Norwegian Wood - Books (Haruki Murakami, Paperback)

"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

Customer Reviews of Norwegian Wood

.ziggystardust.
Edinburgh
12th October 2008

I'M HOOKED!!!
The first of his novels I ever read. All I can say is it certainly left an impression. I am now a Murakami addict. A difficult novel to put into words, you'll just have to read it yourself.

Daniel Bor
Cambridge, UK
27th September 2008

Incredibly readable, brilliantly paced tragic love story
Incredibly readable coming-of age story about a loner student and the two very different women he falls in love with. The novel is filled with incredibly vivid characters, a brilliantly paced plot, wonderful observations about life, and some fantastic creative, somewhat outlandish stylistic metaphors. I think it was one of those novels that just perfectly succeeds in its aims of capturing a time and set of characters, even if - on the surface - it might seem to be a somewhat trivial topic. The only partial flaws for me were: the sheer frequency of suicidal people, which at times made it feel like a manipulative soap opera; and I also sometimes didn't fully believe in the narrator's character. I found his movement from tramp to normally jovial person at the end when Reiko comes to visit jarring and unbelievable. But tiny problems amidst a sparkling piece of writing. (Oh, and this "deluxe" 2 volume set fell apart rather easily due to shoddy binding - pretty annoying and not worth the extra money spent).

Andres C. Salama
Buenos Aires, Argentina
23rd September 2008

Great Murakami
This is the third book by Haruki Murakami I read (after Sputnik and South of the Border) and the best so far. Originally written in 1987, the book begins in an airport in Germany, as the titular song by the Beatles playing in the sound system makes middle age Toru Watanabe remember his life as a college student in the late 1960s. As a drama student living in a pension in Tokyo he has to chose between the love of the unstable Naoko (a friend from high school, girlfriend of a friend of Watanabe that commited suicide, and who now lives in a sort of asylum in rural Japan) and the increasing approaches of his college classmate Midori. Meanwhile, he makes two friends: the nerdy, cleanliness obsessed, geography student nicknamed "Storm Trooper" and the ladies man Nagasawa, an amoral student who plans to enter Japan's diplomatic corps. A great book about remembrances, love and the joy and occasional sadness of young life. Perhaps not for the prurrient, since, as in other books by Murakami, explicit sex often punctuates the story.

Mrs. S. Payne
UK
3rd September 2008

A Fantastic Read
Like many others on here, this was my first stab at Japanese fiction but I was drawn into the story right from the beginning.
This is essentially a very sad love story. I am not normally a love story person but the character of Toru Watanabe is fascinating. He drinks, smokes and has casual sex but he is also intelligent, charming (without meaning to be) and very sensitive. He is great with words and fantastic at communicating not only what he thinks and feels but also what others are thinking and feeling. Watanabe is a complex and confused character; he makes mistakes, treats people badly and does not always understand his own reactions to situations.
The other characters in the book are just as important as Watanabe and I especially loved the scenes with Reiko. Storm Trooper added some humour and the scenes in the hospital with Midori's dying father were so tender.
The story is simply 'boy loves girl but another girl loves boy', which makes the plot sound awful but it's not. It also paints a good picture of student life in Japan in the 60's.
Overall, a beautiful, dreamlike story which is very honest and touching. I'm now going in search for other Haruki Murakami books.

Archy
ALTRINCHAM, Cheshire United Kingdom
16th June 2008

Love and sex and death
I read one Murakami book a few years back, couldn't make head nor tail of it, and forgot about him. Then I picked this up in a charity shop and was intrigued and then totally immersed as I read it in a couple of days. The variety of the responses here is interesting too.

At heart, the plot is very simple: teenager falls in love with his best friend's girl, but the relationship is stuck. Enter a second girl, who he also loves. Add lots and lots of one night stands with anonymous other girls, and there you have it. It's set in the late 60s but the period doesn't really come through; adding a few Beatles songs does not make it a novel about the 60s.

Sure, the lead character's detachment is unsettling, and the two girl friends put up with a lot. There are sections that are not really needed or relevant to the central plot. And the ending gets way too sentimental for me. But I still enjoyed it, and think it's far far better than off the wall stories about sheep or elephants. He should leave the magic stuff to Jonathan Carroll!