Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami
Some readers (are you still there?) may be surprised or indeed confused by my latest read. It’s true. Murakami’s ‘Norwegian Wood’ is no horror story, nor is it a thriller or even a dark fantasy. I’ve been meaning to read some literary fiction for some time now, and I just so happened to be inspired by an article about Murakami in the paper a little while ago.
The blurb on the back reads: When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire – to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past.
But that is not the half of it. A lot of dedicated Murakami readers described it as just a ‘love story,’ with a very autobiographical streak, and it was totally different from his usual dream-like stories, that I am eager to read. But ‘Norwegian Wood’ did have a dream-like quality to it. I haven’t been sucked into a book like this in a long time. I loved the way I’d look up from the book and have no idea where I was for the first few seconds. It could totally take me away.
The depth of characterization amazed me, and not just in describing Toru. Each character had a distinct personality, totally detached from the others. The strength of his metaphors and similes, as were amazing were the themes he managed to weave into the story. It contained the spirited highs of student life as well as the lows. The book is very dark in places and would definitely not be suited to younger readers. The characterization is so profound that you feel his depression and sadness in those dark times; add that to the flowing prose, the natural dialogue, and this book is one of the best I’ve read in a while.
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Some readers are still here.
Sounds like a good book.
Thanks Neil, I’m glad people are still reading, even if they don’t comment all the time. I must say, I have this ‘lurking’ problem myself.
I’m still alive, just without a lot to say, and half of it is a fear of repeating myself. Hopefully a piece of flash fiction will come to me soon.
I’m still here. Sounds like a good book. I often take breaks from fantasy and horror but it’s usually to read non-fiction. This book sounds good.
People accuse me of being fanatical about Murakami, but I think he’s such an amazing writer that it’s hard not to be.
Norweigan Wood is a wonderful introduction to his work – but do read some of his others, I know you’ll enjoy them.
I think I’m becoming obsessed with him too. I’ve ordered in ‘The Wind-up Bird Chronicle’ through the library, and I’ve reserved ‘Kafka on the Shore,’ because they already have that.
I went to a little bookstore the other day and they had multiple copies of every title! I tell you, if I wasn’t flat broke, I would’ve bought the lot