Not Murakami's best, but quite nice

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	• Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami The Harvill Press, 2001 - 480 pages average customer review:based on 161 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Tragic, romantic but NOT pathetic!

This book is my second favorite by Murakami. I think his strength lies in his style of writing. As if you read Bukowski without swearing and vulgar stuff.

I can't add anything that is not written, and I don't wanna spoil it for you. Go get it.

Haruki's Best

I have read all Murakami's Books mostly in Japanese. I have been in love with the book ever since 16. I recently bought this book because I wanted to see how my favorite book is translated in English. I was deeply impressed by the translation - very accurate and great choice of words to preserve a tone of the book. I totally recommend this book.

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Not Murakami's best, but quite nice

I am a huge Murakami fan, having read Wind-Up Bird, Kafka, After Dark and other works. Maybe it's because I became so enthralled by his "unreality" that the realism of Norwegian Wood did not captivate me the way his other works have. But that is not to say that this novel is in any way disappointing. As always, it contains the delicate, pensive and musical prose that defines Murakami.

An Experience, not an Exposition

"Norwegian Wood" tells of a college student's life in the 1960s in Japan. The narrative primarily concerns itself with the relationships of the narrator, Toru Watanabe.

Watanabe is a humble, self-described 'average' guy. In contrast to his perfectly plain self-depiction, he quietly questions the social mores and structure around him. His reluctance to mindlessly conform isolates him from most, but one-by-one he befriends a diverse cast of characters, all of whom are struggling with something. There's Naoko, the ex-girlfriend of Watanabe's dead best friend, the womanizing Nagasawa, Nagasawa's main squeeze Hatsumi, and the spark-plug Midori.

"Norwegian Wood" is a novel about love, it is a novel about youth. It explores passion, why we burn and feel for others, the context of sex in love, and so many other things. But it NEVER analyzes, it never stops and reflects upon itself. It keeps moving, allowing us to experience all these emotions for ourselves and make of them what we will. I can't express enough how much of an experience this book is.

Inevitably "Norwegian Wood" has been compared to its influences: 'Catcher and the Rye', 'The Great Gatsby', and Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain.' While each novel has its own flavor, 'Norwegian Wood' is arguably the most affecting of the bunch. It hurts every time I read this book. This novel has life in it, and the more you perceive and are in touch with your own experiences in this world, the more meaningful and poignant your time with this book will be.

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

First American Publication

This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time. It is sure to be a literary event.

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.

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