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Norwegian Wood
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Amazon.co.uk Review
"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" "Norwegian Wood" (Lennon/McCartney).
With Norwegian Wood Murakami, best known as the author of off-kilter classics such as the Wind Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard Boiled Wonderland, finally achieved widespread acclaim in his native Japan. The novel sold upwards of 4 million copies and forced the author to retreat to Europe, fearful of the expectations accompanying his new-found cult status.
The novel is atypical for Murakami: seemingly autobiographical, in the tradition of many Japanese "I" novels, Norwegian Wood is a simple coming of age tale set, primarily, in 1969/70, the time of Murakami's own university years. The political upheavals and student strikes of the period form the backdrop of the novel but the focus here is the young Watanabe's love affairs and the pain (and pleasure) of growing up with all its attendant losses, (self-)obsessions and crises.
The novel is split into two volumes and beautifully presented here in a "gold" box containing both the green book and the red book. Young Japanese fans became so obsessed with the work that they would dress entirely in one or other colour denoting which volume they most identified with. And the novel is hugely affecting, reading like a cross between Plath's Bell Jar and Vizinczey's In Praise of Older Women, if less complex and ultimately less satisfying than Murakami's other, more allegorical, work. He captures the huge expectation of youth, and of this particular time in history, for the future and for the place of love in it. He also saturates the work with sadness, an emotion that can cripple a novel but which here underscores the poignancy of the work's rather thin subject matter. --Mark Thwaite --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
`Murakami's most famous coming of age novel of love, loss and longing' --Dazed and Confused
`His books are very moving and poetic' --Red Magazine
`His books are very moving and poetic' --Red Magazine
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the second novel by Haruki Murakami I have read, I moderately enjoyed the first one when I read it a few years ago and it was really the reviews written by other people which drew me to read Norwegian Wood. I found this novel incredibly easy to read, it flowed and made me want to read more but it also made me feel really melancholy. It made me think about my own life quite a lot during the reading of it and afterwards. Strange, when I think how different the world portrayed in the book (I found it highly immersive) seems from my world and how different the people seem from the people I have known. Others may have different feelings about Norwegian Wood but to me it is most heavy with death, there is a fair bit of sex and love and loneliness too but death overrides them all.
The main character Watanabe has little purpose in life, he has many good intentions but his actions are often seen as futile during the course of the novel and when he does have impact on the lives of others he seems quite unaware of it until they spell it out very clearly to him. I find it very easy to relate to him, even when I am reading and thinking 'this is a mistake' or 'you need to...' I just feel very empathetic towards him. I do not dislike any of the characters, I especially like Reiko, despite the fact her life has been a complete mess. Nobody is truly happy in Norwegian Wood but I think the genius of it is the moments when there is happiness, just in the simple things of life, food, music, companionship, work. That felt very true.
The reason I didn't give 5 stars to this novel was entirely personal, I can never fully enjoy anything quite so sad as this. There were also a few lulls in the book when I found it a little hard to stay interested, it definitely will not appeal to anyone who cannot appreciate a slow pace. The positive points of Norwegian Wood are the distinct characters with their frailties and susceptibilities and joys, the nostalgia - I truly felt transported to another time and place, the honesty even when it hurts.
The main character Watanabe has little purpose in life, he has many good intentions but his actions are often seen as futile during the course of the novel and when he does have impact on the lives of others he seems quite unaware of it until they spell it out very clearly to him. I find it very easy to relate to him, even when I am reading and thinking 'this is a mistake' or 'you need to...' I just feel very empathetic towards him. I do not dislike any of the characters, I especially like Reiko, despite the fact her life has been a complete mess. Nobody is truly happy in Norwegian Wood but I think the genius of it is the moments when there is happiness, just in the simple things of life, food, music, companionship, work. That felt very true.
The reason I didn't give 5 stars to this novel was entirely personal, I can never fully enjoy anything quite so sad as this. There were also a few lulls in the book when I found it a little hard to stay interested, it definitely will not appeal to anyone who cannot appreciate a slow pace. The positive points of Norwegian Wood are the distinct characters with their frailties and susceptibilities and joys, the nostalgia - I truly felt transported to another time and place, the honesty even when it hurts.
24 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It starts as a process of reminiscing a love that was gone, which comes into mind when hearing Norwegian Wood play in the background.
Toru, now an adult, moves the reader through his odd relationship with Naoko, a fragile girl he falls in love with. Their relationship has a sad history, since they knew each-other through Naoko's boyfriend, who committed suicide at 17.
The book is actually full of references to characters who had committed suicide, leaving the reader with an intense sense of sadness and loss, but there is something beautiful about the way in which Murakami manages to guide the reader out of that existential despair and towards hope, new beginnings and the possibility of life after the death of others.
Descriptions of Japanese student halls, taking the subway in Tokyo, visiting Naoko in a modern type of mental institution, secluded in the mountains, all these make the novel a source of new experiences for the Western reader (such as myself), but the feelings depicted are universal, despite their Japanese context, and that is what struck me the most about it: how all those situations, relationship shifts and personal doubts could be applied to people that I know and to my personal history as well.
Beautifully sad, painfully joyous!
Toru, now an adult, moves the reader through his odd relationship with Naoko, a fragile girl he falls in love with. Their relationship has a sad history, since they knew each-other through Naoko's boyfriend, who committed suicide at 17.
The book is actually full of references to characters who had committed suicide, leaving the reader with an intense sense of sadness and loss, but there is something beautiful about the way in which Murakami manages to guide the reader out of that existential despair and towards hope, new beginnings and the possibility of life after the death of others.
Descriptions of Japanese student halls, taking the subway in Tokyo, visiting Naoko in a modern type of mental institution, secluded in the mountains, all these make the novel a source of new experiences for the Western reader (such as myself), but the feelings depicted are universal, despite their Japanese context, and that is what struck me the most about it: how all those situations, relationship shifts and personal doubts could be applied to people that I know and to my personal history as well.
Beautifully sad, painfully joyous!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Best book I`ve read in a while
Thoroughly enjoyed this book; just finished the paper back version. In fact, I was shocked to see how many low rating this novel has been given. Read more
Published 2 months ago by AnnaMay
Wish I'd read this when I was Watanabe's age,
instead of now when middle age is just over the horizon.
Quite a compulsive read, all the same, with a nice feeling for ambience, especially during Toru's lonely... Read more
Quite a compulsive read, all the same, with a nice feeling for ambience, especially during Toru's lonely... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Philoctetes
Japanese Characteristic
I found this a good read.
However I can only give 4 stars rather than five owing to what may be a characteristic of Japanese writers in that Kazuo Ishiguro seems to have... Read more
However I can only give 4 stars rather than five owing to what may be a characteristic of Japanese writers in that Kazuo Ishiguro seems to have... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Lucas
Don't read the last chapter in a public place
This book was so sad. Poor Naoko, torturing herself in her own private hell. Poor Toru too, stuck in limbo, until he is forced to make a choice between two women, which was no... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. K. E. Varney
Disappointing, but I'll be reading more Murakami
There are few living writers I admire, but Murakami is one of them. I think he is hugely skilled author with a unique voice, something sadly lacking in so much modern literary... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Peter Sullivan
The Greatest Book I've Ever Read!
Reading this after watching the film was like watching an extended cut. So faithful was Anh Hung Tran to the source, right down to the dialogue, that the only difference is really... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mike Andrew Dawson
What did I miss?
The further I got into this book, the less I understood what all the plaudits were for. This is 'author in wish fulfilment / fantasy' monologue. Read more
Published 10 months ago by The Amazon J
Norwegian Wood
This novel is a narrative recount of Toru Watanabe, a man who reflects back on his student life during his university days. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr T Niwa
The Bird Has Flown
Norweigan Wood was the first novel by Haruki Murakami i had the pleasure to read. I received it as a gift after hearing some good things about the author from some close relatives. Read more
Published 11 months ago by SK
INSIDE THE MIND OF ADOLESCENCE
This book beautifully evokes the self-centred angst of adolescence, mainly through the eyes of the narrator, Toru Watanabe. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
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