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xengisa's reviews
289 reviews
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
3.0
Ramble, rather than a review, I suppose.
I enjoyed reading about Midori and Reiko rather than the, well, 'main cast' of sorts. As always, Murakami's writing style flows very well, so it's easy for me to read in a sitting or two. I never really understood Kizuki, or Naoko, to the very end. Their relationships felt like a vicious cycle that ended with Toru. In some sense, Naoko and Kizuki tried their very best to show Toru their good side, so in some sense, maybe he is a special person? Well, not anymore, I suppose.
I think, compared to the other Murakami books I've read, there's not much of that trademark surrealism that is so apparent in The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, for example. So although the style of writing is the same, the themes are quite... tame, compared to the usual stuff Murakami writes, I think? As a result, the conclusion is not as open as the other books, which I appreciate, actually.
Personally speaking though, I think my problem w this book lies in two areas: 1. As a romanceish, sort of novel-- I'm not sure how to put this, but basically a book with the themes it covered, it's not particularly new, and I didn't really like (perhaps 'get attached to' would be a better phrase) any of the characters, aside from maybe Midori, and to some extent Reiko. It's not particularly distinguishable from other books in this aspect(although yeah, it is above average, I suppose, and his prose makes it quite a nice read). 2. As a Murakami novel, his prose does shine, but that's about it. The surrealism that sets his other books apart, for better or for worse, are not really apparent here.
That's why I think, I guess you could argue that this is a good introduction to Murakami: you can see his style, without being too overwhelmed by the sort of things that appear in Colorless, or Wind-up Bird. So if that's what you're looking for, it's nice, I guess. I can't really put it in any other way than, it didn't hit me as hard as Wind-up Bird did, haha.
Here are some quotes I liked:
- Reiko's letter: That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have for happiness where you find it, and not worry too much about other people. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a lifetime, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.
- Narusagawa: "Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that."
Read on Libby.
I enjoyed reading about Midori and Reiko rather than the, well, 'main cast' of sorts. As always, Murakami's writing style flows very well, so it's easy for me to read in a sitting or two. I never really understood Kizuki, or Naoko, to the very end. Their relationships felt like a vicious cycle that ended with Toru. In some sense, Naoko and Kizuki tried their very best to show Toru their good side, so in some sense, maybe he is a special person? Well, not anymore, I suppose.
I think, compared to the other Murakami books I've read, there's not much of that trademark surrealism that is so apparent in The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, for example. So although the style of writing is the same, the themes are quite... tame, compared to the usual stuff Murakami writes, I think? As a result, the conclusion is not as open as the other books, which I appreciate, actually.
Personally speaking though, I think my problem w this book lies in two areas: 1. As a romanceish, sort of novel-- I'm not sure how to put this, but basically a book with the themes it covered, it's not particularly new, and I didn't really like (perhaps 'get attached to' would be a better phrase) any of the characters, aside from maybe Midori, and to some extent Reiko. It's not particularly distinguishable from other books in this aspect(although yeah, it is above average, I suppose, and his prose makes it quite a nice read). 2. As a Murakami novel, his prose does shine, but that's about it. The surrealism that sets his other books apart, for better or for worse, are not really apparent here.
That's why I think, I guess you could argue that this is a good introduction to Murakami: you can see his style, without being too overwhelmed by the sort of things that appear in Colorless, or Wind-up Bird. So if that's what you're looking for, it's nice, I guess. I can't really put it in any other way than, it didn't hit me as hard as Wind-up Bird did, haha.
Here are some quotes I liked:
- Reiko's letter: That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have for happiness where you find it, and not worry too much about other people. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a lifetime, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.
- Narusagawa: "Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that."
Read on Libby.