Norwegian Wood
From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore: A magnificent coming-of-age story steeped in nostalgia, “a masterly novel” (The New York Times Book Review) blending the music, the mood, and the ethos that were the sixties with a young man’s hopeless and heroic first love.
Now with a new introduction by the author.
Toru, a 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. As Naoko retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.
Stunning and elegiac, Norwegian Wood first propelled Haruki Murakami into the forefront of the literary scene.
Now with a new introduction by the author.
Toru, a 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. As Naoko retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.
Stunning and elegiac, Norwegian Wood first propelled Haruki Murakami into the forefront of the literary scene.
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Readers say *Norwegian Wood* is haunting and achingly touching, vividly capturing loneliness, grief, and youth's struggles. Many praise Murakami’s evo...
Brilliant book, made me wish I could have lived in Japan in the 60s, and really drew me into a world of introverts who somehow easily made friends and met people in interesting situations. been years since I read it, but the feeling of nostalgia it had for the writers youth really eked through, and made me feel like I was remembering it
This was a curious one....well translated - or at least beautifully and carefully translated...however, it was like sipping on a strong and bitter drink with a few soft and comforting notes...some rare moments of tenderness (hospital scene where the protagonist is slicing and feeding cucumbers to his lover's terminally ill father; the love scene with Naoko's roommate, the late night guitar playing/chats, feedings at the bird sanctuary) but the heavier notes are ones of despair, powerlessness, dissatisfaction, and uncertainty...there are also many suicides in this novel - still a sad and shocking trend amongst Japanese youth/young professionals...there were too many instances of 'exiting' rather than 'coping' - however, the characters that chose to survive did not seem fully whole either...
I can see why this would be a popular book in Japan as it seems to capture many of the tangible/intangible threads of modern Japanese society...
Haunting...but achingly touching...
In the few moments every damn woman he meets aren't trying to talk in excruciating detail about sex with the main character (or maybe he doesn't remember anything else, he seems the type), then this book was really good. The descriptions really gave this book a vibe that I enjoyed but the main character is a horny distant young man who goes to college with a lot of pretentious pseudo-intellectuals and it clearly had an impact on him.
It was odd at times and downright disturbing at others, but it also had this atmosphere sometimes that makes me think that perhaps a different book by this writer could be really enjoyable.
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