Norwegian Wood

Twenty RevolutionsThe birthday I feared most was my 20th.For people older than me, the most significant birthday was their 21st.But when the age of legal adulthood was reduced to 18, turning 21 no longer had the same significance it once had.Before then, you could be conscripted into the armed forces at 18, but you could not drink alcohol until you turned 21. So, if you were old enough to die for your country, surely you were old enough to have a drink?Either way, turning 20 for me meant that I [...]

How this book became one of Murakami's most famous and popular baffles me. In fact, when asked about it in an interview, Murakami himself said that he was puzzled by its popularity and that it really isn't what he wants to be known for. What can I say? There's too little of the characters that do spark my interest and much too much of the depressive girlfriend and her kooky friend at the mental institution. Also, the scenes which were supposed to be funny about his college roommate didn't intere [...]

Before I begin may it be known that this was not my first Murakami. I read Kafka on the Shore and loved it. I read Wind-up Bird Chronicle and loved that too. So I got to thinking that maybe I should read the book that made him famous, the book that everyone in Japan is said to have read, that compelled Murakami to flee the country to escape the media attention. How disappointed I was when I finished. Also, I wrote this on iPad so the punctuation and capitalisation is off. I tried to fix all the [...]

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me She showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian wood?She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere, So I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair.I sat on a rug, biding my time, drinking her wine We talked until two and then she said, "It's time for bed"She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh. I told her I didn't and crawled off to sleep in the bathAnd when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown So I lit a [...]

This is a relatively early novel by this author, 1987. The book jacket tells us that this book booted him up from being a famous author to ‘superstar status.’ On GR it is one of his most highly-rated books. It’s also the only -- I’ll call it ‘straightforward’ -- novel of the five or so of his I have read. There is no science fiction or magical realism. No women in bars who may be ghosts, no hanging out in deep wells, no psychic cats, just a single moon. We do have, as usual in Muraka [...]

Great ending. This sure was the saddest book I've ever read. Seems very dark and depressing, but the light comes out at the very end and you can see the sunshine through the clouds. I've never read a book like this and to be honest, I'm not sure I ever want to read another one. It just takes a piece of you and leaves you feeling a little empty. I don't even know how to explain it. It's like traveling up a mountainside on a dark gray day. Yes, the beauty is still there, but you have to look for i [...]

I can't explain it! I want to inhale the pages of this book, grind them up, and snort them right up my nose! I want in placed directly in my brain, my very Bloodstream! Murakami's words make me feel just like Nicole Kidman in that scene in Moulin Rouge where she is rolling around on that fur rug in her negligee, moaning and writhing in pleasure and saying 'Yes! Yes! Dirty words! More! More! Naughty words!' Although Murakami's words aren't so much naughty and dirty as they are prismatic and myste [...]

UGH!!!This book bugged the hell out of me for a few reasons:#1. There is a somewhat extended passage devoted to a lesbian encounter that wouldn't be so terrible in and of itself, as sex in general is a major topic BUT the novel as a whole leaned towards describing the physiological experience the woman were having and would brush over the mens again and again. There would be like 5 paragraphs on the woman and then 1 sentence were it would say something along the lines of, "she took me in her han [...]

Murakami divides his novel into two. There is the past and death. Then there is future and life. What road do you take?Seems like an easy question to answer. But what happens when you are in love with the past? And what happens when you so desperately want to save that past from such a death? Life becomes complicated and the prospect of the future feels like a brutal betrayal of one who is desperately clinging to you. You are her anchor; her only connection with reality. And you love her. How ca [...]

ノルウェイの森 = Noruwei no mori = Norwegian wood (1987), Haruki MurakamiNorwegian Wood (ノルウェイの森 Noruwei no Mori) is a 1987 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. A 37-year-old Toru Watanabe has just arrived in Hamburg, Germany. When he hears an orchestral cover of the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood", he is suddenly overwhelmed by feelings of loss and nostalgia. He thinks back to the 1960s, when so much happened that touched his life. Watanabe, his classmate Kizuki, and Ki [...]

Question: How much Norwegian Wood would a Norwegian woodchuck chuck if a Norwegian woodchuck could chuck Norwegian Wood? Answer: The same amount as a Swedish woodchuck. So I read 160 pages of this novel. Then I hit a four-day Reader’s Block (also precipitated by problems in my personal life, but I’ll save those for Oprah) and read nothing. I called a librarian and explained the problem. She suggested I undergo an intense course of Murakami Avoidance Therapy (MAT), whereby I put down all Mura [...]

"Those were strange days, now that I look back at them. In the midst of life, everything revolved around death."Welcome to Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami; a tale of a bunch of suicidal perverts in Japanese universities.No, honestly. This book is essentially about two things: sex and death. There are hidden meanings everywhere, but when you cut away that and go to the core, that’s what’s left. And my, does the book have a lot of sex. Weird forms of sex. And a lot of death. And not in a goo [...]

This Story is on one side a story of misadventure and a melancholic exploration of adolescent love and another side a thought-provoking and poignant study of memory, morality and mortality. Murakami never disappoints and always writes with a poetic richness that leaves almost every line hanging with symbolic possibility, loved it! The main protagonist takes you back to the 1960s and his youthful goings on with his peers, his adventures are steamy so comes with adult warning! The story is set in [...]

“That song can make me feel so sad,” said Naoko. “I don't know, I guess I imagine myself wandering in a deep wood. I'm all alone and it's cold and dark, and nobody comes to save me. That's why Reiko never plays it unless I request it.”- Naoko about Norwegian Wood “It makes me feel like I'm in a big meadow in a soft rain.” - Naoko about Michelle.“Thinking back on the year 1969, all that comes to mind for me is a swamp - a deep, sticky bog that feels as if it's going to suck off my s [...]

This is apparently the Murakami book that "everyone" in Japan has read, and disaffected protagonist Toru Watanabe is apparently a Holden Caulfield-esque figure for a lot of Japanese youth. To me, though, the book less reflects Catcher in the Rye than it predicts Zach Braff's Garden State, an ode to a time in life when the big choices seem so big that you don't end up making them at all, and find yourself instead drawn to the safety and comfort of nostalgia and memory.Though it's set in Japan, an [...]

Turns out I can't find a SINGLE fuck to give. It takes forever to start, the characters are bland and absolutely unrealistic, they don't sound real, the sex is so unhealthy and weird and awkward, the narrator is pretentious as fuck, the dialogues are painful, and the plot -- huh, wait, there's no plot.So yeah. Big, fat DNF.

I revisited Norwegian Wood remembering nothing about my Sophomore year experience with it, nothing except that I loved it. And I can see why: the plot is propulsive, with Murakami’s kinetic prose once again keeping me up late; the lead character is a well-realized loner archetype; the world, 1960s Japan during the student protests, glimmers in the background. There are excellent long-sequences (hospital visit, fire, sanatorium) It is salacious and often funny, well-observed:“The second featu [...]

The Beginning heralds the end. The End initiates a beginning. In between lies a cycle. A cycle where words rain, feelings gush like a river towards the ocean called life, and the ocean hides the abyss of uncertainty. You just sway along this journey, along with Murakami."Here comes the sun, and I say It's all right"Sometimes when you are sitting in peace, ensconced in the metaphorical warmth of a house and you hear the clock chime, making you realize that the time is running fast. It saddens you [...]

Pain is a feeling both sobering and intoxicating at the same time. Its initial shock jolts and slaps you demanding to be acknowledged, while its continued presence inebriates you, transforms your world into a haze where nothing but it exists, rendering you incapable of all basic function. It’s a slow bleed, nevertheless a devastating experience make no mistake. It takes hold of the best of us, the weakest, it doesn’t discriminate, from the most beautiful, to the most scarred, quietly lurking [...]

I’m late to the Murakami party, but I’m glad I arrived. People here seem to be enjoying themselves, passing his books around enthusiastically while ordering many rounds of sake and Japanese beer and nibbling on cucumber with nori and soy sauce. I think I’ll stay a while.Last year I read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – his book on long-distance running - and quite enjoyed it. But this is the first book of his fiction I’ve read. I hear it’s atypical Murakami: no magic rea [...]

Sadness is indeed a very complicated emotion. It has the uncanny ability of dissolving the edges of reality surrounding you and immersing you completely in an alternate world, where only you and that feeling exist together in complete harmony. And nothing else matters. You luxuriate in the richness of its beauty and marvel at the tranquility it offers you.Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood evokes exactly similar kind of emotions in the reader.There are some books you read, which leave you with sto [...]

ممم حسنالرواية جيدة، لكن.إذا كنت تبحث عن كافكا أخرى هاهنا، فيسعدني أن أخيب ظنك، فصدقًا، كافكا لا تعوض ولا تماثل أبدًابجنونها، بفلسفتها، بفانتازيتها، بفحشها وبذائتها، بعبقريتها بكل شيءلكن، يظل موراكامي كما هو، مجنون عبقريروايته تلك لطيفة، لن أقول بأنها استثنائية، لكنها جي [...]

I straightened up and looked out the plane window at the dark clouds hanging over the North Sea, thinking of what I had lost in the course of my life: times gone forever, friends who had died or disappeared, feelings I would never know again. I almost stopped reading after this maudlin and downbeat opening passage. There are doors that I have kept closed for years, memories of my own I thought are better left alone there, regrets and lost connections with people that were at one time the most im [...]

Goddammit. I really wanted to hate this book. There's so much about it that I abhor, but I can't bring myself to give it less than three stars.Sometimes, I joke with my sister that she needs to expand her character repertoire. Usually, her stories feature a nerdy, lonely, odd teenage boy who's hopelessly in love with a girl, usually a manic pixie, who'll never have him. That boy spends most of his time staring at the girl, wondering if she likes another guy, complaining about how she treats him [...]

Don't worry, it's only death. Don't let it bother you.As I was reading the last page of Norwegian Wood and the book slowly came to an end, I suddenly realised I was not ready to be finished with it. Do you know that scent, the one of rotten fruit? It's sweet in a sickening way, and leaves you feeling hazy and slightly nauseous, as if you just want to turn your head away and take a few steps back. Somehow, this is how this book left me feeling. Uneasy. This is the first book I've ever read by Mur [...]

Es el primer libro de Murakami que llega a mis manos y puedo decir sin duda que seguiré leyendo a este autor. Me ha cautivado su estilo y su forma de marcar el ritmo. El carácter de toda la obra podría resumirse en un par de adjetivos: íntima y exquisita. Los personajes, las escenas y los espacios quedan perfilados al detalle con un mínimo esfuerzo. Todo es suave y lento, a pesar de la crudeza de algunas situaciones. Los ambientes adquieren un matiz tridimensional casi de casualidad a trav� [...]

كانت هذه الرواية أول تجربة لي مع موراكامي ولم تكن الأخيرةبالرغم من أنها 398 صفحة تقريبا إلا أنني لم أشعر معها بالوقت هكذا! تقرأ ولاتشعر بنفسك شفافية الحوارات تأخذ بعقلكالإهتمام بالتفاصيل تأخذ بعقلك تلك التفاصيل التي تعيشك الحدث وكأنه موجود بالداخل شخصيات غريبة كثيرة في هذه ا [...]

Book Review: Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood (Vintage, London, 2000)I have never been good at reading translations. It's always in the back of my mind that what I'm reading is not the piece in its original forms: it is not how the author originally wished it to be presented. I don't know, therefore, whether it is to Murakami or Norwegian Wood's translator Jay Rubin who I should give the credit for keeping me thoroughly engaged with this one.I immediately connected to Toru, the narrator and prota [...]

4,5/5En ama en rahat okuduğum kitaplardan biriydi. Bu kadar kayıp gideceğini, bu kadar zevkle okuyabileceğimi tahmin etmemiştim. Yarım puanı kırmama gerek bile yoktu ama: (view spoiler)[ Son bölümde olan şeye anlam veremedim resmen. Cinsellik beni hiç ama hiç rahatsız etmez. Murakami seksle ilgili yazmaya düşkündür demişlerdi, bu kadar fazla söylendiğine göre acaba rahatsız olur muyum diye şöyle bir düşünmüştüm ama kitap boyunca cinsellik olsa da ben gram rahatsız [...]

Was this book a little ego-centric and self-serving? Yes. Did that prevent this book from being another example of Murakami's brilliance? No.Come on, sex so great that two of the women decided never to have sex again because it just couldn't ever compare? Please! Sorry boys, I don't care what your sexual prowess in the bedroom is but no woman would ever come to the conclusion. Ever. With that being said the rest of the book was filled with an insightful and poignant story that pushed Murakami a [...]