Norwegian Wood in Around the World

Dec 26, 2014 Jibran rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: japanese

The novel is based on the suicide problem in young people - which is apparently endemic in Japanese culture - and the attendant mental illness that leads them to utter despair.

The narrator (a guy) has only two best friends at school: a guy and a girl, who are also a romantic couple. When the guy commits suicide at 17, the narrator by sheer chance finds himself comforting and taking care of the girl who starts to behave oddly after the tragedy, apparently due to sadness, but things turn for the w The novel is based on the suicide problem in young people - which is apparently endemic in Japanese culture - and the attendant mental illness that leads them to utter despair.

The narrator (a guy) has only two best friends at school: a guy and a girl, who are also a romantic couple. When the guy commits suicide at 17, the narrator by sheer chance finds himself comforting and taking care of the girl who starts to behave oddly after the tragedy, apparently due to sadness, but things turn for the worse when the girl suffers mental breakdown and gets admitted to a sanatorium for treatment. The rest of the story is the narrator’s attempt to put things to right and to bring the girl back to normal life - so at its heart it's a heartfelt love story.

It’s written in straightforward first person narrative and avoids the sort of surrealist storytelling flourishes Murakami is known for in his other major novels "Kafka on the Shore" and "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" - it's more grounded in realist mode.

However, there are a few things that got me thinking.

Murakami makes tons of references to Western classical music and American pop. The books which feature in the story, too, are mostly Western. Shouldn’t a novel about Japanese people set in Japan and written in Japanese should be more grounded in the Japanese culture, music and literature? One character who is a good maverick musician only plays Mozart and Bach and Beatles. The name of the novel itself is derived from Beatles’ song. The mentally ill girl liked the song and that is the only justification for naming the book so.

Sex is a recurrent theme. At times it feels the author is taking great pains, figuratively speaking, in describing the repetitive sexual encounters of his characters even when situations don’t call for it. In this novel everyone is trying to do it with everyone else. But I guess our modern readers don't think a work of fiction as well-rounded unless the story comes with a few erections and orgasms.

That aside, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It's studded with beautiful sentences, startling interpretive utterances revealing complex situations with great ease - and for that one must appreciate the translator. It's a well-written, sad, moving and, at times, gripping story worth your time and money. ...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Shayantani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite

I am experiencing Naoko’s difficulty in finding words to describe this novel. I will just play Beatles and Bach on repeat, ruminate in solitude and let the surreal feeing sink in before I can form coherent sentences again. Only Murakami and Marquez provoke such reactions, what is with these two authors and the power they wield through words.

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Mar 20, 2012 Nivas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

There was a phase in my life, confused where it was leading, no studies, no job; the only solace I found was in books, reading a book after a book, trying to escape the circumstances. I never gave a thought to writing down a review about what I was reading, about how the words made me feel, and the silence that followed finishing reading the end page. The only thing I used to do was highlight my favorite lines. As time passed, the color of highlighted lines wore down and left a trace hardly visi ...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Rusalka rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: original-52-books-around-the-world, asia, own, presents-to-me, translation, around-the-world, holy-f-why-has-nobody-told-me, japan

I wasn't expecting this book. I again have heard wonderful things about it. But I am going to plead something that I hate doing, but I think I was an ethnocentric Westerner. I think I combined Haruki Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro, both of which I wish to read and have it seems slightly fantastical, futuristic and almost sci fi elements in their fiction. But that wasn't Norwegian Wood.

Norwegian Wood is named, thank goodness, after the Beatles song. That would have driven me mad otherwise. It is set I wasn't expecting this book. I again have heard wonderful things about it. But I am going to plead something that I hate doing, but I think I was an ethnocentric Westerner. I think I combined Haruki Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro, both of which I wish to read and have it seems slightly fantastical, futuristic and almost sci fi elements in their fiction. But that wasn't Norwegian Wood.

Norwegian Wood is named, thank goodness, after the Beatles song. That would have driven me mad otherwise. It is set at the turn of the 60s and 70s, with Toru Wanatabe heading to University in Tokyo and learning about himself and in turn love. However his learning about love is long, and more complicated than you could really imagine.

I guess that is the benefit of fiction at times. You can have these characters experiencing things that seem so far fetched, in a way so you don't have to. Or so you can work through your own response to those scenarios just in case they ever eventuate for you. But you feel for Wanatabe. You wish for him to fall for a normal and uncomplicated woman. Although part of you wonders if he falls for incredibly complicated women as he is borderline boring himself.

I will say however, that this is not a book to read if you do not want graphic sexual descriptions. And it does make it uncomfortable to read on the Tube/Metro/SMRT system in Singapore (where I was on holiday at the time) as in our heads at least, it is considered a very conservative place. Surrounded by headscarfs and people who at least (yes, see above, judgey Westerner, I hate it) look like they are Hindu or Muslim it makes it hard to read passages about noises made during sex. Although there were other times when there were many teenagers (either Chinese, Malay, Indian, or European) in tiny clothes rubbing up against each other in those trains.... Point is Singapore is complex, and it made this book uncomfortable at times. But that was my own issues... Maybe don't take it to read in the Middle East.

But in summary, beautifully written. I think I could have hated the story and still loved the book. Looking forward to reading more of this author. Loved that it was set in Tokyo as I have spent a few days there and could imagine quiet vividly some of the settings.

I did want to drink Midori while reading it due to Midori's name in the book (which simply means "green" in Japanese), but even better was we had bought some Choya plum wine duty free (well the expensive stuff, but this is what we drink at home) and spent a few nights after coming in from the sweaty crowds and bustling markets to sitting reading this book and some ice cold, Japanese plum wine (if you haven't tried this stuff, you *have* to). Perfect, or in one of my few Japanese phrases: totemo oishii desu. 4 stars.

For more reviews visit http://rusalkii.blogspot.com.au/ ...more

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Nov 28, 2014 Priya rated it liked it

A love story. Yeah, just that. No supernatural stuff. No unreal incidents. Bizarre, yes - the trademark Murakami plot is very much there and that's probably what makes this love story stand apart.

Unlike the other Murakami books I've read, I found myself wondering 'dude, where's the story' almost till the 60% mark. And then I gave up. Rather, gave in to the author. And that's how I figured out it is just a love story. But in true Murakami style.

I loved Toru Watanabe. He could very well be every ...more

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May 04, 2014 Katya added it

Shelves: japan, audiobook

In every book I read by Murakami everything gets stranger, and relationships get more complicated.
So what do we have in this book? Three suicides, two love triangles and tons of various sexual relations. I wouldn`t mind all that if the author explained the reasons his characters had to commit a suicide or just do what they did.
But still I loved his slow-paced narrative and the type of character he always has in his books - an independent person, who doesn`t care about the society and lives his ...more

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