Norwegian Wood | Haruki Murakami | Isn't it good ... Norwegian Wood ...

Norwegian Wood | Haruki Murakami | Tragically, Beautiful Tale of Love

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Norwegian Wood

	Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami Vintage, 2000 - 298 pages average customer review:based on 165 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Isn't it good ... Norwegian Wood ...

Norwegian Wood is often described as the most perfect novel ever written. Should we be surprised that this incredible task was accomplished by a Japanese writer? Not me.

Most of the world often has their eyes trained deftly on either Europe or America for the next big thing in literature. It seems that readers around the world even half-expect this when they hear about either J.K. Rowling or possibly the next Stephen King book, even though general readers find him too grocery-store, too accessible. King's worldwide appeal though is what is staggering, as well as Rowling's.

Slowly though, people are getting out from under the knee-jerk lull of 5th Avenue ad campaigns and finding writers like Haruki Murakami.

Norwegian Wood is considered by a lot of readers to be sub-par in comparison to his later works like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Sputnik Sweetheart or Dance, Dance, Dance, but that's probably just the high-brow craziness talking as this novel is a testament to all that is good in writing. Norwegian Wood launched Haruki Murakami into the heated and much-too-close stratosphere of fandom and literary worship, and sent him sailing away to quieter shores for solitude and anonymity. Instead of falling apart though, he wrote more novels that would rival each other and continually raise the bar on his story-telling.

Murakami stated that he wrote Norwegian Wood because he wanted to see if he was capable of writing something straightforward, and what he considered mainstream; as, at the time, he felt under immense pressures to conform. A lot of his detractors in Japan had often cited that his allegorical work in the early days - A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland - lacking, and superfluous. But the truth was, that they just didn't get it - yet.

Norwegian Wood is the bildungsroman tale of "everyman" Toru Watanabe and the love affairs that he has with two very different and emotionally distraught women, first Naoko, his best-friend's girlfriend; and then slowly and casually, Midori. The story of Reiko though is probably the most memorable, indelible and touching, at least to me.

I found this to be one of the truest and most wrenching books that I've ever read. If more books were written to the caliber of Norwegian Wood, we could probably just turn off the TV sets for good.

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Tragically, Beautiful Tale of Love

This is my first experience with Murakami, so I can't compare it to anything else written by him, but from what I understand, it's quite different from many of his other novels. I've heard that there's a bizarre aspect to quite a few of his books that's not so prevalent in this one. This book is mainly a love story and a quite beautiful and tragic one at that. It's set in Tokyo and other parts of Japan in the 60's and follows a young college student by the name of Toru who is in love with Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend who died in an accident a few years back. There relationship begins with silent walks around Japan, both of them recalling thoughts in their own minds of their pasts with their lost friend and their relationship eventually blooms into something more than just a friendship. But a night of intimacy with Toru reveals a tortured side to Naoko and she leaves Tokyo to examine her life and her problems. They exchange letters back and forth leaving Toru unsure of where anything is going between him and Naoko and he isolates himself, retreating even from the one amazing, unique girl that he's met, Midori, who's willing to do anything to be with him.

This is not a happy book, but it's a beautiful book, a serene book. The Japanese have a true gift in their story telling that echoes in aspects of their culture. I always get a sense of peace when I'm reading a Japanese novel or short story and this was no exception. As tragic and lost as these characters seemed at times, I always saw hope for them, always had a vision of calm. This is a book that will definitely pull at your heartstrings and draw you into the characters. Murakami really has a gift for making his characters real. I kept thinking that this must be somewhat autobiographical of his own experiences in the 60's, but the afterword says that it is not at all, that he actually had quite a boring life in the 60's and put nothing of himself in this novel. If that's true, he's extremely perceptive of other people.

It's also been said that this is the most erotic of his novels, and there are quite a few sex scenes in here and they're extremely voyeuristic. This goes back to him making this such a personal book. At first I thought that the dialogue was really awkward during the sex scenes and it was going to be a complaint of mine, but then I realized that what was awkward was just the fact that he was including sexual dialogue where I didn't expect it...it was reality and a real intimate look into these characters lives.

This book was extremely well written and a great introduction to Murakami in my opinion and I'd definitely recommend it as a starting point to anyone else looking to pick something up by him. It's also only 296 pages which is short compared to many of his other books! I think I'll read Kafka on the Shore next.

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One of the simplest, most moving stories I have ever read

I entered this book like many others after picking up on all the fuss, but with no real idea of who this Murakami guy and what it was he cared to say to me . I am so glad I listened! This book has been making the rounds within my circle of friends faster than virus and I can only assume that it's interest has branched in the same way since it's publication; you are not quite sure why it is you want to recommend it to people, but you are sure that you MUST. When asked what it is about, you are at a loss for words... You begin, "well, nothing, really... but... " then you stop, shake your head... With no need for words, you slide your copy across the counter to whoever it is you happen to be pitching it to. Leave it in his or her hands, knowing that it will do its magic sooner or later.

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Sorry to arrive late...

I have lived in Japan for nearly a decade, during which time I have read dozens of books ON Japan but very little Japanese Literature. The main reason was that having encountered many incidents of shoddy translation I was waiting to read Japanese Literature in Japanese. Unknowing of this wish, my girlfriend kindly sent me this Vintage edition translated by Jay Rubin and as both a 'courtesy' to her and a way to understand her better I decided to give it a read. What I could not have imagined soon became crystal clear, firstly the translation is EXCELLENT, Rubin has done an outstanding job, and secondly, Murakami, as story teller of the first degree. Sure, this simple narrative is neither original or outstanding structurally, but it is in other numerous regards. Murakami's strength as a story-teller is his ability to suck you in and hold you there - front row seats all the way. As the plot unravels before your eyes you feel you know these characters he has drawn, that you know them far beyond the surface of which you have been told, that you know their inner core and their deepest hopes and fears. Because the writing is not unnecessarily uncomplicated, the pages just race by and this fluidity means you can finish this in three good sittings. All this leaves you feeling with a strange sense, of actually having know these characters - who could forget the lasting images of Storm-trooper, Midori et al., and in the end, a sense of loss when the final page comes around. All in all, an excellent novel and one worth reading whether you have an interest in Japan or not - actually that's an interesting disparity worth highlighting, the fact that people often read 'Asian' literature because they have an interest in Asia, but seldom read American Literature because the have an interest in America... Finally as an addendum, it should be pointed out that the late '60s backdrop that this is 'supposedly' set against, is no more than a piece of cloth hung from the ceiling to obscure the mess behind - this reads as absolute contemporary literature and with the exception of the odd 'Peace' or 'Right-on' it has no visible setting, nor leaves no particular after-taste.

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A little tiresome

This book is beautifully written, but got tiresome after a while. The narrator seems to have very weird choices in friends and is kind of a downer. If I heard one more description of how often he masturbated, I was gonna scream! I did find the description of 60s teenage culture very interesting--sounds like America!

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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