Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Norwegian Wood
Book Review: The "Box Gimmick" explained
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is sold in two parts just as it is (and most books are) in Japan. The original translation (Kodansha) is also in two parts. In my mind, it provides an interesting physical separation between the old Toru and the changed Toru. So I doubt it's a gimmick to make it sell better; I think it really worked with this book especially, and there's no reason to desert it. Norweigan Wood is a unique book; the format fits.Book Review: Exquisite pain
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the more magical and sensual books that I've read this year. Toru Watanabe is a Tokyo student at the end of the sixties. Western culture abounds (the novel is named after the Beatles' tune). 'Norwegian Wood' is Naoko's favourite song, and one that she pays her friend Reiko to play. It's a song that seems destined to torment her for the rest of her life. In his own subtle way, Murakami suggests to us the power of great art. This novel also belongs to that class. Once you've started to read 'Norwegian Wood', you'll become addicted to it. Murakami creates characters that reside in your mind as real beings. They're people who you will come to love. His fiction also transcends cultural barriers, in that 'Norwegian Wood' could have been set anywhere. Its emotional centre is that of painful adolescence, so any casual reader will have a great deal to identify with the main protagonists from the off. Just as Toru is forced into the past by a single note of 'Norwegian Wood', this book will also compel you to confront your own past, the people that you have loved and maybe lost. The sixties student rebellions seem to have shook almost every part of the world, and Murakami's novel does feature such a revolt. No doubt the fuel blockades currently afflicting Britain and Europe will be similarly remembered in future years. In one revealing scene, Murakami has Midori articulate that great truth that when higher education chooses to debate the class struggle, it often does so in terms that exclude the working class (note my indoctrinated and ironical use of 'articulate'). Of course, I read a translation (in the Harvill edition, presented like a box of Cubans, "hand-rolled on the thighs of maidens"), but the power of Murakami's prose shines through. Toru extols the exquisite prose of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Murakami cannot have had a better writing tutor, where every word is a wonder in itself.Naoko and Reiko have decided to exile themselves away from the mental torments of everyday life in a remote mountain community. Toru comes to visit Naoko, his sometime lover. Together, they share the memory of Kizuki, Noako's boyfriend, who inexplicably killed himself at the age of 17. Naoko has far more difficulty expressing her feelings than Toru, something that he finds both beguiling and painful. Under the loving care of Reiko, Toru and Naoko try to explore their feelings for each other. What was the truth behind their night of shared passion? Reiko believes that Toru may be the best tonic for Naoko (such great irony), but Naoko has her own reasons for pushing Toru away, despite knowing how much she needs him. In one telling episode, Naoko reveals herself to Toru as she sleepwalks, a troubled soul reaching out for help.
Denied physical contact with the one woman he really cares about, Toru satisfies his bodily needs with a series of one night stands, out on the town in the company of his twisted but content friend Nagasawa. But even as his body is sated, Toru cannot help but feel disgust. However, his torment is tempered by Midori, who pushes her way into his life. She does not seem to mind that Toru is alienated, and far from content to be the Norm. She loves the peculiar way Toru talks and almost consults him as if he were a guru, demanding that he relate his carnal fantasies to her. Midori has been to an all-girl school, and seems to have an endless fascination for those pleasures that she has yet to experience. However, she too has her pain and a peculiar kind of madness. Inevitably, it seems, Toru is torn between his feelings for the inaccessible Naoko, and Midori's passion for him... Will Toru be forced down the path that has led so many of his friends to self-oblivion?
'Norwegian Wood' is a great, powerful novel. The kind of art that stays with you for the rest of your life, the kind of music which makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand tall, to force a shiver of delight and pain through your body, to make your mouth starch dry. There are excellent characters, from the lowly Storm Trooper, to the warm and loving Reiko. There is also great subtlety, surprising in such an emotional novel. This is, above all, a very sensual work of art, with every feeling touched upon and plucked with the greatest of skill.
Book Review: silent struggle
Summary: 4 Stars
Norwegian Wood is an account of a very hard time during the student life of the narrator, Watanabe. The novel does not contain the elements of mysticism usually found in Murakami's other works. It is instead simply a story of a young man struggling to find himself, and about his difficult relationships. The novel's strong points include its very straightforward and explicit way it is narrated, and the sense of alienation that it conveys. Watanabe's faith seems to be that of continuously distancing himself from society. This is partly due to forces beyond his control and also due to his behaviour and the decisions he makes. He seems to be unable to open himself up to others. Almost all conversations in this novel consist of someone's monologue occasionally interrupted by Watanabe's single line acknowledgments. The storyline also contains long periods where Watanabe waits endlessly for a reply from someone, or for something to happen. The five senses, intuition and deduction are often not enough for the narrator to understand what's going on around him. This feeling of alienation can be found everywhere throughout Norwegian Wood, as well as in Murakami's other novels. Besides being an enjoyable and well written novel, Norwegian Wood can easily be seen as a symbolic fable open to all kinds of interpretations for those of you who like this sort of pastime. Symbols abound: wells, fireflies, sex, people, places, songs, etc.Book Review: Great book, but why did it take so long to reach UK, US?
Summary: 5 Stars
Norwegian Wood is the most important Japanese novel of the postwar period. Read it and weep for Japan. What you see today was described in 1987 by Murakami. But why did the publishers in the USA and UK take 13 long years to bring it here? Was there a vast conspiracy to keep this book away from the West, out of fear of rejection? But look how much everyone loves it today! Can anyone explain rationally the long delay?Book Review: Touching, tender and full of sorrow - a masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
When novels (or anything for that matter) are hailed as masterpieces, that usually means that a few people love them but most are left rather unaffected. Norweigian Wood, however, fully deserves any accollades anyone cares to give it. Never have I read a book so touching and so tender, without being cloying and sickly. Toru Watanabe's story is told slowly and gently, with the most delicate writing by Murakami. The scene where Toru feeds a dying man cucmbers nearly brought a tear to my eye. It's full of suicides and suffering, far more than you're likely to see anywhere else, but it makes the tender aspects even more so. Simply wonderful.