, and the same raw honesty. It's something I have come to admire in authors when I feel this in their work.

The novel is, more than anything, a coming of age novel about a love triangle. The two relationships work so well that I think as a reader you begin to feel a lot like Toru does: you want him to be with Naoko when she is in the scene, and you want him to be with Midori when she appears. It's not a traditional love triangle I suppose in that the girls do not compete for his heart. They both must just be themselves and see where they end up. It's not a story of epic love and passion, but it's subtle, and seems more real.

The language in which Toru's world and feelings are described is simply gorgeous. I suppose I should credit both Murakami and Rubin here. I guess it's a collaborative effort, in many ways. So many simple sentences just reached out and grabbed me, either for their truth, beauty, wit or oddness.

Overall, this is a fantastic novel that I would recommend to everyone who has experienced (or is still doing so) the rollercoaster ride that is growing up and living without anyone to hold your hand in the best way that you know how.

(Not recommended at all for younger readers, some of the sex scenes and the language is quite graphic, as well as some themes being upsetting. I don't know if I could have read this when I was 16/17 for example, and really understood it.)...less

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Montambo rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

04/06/08

bookshelves: death, so-this-is-love

Read in April, 2008

I think I'm just not meant for Murakami. I wanted to love him because the people who love him REALLY do. They're rapturous. They get cantakerous if you tell them you've never read him. They're like sushi lovers.

Well, I tried to love sushi, too. I was jealous of the sushi lovers. They have something special going on with sushi and there I am with my edamame and miso soup. But they're like, "Try this one! You'll love this one!" I try it. I tryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, people....more

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24 comments

TheDane rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

07/29/08

Read in July, 2008

Having read Kafka on the Shore, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After the Quake, and Sputnik Sweetheart, I decided it was high time I read the novel that really put Haruki Murakami on the Map of Supe...more Having read Kafka on the Shore, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, After the Quake, and Sputnik Sweetheart, I decided it was high time I read the novel that really put Haruki Murakami on the Map of Superstardom. Norwegian Wood, by all accounts, was the work that made his later triumphs possible. Still, I approached the work guardedly, recognizing that popularity and quality rarely go with hands clasped in loving security.

In short, my fears were deftly allayed.

Norwegian Wood, while boasting none of that surreality that drew me so strongly to Murakami's later works, is still on all counts an excellent novel. It foreshadows the art that he would later hone in more incredible works but is not overwhelmed by its place as Prototype and stands stubbornly under its own worthy powers. The book is emotionally satisfying, wryly humourous, and carries enough of the psychological burden of true romance that I couldn't help but enjoy the journey.

As far as the story is concerned, Murakami pits a young, collegiate protagonist (Toru Watanabe) against a world made crazy by ill-founded idealism and the fascism that idealism nurtures. The world around him feeds on dreams and the need for rebellion—not worthy rebellion but only that typical rebellion that the young feel is necessary to young lives. Even in the midst of his cynicism toward the mindless abandon of his classmates, Watanabe finds himself abandoned to his desperate love for Naoko, the psychologically wounded girlfriend of his now-deceased best friend from high school. Even as he labours to support Naoko through her lengthy convalescence, writing her letters and occasionally visiting her remote community, Watanabe takes the edge off his pining by participating in two oddly similar friendships, both with fellow students of his particular university. These work to show him both who he wants to be and who he does not want to be.

I'm not certain if Norwegian Wood should be classified as romantic fiction, bildungsroman, or as something else. Certainly their are elements of the two well-mined genres, but I can't help feeling that the novel is perhaps something more worthwhile than either of the two classifications. In any case, I liked it well enough and it's normal enough to appeal to even those who aren't ready for Murakami's more curious work.

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Yulia rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

05/02/08

bookshelves: by-and-of-japan, read-to-me-by-frank

Read in January, 2005

How this book became one of Murakami's most famous and popular baffles me. In fact, when asked about it in an interview, Murakami himself said that he was puzzled by its popularity and that it really isn't what he wants to be known for.

What can I say? There's too little of the characters that do spark my interest and much too much of the depressive girlfriend and her kooky friend at the mental institution. Also, the scenes which were supposed to be funny about his college roommate didn'...more

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Matt rated it:

04/24/08

Read in April, 2008

My oh my....I think I would give this book ten stars if I had the chance. A review is forthcoming, once it isn't 4:49 in the morning and all of my thoughts are properly collected....

***************************

Can you believe I didn't listen to The Beatles once over the two weeks that it took me to read this? I find it strange, as I tend to suffer from Beatlemania and listen to them frequently. But no, no Beatles, not a single time. As interesting as that may or may not be, it isn't t...more My oh my....I think I would give this book ten stars if I had the chance. A review is forthcoming, once it isn't 4:49 in the morning and all of my thoughts are properly collected....

***************************

Can you believe I didn't listen to The Beatles once over the two weeks that it took me to read this? I find it strange, as I tend to suffer from Beatlemania and listen to them frequently. But no, no Beatles, not a single time. As interesting as that may or may not be, it isn't the best way to start this review. I find myself wondering if Toru Watanabe is the one literary character I have been able to relate to most. No, no...that isn't a good start either.

Very early on in this book, I knew I would love it. This is my third Murakami, and he hadn't let me down before. I find his writing in general to be visceral, nostalgic, and tinted with shadows of melancholy. This book, however, in contrast to The Elephant Vanishes and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, grabbed me by the heart and didn't let go until its final words passed before my eyes. Is it because he eschews the supernatural this time around, or doesn't throw his usual left hooks plotwise? Not really.

Normally I can understand why, or at least rationalize a review or rating, but I find the right words are elusive tonight. I think back through particular scenes in the book and can pinpoint certain moods and feelings. I can say that so-and-so a scene was intense enough to give even me an erection; I can say I discovered heartache and touched sorrow here, relived loss there, experienced beauty, felt pain, the joy of togetherness. You'd figure if you covered this semi-representative range of moods and emotions, mixed them together like an omelet and said voila! you would have this book. And I suppose in a way that's true...

But it's also not true. This book isn't some magic potion, and it isn't an omelet. At it's heart, it's a love story, about love that is simultaneously there, tangible and real, but also elusive and forever slipping away. As John Lennon once wrote, "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me." But Matt, you're thinking, there are millions of love stories out there. What makes this one so special? I don't know. It's complex, sure. Yet that's not it. It's beautifully written, sure. Yet that's not it. It has colorful characters, fantastic dialogue, raging eroticism, thoughts and ideas I can relate to, yet they aren't it either. I can't pinpoint it. But I love it anyway.

There's a quote that I think sort of relates in a roundabout way. "Letters are just pieces of paper," I said. "Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish." This reading is still very fresh in my mind, too fresh perhaps, but I get the feeling it will stick with me for a long time to come. I look forward to seeing again, further down the road.

And, for the record, the music I found most apt to this reading experience was the Icelandic band, Sigur Rós. Dig it, kids.

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2 comments

Ed rated it:

06/28/07

recommends it for: introverts, suicidals, hopelessly serious romantics

Murakami has three kinds of writing: surrealist short-fiction, short romance novels, and epic labyrinthian meditations. Personally, the romance is my least favorite of his styles. Not that I dislike them, but they tend to wear thin on me after a few. That said, once I finally got around to Norwegian Wood, one of the first and most infamous of Murakami romances, I can see why the formula became a temptation. Definately my favorite of Murakami's short love stories, forget the whole "Catcher i...more

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Katherine rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

11/16/07

This is supposed to be Murakami's "normal" novel, the one you can give your friends who aren't ready to deal with house-husbands facing their subconscious at the bottom of a well or with doppelgangers trapped in ferris wheels.

The story begins with Toru and Naoko, a pair of painfully shy students whose relationship is always overshadowed by the suicide of their mutual friend many years ago. While Naoko retreats further into herself and her unhappiness, Toru slowly and unconsciously ...more

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Astrid rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

08/21/07

bookshelves: my-book-shelf

Read in October, 2006

Clenched Soul

We have lost even this twilight.
No one saw us this evening hand in hand
while the blue night dropped on the world.

I have seen from my window
the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops.

Sometimes a piece of sun
burned like a coin in my hand.

I remembered you with my soul clenched
in that sadness of mine that you know.

Where were you then?
Who else was there?
Saying what?
Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly
when I am sad and feel you are fa...more

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cindy rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

03/30/07

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in June, 2000

recommends it for: everyone

Love, loneliness, the constant desire to connect. It's a gentle, beautiful, haunting novella.

Midori: "So I made up my mind I was going to find someone who would love me unconditionally three hundred and sixty-five days a year."

Watanabe: "Wow, and did your search pay off?"

M: "That's the hard part. I guess I've been waiting so long I"m looking for perfection. That makes it tough."

W: "Waiting for the perfect love?"

M: "No, even...more

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Geoff rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

10/17/07

Read in January, 2006

recommends it for: those pining for an ever-elusive connection.

"Norwegian Wood" departs from Murakami's more surreal magical realism, and is often derided as "just a love story"; it is anything but. On the surface this is the story of a loner exploring two kinds of intimacies, one tragic and distant, the other exciting but comparitively mundane. "Norwegian Wood" exemplifies Murakami's often-overlooked gift for filling his tales with layer upon layer of reality, often weaving the everyday and the impossible, the bitter with the ...more

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Just Fatma rated it:

(review of isbn )

10/30/08

bookshelves: novel-terjemahan

Read in October, 2008

Pertama kali melihat novel ini, saya biasa-biasa saja, malah jadi ingat lagunya The Beatles yang menjadi judul novel ini, Norwegian Wood. He..he..he..Apanya yang istimewa yah? Beberapa bulan setelahnya (menjelang ramadhan tahun ini), akhirnya saya membelinya juga, dan ingin menjadikannya teman ngabuburit selama ramadhan. Beruntunglah saya bertemu dengan Dian dan Roos, dari mereka katanya buku ini membuat sakit perut, lalu juga ditambah dari komentar Erry dan lainnya yang katanya buku ini juga bi...more Pertama kali melihat novel ini, saya biasa-biasa saja, malah jadi ingat lagunya The Beatles yang menjadi judul novel ini, Norwegian Wood. He..he..he..Apanya yang istimewa yah? Beberapa bulan setelahnya (menjelang ramadhan tahun ini), akhirnya saya membelinya juga, dan ingin menjadikannya teman ngabuburit selama ramadhan. Beruntunglah saya bertemu dengan Dian dan Roos, dari mereka katanya buku ini membuat sakit perut, lalu juga ditambah dari komentar Erry dan lainnya yang katanya buku ini juga bikin perut mual, karena ceritanya yang (..na..na..na..). Sudahlah, akhirnya tidak jadi saya membuat novel ini untuk menjadikannya teman dikala Ramadhan, takut...(eeennggg....)

Saya putuskan untuk membacanya ketika cuti kerja selama tiga hari di akhir bulan Oktober ini. Reaksi yang berbeda saya temukan ketika membaca buku ini. Kalau Roos kan sakit perut, Erry katanya mual, kalau saya, malah sering garuk2 kepala, dan kalo sudah mentok membacanya saya berhenti, selingi dengan buku-buku yang lain. Dan akhirnya tadi malam pukul 23.14 saya berhasil menyelesaikannya (dibaca dari tanggal 28 oct-30 Oct). Horee...

Secara keseluruhan, gaya Haruki Murakami dalam menuturkan cerita sangat bagus, begitu mengalir, dari awal,karakter Naoko memang sudah diangkat, begitu pula dengan Watanabe.
Tokoh-tokoh yang terdapat didalam novel ini juga tidak begitu banyak, sehingga mudah bagi saya untuk mengingat satu karakter dengan karakter yang lain. Saya suka dengan karakter Midori, yang menurut saya cuek, jujur, bertanggung jawab dan humoris. Dengan setting Jepang tahun 1960an-1970an, lagu-lagu yang ada di novel ini tentu saja yang lagi ngetrend tahun2 itu, seperti The Rolling Stones dan The Beatles. Dari awal sampai menjelang akhir, saya sangat menyukai jalan ceritanya, dan hampir akan saya berikan 5 bintang dari 5 bintang untuk novel ini, tetapi ketika mau menjelang akhir, saya kecewa dengan tindakan Watanabe!!! Jadi saya putuskan hanya memberikan 3 bintang dari 5 bintang.

Caution: buku ini untuk 17 tahun ke atas, jauhkan dari jangkauan anak-anak..he..he..he.. ...less

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18 comments

erry rated it:

(review of isbn )

10/12/08

Read in October, 2008

"Kematian bukanlah akhir dari kehidupan, tetapi merupakan bagian darinya"

- Haruki Murakami dalam Norwegian Wood -

Norwegian Wood, adalah sebuah kisah tentang generasi muda Jepang di era tahun enam puluhan. Ketika negeri sakura ini mulai menggeliat bangkit pasca keruntuhan mereka di PD II.
Ini adalah era kebangkitan dan kebebasan. Musik the Beattles, rock, dansa dansi, alcohol, sex bebas, kaum hippies dan lainnya.

Keanehan dunia kematian ternyata tak seaneh kehidupan. Dunia ...more

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Debra rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

07/05/08

bookshelves: fiction, on-memory

Read in June, 2008

When 37 year-old Toru Watanabe hears a “sweet orchestral cover version” of Norwegian Wood on a 747 going to Germany, he finds himself swept into memories of 1969, the year that he turned twenty. At the center of his memories is Naoko with whom he shared after a complicated romance after Kizuki, his best friend and her boyfriend, committed suicide. Toru remained devoted to Naoko even after her emotional condition deteriorated and she checked herself into the Ami Hostel, a remote, m...more When 37 year-old Toru Watanabe hears a “sweet orchestral cover version” of Norwegian Wood on a 747 going to Germany, he finds himself swept into memories of 1969, the year that he turned twenty. At the center of his memories is Naoko with whom he shared after a complicated romance after Kizuki, his best friend and her boyfriend, committed suicide. Toru remained devoted to Naoko even after her emotional condition deteriorated and she checked herself into the Ami Hostel, a remote, mountain sanitarium for people suffering from mental illness. As the song heard on the airplane draws out Toru’s memories, he pictures a meadow in which he and Naoko once walked, but they themselves are no longer in the scene. “As clear as the scene may be,” Toru says, “no one is in it…Naoko is not there and neither am I. Where could we have disappeared to?…Everything that seemed so important…Naoko and the self I was then and the world I had then, where could they have gone?” At that moment Toru determines to write a book in order to retrieve both himself and the girl he once walked with in that field.

In a lesser writer’s hands, the autobiographical voice often goes awry, but it is a testament to Haruki Murakami’s gifts that in Norwegian Wood, he retrieves what might have been a simple, nostalgic coming of age story and creates a novel of great emotional power and transcendence. Murakami's work is so seamless, and affords the reader such pleasure in sinking into it, that it is often hard to pinpoint why the sum total is so good. Toru’s narrative voice (in what seems to be an open homage to Nick Caraway in The Great Gatsby) draws the reader into a world that is complete. Even the secondary characters--from relatively minor ones like his college roommate Storm Trooper and his promiscuous friend Nagasawa to the more important characters of Midori, a free-spirited girl he meets in his Drama class, and the wonderful Reiko, an older woman who is Naoko’s friend at Ami Hostel--are perfectly calibrated within the whole.

Murakami is often lauded as a master of images but I believe that in the strength of this particular novel (and I might add, the English translation by Jay Rubin) comes from a mastery of tone. Although Murakami resembles many of our contemporary novelists in that he casts out many musical and literary references, he is unlike many others in that he never seems frantic. Murakami masterfully weaves music and quietness into a soundtrack for love and loss as he conducts all the elements of this novel like the notes and breaths of a musical score. Although the theme of the book hinges on the power of music to conjure, evoke memories, and heal, there is nest of silence at the heart of this novel, particularly in the scenes in which Toru visits Naoki and Reiko at the beautiful Ami Hostel, a place that casts a spell of quietness and intimacy over the world. Absences and presences silence and sound: the past will always be a field both empty and full. But is through Haruki Murakami’s great quietness that Toru—and by extension we, the readers—can still hear Reiko’s guitar play Norwegian Wood in a way that pierces the heart. ****1/2
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Whitenoisemaker rated it:

(review of isbn 0099448823)

06/27/08

Read in February, 2008

I read quite a bit of Murakami before getting round to his most famous book, Norwegian Wood. In a way, I was falling into the trap of contrary, wilful anti-popularism, but in my defence I was also a little reluctant to read something that sounded rather simplistic and rather romantic (ugh!).

Turns out it's probably the best thing of his I've read. This book is a world away from his usual surrealistic and somewhat head-hurting mystical narratives, which tend to be full of unnamed narrators and...more

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Fiona rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

06/01/08

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It did capture something about university life - having pletny of time on your hands, often spent alone. I liked Watanabe's (and all characters for that matter) view on the world, and of life. Watanabe seemed so passive throughout the whole novel, as so much was happening around him - Naoko's worsening sickness, Midori and her weird and assertive ways...though his passivity(sp?) seemed very fitting. He is just another life living in a busy, complicated ...more I enjoyed this book for the most part. It did capture something about university life - having pletny of time on your hands, often spent alone. I liked Watanabe's (and all characters for that matter) view on the world, and of life. Watanabe seemed so passive throughout the whole novel, as so much was happening around him - Naoko's worsening sickness, Midori and her weird and assertive ways...though his passivity(sp?) seemed very fitting. He is just another life living in a busy, complicated world.

This book was very easy to read - thanks either to Murakami's writing, or the translation. The storyline itself did not interest me too much, but the details Murakami scattered throughout the book is what left a lasting impression. Tokyo is a big city, and people do not have time for one-another, yet must live as harmoniously as they can. This is perhaps why Watanabe is so passive, even though he feels such stong emotions. Also the small 'morals' scattered throughout the book were effective. 'Death is a part of life,' and all the advice Reiko gives Watanabe as the novel progresses.

Although she really got up-my-goat much of the time, my favourite character was Midori. Perhaps because she could be so 'kawaii' at times, yet still have so much substance to her. I very much enjoyed her 'stick-it-to-the-lefties' talk with Watanabe, yet still maintain her own liberal way of thinking.

Too often in this book did I go 'if only i could live in the pages of this novel, and work in a record store in Shinjuku... or go out drinking in the early afternoon with strange porn-obsessed uni friends... or have talks with trendy-uni-types about novels and classical music...' but then I'd catch myself, and remember that Watanabe's life itself is not that interesting - he has just been swept up in the sorrow of death, and is trying to deal. I myself would not want to have gone through what Watanabe went through.

Although this book was so-so for me, I definitely want to read more of Murakami's work. This is a good introduction, and perhaps I am now ready to face his 'not so mainstream' novels.
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Michael rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

04/17/08

Read in April, 2008

The only Murakami I'd read previous to this were New Yorker short stories, which I remember as kind of wickety-wack: thirtysomething accountant reflects on his life and finds himself on top of a raindrop chatting with anthropomorphized nitrogen, that sort of things. (Pls. note my memory is not very good.)
Anyway my Google-given understanding is that this book is somewhat of an exception in the Murakami canon, but it has little wickety and no wack. What it is is a teenage melodrama. A gorgeous o...more

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Marie rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

07/07/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: ego tripping, fantasy dwelling men

UGH!!!
This book bugged the hell out of me for a few reasons:
#1. There is a somewhat extended passage devoted to a lesbian encounter that wouldn't be so terrible in and of itself, as sex in general is a major topic BUT the novel as a whole leaned towards describing the physiological experience the woman were having and would brush over the mens again and again. There would be like 5 paragraphs on the woman and then 1 sentence were it would say something along the lines of, "she took me i...more

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Jafar rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

08/20/07

So this book turned Murakami into a superstar, forcing him to flee Japan, while disappointing his original hardcore fans. I can see why the book sold so much: over-dramatized, sensational, with plenty of suicides and sex. Watanabe reminded of Holden in The Catcher in the Rye – and somewhere in the story he actually gets accused of talking like Holden – but he’s not as good. I never got a good glimpse into what was going on in Naoko’s mind. The older woman, Reiko, seems to exist on...more

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Rhiannon rated it:

(review of isbn 0375704027)

07/10/07

bookshelves: fiction

Read in July, 2007

Norwegian Wood is about a young man starting college in Tokyo in the late '60s. He falls in love with Naoko, the former girlfriend of his best friend, who had committed suicide at 17 (the friend, not Naoko). While Naoko is dealing with her extensive personal problems, he forms a friendship with a free-thinking girl named Midori.

I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to say about this book for a while now. It's my second Murakami book (the first being Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) and I ha...more Norwegian Wood is about a young man starting college in Tokyo in the late '60s. He falls in love with Naoko, the former girlfriend of his best friend, who had committed suicide at 17 (the friend, not Naoko). While Naoko is dealing with her extensive personal problems, he forms a friendship with a free-thinking girl named Midori.

I've been trying to figure out what I wanted to say about this book for a while now. It's my second Murakami book (the first being Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) and I had very similar reactions to both - I really enjoyed them, but have a hard time saying why.

Characters are normally what make or break a book for me, so I really shouldn't have liked this. Toru, the main character, is pretty much a non-entity to me - I feel like I know absolutely nothing about him. He's very consciously set up as a Nick Carroway (Great Gatsby) figure, and I can't stand Nick. (The boy tells me he's also a Holden Caulfield figure, and that's also explicit in the text, but I've never read Catcher in the Rye.) And at least I just don't care about Toru - with the exception of Midori, I pretty much can't stand everyone else. Naoko is so manipulative and so determined to drag everyone around her down with her, and it kills me that this never dawns on those around her.

There were also a lot of things I don't really know that I can address fully, because I don't have the cultural context. These are issues surrounding gender, sexuality, perceptions of mental illness and difference, that I can't fully engage with due to not being Japanese or having knowledge or experience regarding Japan in the 60's.

However, as I said, I did like this book a lot. Midori is funny and sweet and really every scene that had her in it was golden. The pacing was perfect - just the right amount of odd scenes interspersed with great explicative conversations. A little too much of Toru sitting around contemplating how he does the same thing all the time (which is primarily sitting around contemplating how he does the same thing all the time), but it rang true with the rest of the book's driving themes.
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Norwegian Wood

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