book review of norwegian wood

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Norwegian Wood – review

I n Haruki Murakami's bestselling novel of 1987, the 37-year-old narrator, Toru Watanabe, is transported back to his student days in late 1960s Tokyo by hearing the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" on the loudspeaker system of an airliner as he flies into Hamburg. It is a time of student unrest and strident demonstrations, but in the lengthy novel and the film carved out of it, this is merely the background to a delicate love story, or series of love stories. The central tale concerns the reserved Watanabe's devotion to the mentally disturbed Naoko, the former girlfriend of Watanabe's only close friend, Kizuki, who committed suicide at the age of 17. It is a doomed affair that after a single night of love is conducted during visits to an asylum outside Kobe where Naoko is being cared for by an older woman, Reiko, a musician who's also recovering from a breakdown. It is Reiko who sings, in English, a rather beautiful version of "Norwegian Wood" which is later sung by Lennon and McCartney over the final credits. Meanwhile, Watanabe is given a dubious sentimental education at the hands of Nagasawa, a suave, promiscuous fellow student bound for the diplomatic corps, and a more beneficial one from the pretty, witty, intelligent Midori, who attempts to draw him out of his solipsistic shell.

Norwegian Wood is a languorous, visually striking movie about love and loss, infused with the earnestness of young people struggling with powerful emotions and with evolving ideas about life, death, art, freedom and responsibility. A constant voiceover commentary and long tracking shots are broken up by lengthy dialogues, and its gifted writer-director Tran Anh Hung, born in Laos and educated in France, is neither embarrassed by the narrator's frequent callowness and solemnity nor afraid to risk boring his audience.

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NORWEGIAN WOOD

by Haruki Murakami & translated by Jay Rubin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2000

A contemporary equivalent of This Side of Paradise or Vile Bodies, and another solid building-block in one of contemporary...

A first US appearance of a novel originally published in 1987, this crisp portrayal of “flaming youth” in the late 1960s proves one of Murakami’s most appealing—if uncharacteristic—books.

Best known to us as the comic surrealist-symbolist author of such rousing postmodernist fare as A Wild Sheep Chase (1989), Murakami is also a highly intelligent romantic who feels the pangs of his protagonist Toru Watanabe’s insistent sexual and intellectual hungers and renders them with unsparing clarity (the matter-of-fact sexual frankness here seems unusual for a Japanese novel, even a 1987 one).Toru’s narrative of his student years, lived out against a backdrop of ongoing “campus riots,” focuses on the lessons he learns from relationships with several highly individual characters, two of them women he simultaneously loves (or thinks he loves). Mercurial Naoko, who clearly perceives the seeds of her own encroaching madness (“It’s like I’m split in two and playing tag with myself”), continues to tug away at Toru’s emotions even after she enters a sanatorium. Meanwhile, coy fellow student Midori tries to dispel shadows cast by her parents’ painful deaths by fantasizing and simulating—though never actually experiencing—sex with him. Other perspectives on Toru’s hard-won assumption of maturity are offered by older student Nagasawa (“a secret reader of classic novels,” and a compulsive seducer); Naoko’s roommate Reiko, a music teacher (and self-styled interpreter of such Beatles’ songs as the one that provides Murakami’s evocative title) who’s perhaps also her lesbian lover; and the specter of Toru’s boyhood friend Kizuki, a teenaged suicide. There’s a lot of talk about books (particularly Fitzgerald’s and Hesse’s) and other cultural topics, in a blithely discursive and meditative story that’s nevertheless firmly anchored to the here and now by the vibrant immediacy of its closely observed characters and their quite credibly conflicted psyches and libidos.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70402-7

Page Count: 296

Publisher: Vintage

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000

LITERARY FICTION

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by Haruki Murakami ; translated by Philip Gabriel & Ted Goossen

by Haruki Murakami ; translated by Philip Gabriel

HOUSE OF LEAVES

by Mark Z. Danielewski ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 6, 2000

The story's very ambiguity steadily feeds its mysteriousness and power, and Danielewski's mastery of postmodernist and...

An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Texts within texts, preceded by intriguing introductory material and followed by 150 pages of appendices and related "documents" and photographs, tell the story of a mysterious old house in a Virginia suburb inhabited by esteemed photographer-filmmaker Will Navidson, his companion Karen Green (an ex-fashion model), and their young children Daisy and Chad.  The record of their experiences therein is preserved in Will's film The Davidson Record - which is the subject of an unpublished manuscript left behind by a (possibly insane) old man, Frank Zampano - which falls into the possession of Johnny Truant, a drifter who has survived an abusive childhood and the perverse possessiveness of his mad mother (who is institutionalized).  As Johnny reads Zampano's manuscript, he adds his own (autobiographical) annotations to the scholarly ones that already adorn and clutter the text (a trick perhaps influenced by David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest ) - and begins experiencing panic attacks and episodes of disorientation that echo with ominous precision the content of Davidson's film (their house's interior proves, "impossibly," to be larger than its exterior; previously unnoticed doors and corridors extend inward inexplicably, and swallow up or traumatize all who dare to "explore" their recesses).  Danielewski skillfully manipulates the reader's expectations and fears, employing ingeniously skewed typography, and throwing out hints that the house's apparent malevolence may be related to the history of the Jamestown colony, or to Davidson's Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a dying Vietnamese child stalked by a waiting vulture.  Or, as "some critics [have suggested,] the house's mutations reflect the psychology of anyone who enters it."

Pub Date: March 6, 2000

ISBN: 0-375-70376-4

Page Count: 704

Publisher: Pantheon

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000

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by Mark Z. Danielewski

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NORMAL PEOPLE

by Sally Rooney ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2019

Absolutely enthralling. Read it.

A young Irish couple gets together, splits up, gets together, splits up—sorry, can't tell you how it ends!

Irish writer Rooney has made a trans-Atlantic splash since publishing her first novel, Conversations With Friends , in 2017. Her second has already won the Costa Novel Award, among other honors, since it was published in Ireland and Britain last year. In outline it's a simple story, but Rooney tells it with bravura intelligence, wit, and delicacy. Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan are classmates in the small Irish town of Carricklea, where his mother works for her family as a cleaner. It's 2011, after the financial crisis, which hovers around the edges of the book like a ghost. Connell is popular in school, good at soccer, and nice; Marianne is strange and friendless. They're the smartest kids in their class, and they forge an intimacy when Connell picks his mother up from Marianne's house. Soon they're having sex, but Connell doesn't want anyone to know and Marianne doesn't mind; either she really doesn't care, or it's all she thinks she deserves. Or both. Though one time when she's forced into a social situation with some of their classmates, she briefly fantasizes about what would happen if she revealed their connection: "How much terrifying and bewildering status would accrue to her in this one moment, how destabilising it would be, how destructive." When they both move to Dublin for Trinity College, their positions are swapped: Marianne now seems electric and in-demand while Connell feels adrift in this unfamiliar environment. Rooney's genius lies in her ability to track her characters' subtle shifts in power, both within themselves and in relation to each other, and the ways they do and don't know each other; they both feel most like themselves when they're together, but they still have disastrous failures of communication. "Sorry about last night," Marianne says to Connell in February 2012. Then Rooney elaborates: "She tries to pronounce this in a way that communicates several things: apology, painful embarrassment, some additional pained embarrassment that serves to ironise and dilute the painful kind, a sense that she knows she will be forgiven or is already, a desire not to 'make a big deal.' " Then: "Forget about it, he says." Rooney precisely articulates everything that's going on below the surface; there's humor and insight here as well as the pleasure of getting to know two prickly, complicated people as they try to figure out who they are and who they want to become.

Pub Date: April 16, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-984-82217-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Hogarth

Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019

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Norwegian Wood | Haruki Murakami | Book Review

“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.” – Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

It really takes a lot of courage for me to state it here that I had never read a Murakami before this. This was my first Murakami and quite obviously, my expectations were too high. I realize that I shouldn’t have done that but I had heard so much about him and his dark writing that it was difficult not to.

What to expect?

Norwegian Wood is a book which derives its name from a famous 1965 song by Beatles. It is one of the most popular books of Murakami and is set in the Japan of the 1960s during the period of student revolution. It’s a coming-of-age dark romance and drama which is melancholic and strangely peaceful at the same time. The setting tells us a lot about the Japan of the 1960s and what it was like to be a grown adult (amidst the weak-willed hypocritical student revolution) in those days.

The story as it goes

The story is told in the first-person voice of a guy called Toru Watanabe. Toru moves to Tokyo for further studies because he wants to get away from his melancholic past – the suicide of his best friend Kizuki has him shattered and his only way forward is to move on.

Naoko, the then girlfriend of his dead friend also comes to Tokyo for the same reason and a chance encounter one day brings them together. Toru is in love with Naoko but Naoko is broken. She harbours a million secrets and is fighting her own demons.

In between comes Midori, who is fun and vivacious but just like the others, she is broken too. Midori falls in love with Toru but it’s not as easy as it seems. As they all struggle to keep their individual monsters at bay, life moves on and the characters find themselves in a world which is scarred by passion, grief, casual sex, weird friendships and death.

The characters

The characters are what makes Norwegian Wood great. Toru, Naoko, Midori, Reiko and Nagasawa are all brilliant in their own ways. Caught between what they desire and what they think is ideal, they often end up making decisions that they themselves don’t understand.

Toru is increasingly torn between his duty to Naoko and his feelings for Midori. Naoko is distant and emotionally closed but Midori is available and in love with him. Still, it is Toru’s indecisiveness that makes him live a life full of casual sex, uneasy friendships, forced isolation, heartfelt regret and the accompanying melancholy.

Naoko is a different character altogether. She appears to be broken beyond repair but she desires Toru too. Weak-willed and depressed, she is unable to come out of her shell and be happy. Midori is peculiar too, she lies about her family, treats Toru weirdly, cannot get rid of her boyfriend and is still in love with Toru.

The depth of each of these characters and the way they are so caught up in their griefs is what makes this book such an enthralling read.

The writing style of Murakami.

Norwegian Wood  is written in the first-person voice of Toru. Toru tells us the story in a flashback wherein he reflects on the events of his early years by the way of penning it down in a diary. The way the novels begins is as dramatic as the entire book. In the first few pages itself, Murakami is able to cast a spell on the reader.

Haruki Murakami creates an intricate web of plots – interconnected and overlapping. Towards the middle, for some time, Norwegian Wood does turn a bit monotonous and dull but it soon picks up the pace again. Even the backstories of its side characters and their relationships with the main characters are so realistic and interesting that it is difficult to not marvel at the author’s brilliance.

The writing itself is simple and Murakami’s language is fluid and breezy. Though he does not delve deep into philosophy, the characters by the way of their actions and conversations share lessons worth learning, and philosophies profoundly deep.

The climax is what I disliked the most about Norwegian Wood . The end was too rushed and abrupt. As a reader deeply engrossed and invested in the lives of the characters, I did not get the necessary closure. A lot was left to the reader’s imagination when then story finished.

Final verdict and entertainment quotient

My final verdict would be to go for this book. It is a sad dark romance but nevertheless its deeply profound and intense and is meant to be read slowly while absorbing the pain of its characters and the depth of their passion. This is my first Murakami and I am irrevocably in love with his writing.

The frequent references to western music and literature are something which creates a strong connection with the reader and becomes an integral part of the reading experience. I am sure nobody will be able to resist falling in love with the Beatles number that this book is named after.

It’s a Murakami, do you read any better reason than that?

Skip it only if you don’t like dark romances and dramas. You might also want to stay away if you don’t enjoy slow reads.

Can’t wait to read it? Buy your copy of the Norwegian Wood using the link below.

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About the Author

Sankalpita singh.

Meet Sankalpita, the bookworm extraordinaire! 📚 With an insatiable appetite for reading (over 100 books annually!), she embarked on her book blogging journey in 2013 to share her boundless love for books. What started as a quirky hobby has blossomed into India's top-tier book blog, bookGeeks – the reigning champion for five consecutive years! 🏆 With a whopping 7,00,000 loyal readers monthly, Sankalpita's blog is like a literary wonderland. 📖✨ But that's not all – she's not just conquering the written word but also ruling the YouTube realm with her channel, bookGeeks India, dedicated solely to the art of book adoration, and boasting a fan base of over 24,000 subscribers! 🎥📚 Her ultimate goal? "To serve a nation through literature." 🇮🇳 With a passion for Indian literature, she's on a mission to ignite the reading spark in both kids and grown-ups alike. 🔥 When she's not nose-deep in a book or typing away, you'll find her brainstorming with her hubby or captivating her 8-year-old daughter with enchanting tales. And every now and then, she indulges her creative spirit through painting and nurturing her garden. 🌻🎨 Join Sankalpita on her bookish adventure as she brings the world of literature to life, one page at a time!

Check latest articles from this author:

Meera of karmana vol 1 | nitin antoon | book review, the lost treasure of azad hind fauj | piyush rohankar | book review, author sunil joshi talks about his book ‘kachche pakke rang zindagi ke’ (कहानी संकलन) | hindi interview, related articles, the fast and the dead | anuja chauhan | book review, funny story | emily henry | book review, the man who lost india | meghna pant | book review.

The Steady Read

Review: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Taking its title from the Beatles’ song of the same name, Norwegian Wood is an apathetic and cynical story about late-1960s Japan and accepting manhood.

Following Watanabe as he reflects on his teenage years and the beginning of his twenties, Murakami discusses much about society, life’s worth, suicide, and the ever pressing matter of sex and relationships.

The novel is rife with an overwhelming sense of misery. Murakami distils vivid amounts of detail into each scene, lavishing them with a thick atmosphere and uneasy sense of isolation. The nature of such a bland, passing world helps cynical narrators like Watanabe flourish.

The character in question bears just enough personality to make him unique, whilst he is still plain enough to project onto. Watanabe’s depression and emotions aren’t always clear, often buried under a blunt persona and an indifference to much of the world. Despite that, as the story goes on and his misfortune continues, there are genuine changes to his character. I would say that Murakami wrote an excellent portrayal of a moody, hormonal young man.

Where Murakami’s excellent writing falters is with his female characters in this novel. Whilst it’s not always at its worst, there are many instances where females within this story are repetitive, shallow, stereotypical, or portrayed as lesser in undefined ways. I suppose it works, as we are observing through the not-so-savvy Watanabe, but I still feel it disrupts the quality of the writing at times.

With ignorance to that one negative view of mine, Norwegian Wood is a great and rewarding read. It is one of the most depressing and subtle pieces of fiction I’ve read thus far, and I would encourage anyone to check it out if a melodramatic and moody story is their sort of thing.

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Words And Peace

Book reviews and good books for you to read.

Book review and notes: Norwegian Wood

As you may know, Haruki Murakami is my favorite Japanese author. I have read several books by him, for instance his latest Killing Commendatore .

So I couldn’t resist when I discovered through Still an Unfinished Person that there was such a thing as a Murakami Online Book Club . They were reading Norwegian Wood , so I joined, as I don’t recall actually reading it.

Here below, I’ll share my review , plus some notes and quotes . Skip my notes if you haven’t read the book and want to avoid spoilers .

Norwegian Wood is I believe the book that made Murakami famous, at least in the West. The cultural reference of the title may have had a role in it, too.

HOWEVER, this is definitely not my favorite book by him, far from that even. In some respects, Norwegian Wood did feel like a usual Murakami novel, with the knack he has for the flow of dialogs that seem so close to life , and for the incomplete resolution at the end of the book . But otherwise, I didn’t like it that much. Probably because of the over emphasis on sex life (really, who needs to read Fifty Shades of Grey when you have Norwegian Wood ??), and mostly, it felt too much like we were in real life , apart maybe from some passages in the sanatorium, and the very last paragraph. In many other novels by him, I really like the fact that you feel right at the border between reality and un-reality , and you never know for sure where you are at. For me, this is THE Murakami signature. I didn’t feel it as present here. This was confirmed by an expert member of the online group. Chameleonica commented back, saying, “I think this is the Murakami book that’s mostly rooted in realism”.

I started reading Norwegian Wood almost at the same time as The Gate , the last book of Natsume Soseki’s trilogy. All along this book, I was amazed at the number of parallels I could draw. Maybe I should remind you that Murakami considers Soseki as his favorite author, and he wrote a wonderful introduction to Sanshiro , that you can read in the Penguin Classics edition (ISBN13: 9780140455625). So if there are points in common between Soseki’s and Murakami’s characters, it cannot be mere coincidence.

That’s it really for my general thoughts. If you are planning to read it soon, I’d advise you NOT to read the rest of this post, as there will be spoilers .

BUT if you have read it, your comments are most welcome.

The next book we’ll be reading is Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World .

I love the contrast at the beginning between what’s going on around him and in his mind :

People began unfastening their seatbelts and pulling baggage from the overhead lockers, and all the while I was in the meadow. I could smell the grass, feel the wind on my face, hear the cries of the birds. Autumn 1969, and soon I would be 20.

“One long streak of cloud hung pasted across a dome of frozen blue.” I feel like I’m in a Natsume Soseki novel, with so much focus on the sky , but as the narrator specifies, “scenery was the last thing on [his] mind”, it’s all interiorized landscape , that comes back to him through memory almost twenty years later.

Fascinating passage on the working of memory , how Toru tries to remember Naoko.

Wow, what an ominous image of the wide-open mouth of the field well . It reminds me of the underground scene in Killing Commendatore . And more ominous hints of Naoko’s mental illness. The end of this chapter is quite dramatic: he loved her, but she didn’t love him.

From the get go, we can recognize the mastery of Murakami in his flowing dialogs , they always sound so real, so true to life.

Description of Toru’s dorm and roommate. Toru is a new young student in Tokyo, like Sanshiro , by Natsume Soseki. The tree near the gate, like in The Gate , also by Natsume Soseki.

HM mentions the Japanese anthem . I’m afraid I was not familiar with it. I found this youtube video with English lyrics. It’s so beautiful. Interesting comments point to the fact that it was originally a love song. We are from the war vocabulary of the French anthem.

OMG, HM also mentions radio calisthenics , ラジオ体操,  rajio taisō , literally, “radio exercises”. According to Wikipedia, “they are are warm-up calisthenics performed to music and guidance from radio broadcasts. They are popular in Japan and parts of Mainland China and Taiwan”. I have actually been doing them every day with this video .  I think it’s the first time I see them mentioned in a novel.

“ Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life.“

Again this seems to me a very Soseku-like theme, for instance in And Then : “With his hand still on his chest, he tried to imagine the warm, crimson blood flowing leisurely to this beat. This was life, he thought. Now, at this very moment, he held in his grasp the current of life as it flowed by. To his palm it felt like the ticking of a clock. But it was more, it was a kind of alarm that summoned him to death.” And I believe this is also part of Zen spirituality. This sentence is repeated near the end of the book. It does struck me at the large place given to death (and suicide) in this novel

Toru has no ambition . “There was nothing I wanted to be”  like for Soseki’s heroes. I happen to be reading Soseku’s trilogy at the same time. It’s a very interesting experience to be reading both at the same time, knowing that Soseku is one of Murakami’s favorite authors.

Could be my favorite quotation of the week:

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

Chapters 5-7

Cool description in chapter 6 of the trip to the sanatorium where Naoko is being treated. 

He meets Reiko, both a long-term patient and a music teacher/therapist, and Naoko’s roommate.

Reiko suggest another trio, a healing triangle this time. Will it work?

“Streaming in through the window, the moonlight cast long shadows and splashed the walls with a touch of diluted Indian ink.”

There’s a whole explanation in the chapter on the first visit to the sanatorium about deformities . “‘Most people go about their lives unconscious of their deformities”. People at the therapy center highlight that we are all sick, one way or another, but the difference can be whether this has ever touched your consciousness or not.

Naoko explains things of her past to Toru. Her sister also committed suicide, and she found her. Plus some cases in their father’s family.

This sanatorium place was really spooky for me. Healing oneself by helping others heal, sounds right. And the place lives on homegrown fruit and veggie, which all seems rather healthy. And yet, it seems very unhealthy and creepy at the same time. Amazing how HM can convey this feeling little by little.

Naoko’s weird view of having to pay for their younger innocent way of living. Nature vs. society , also a Soseki-an theme,

And all along Reiko’s narrative, I was wondering all along if she was making it up. HM loves making his readers wonder .

In Chapter 7, Toru  accompanies Midori to visit her dying father at the hospital . Midori shares with him all her insane sexual fantasies .

Chapters 8-9

I didn’t really note many important things for me, I mean important to me in these 2 chapters. But I loved this quote on languages:

“Languages are like games. You learn the rules for one, and they all work the same way.”

Chapters 10-11

I liked how the image of the swamp in which Toru is stuck in kept coming in chapter 10. For me, he really has many aspects in common with Sanshiro (by Natsume Soseki), so lost and stuck at the same age, leaving his small place to go to university.

At one point, I was even wondering if Toru was going to become insane himself, as he was starting having the same communication problems as Naoko.

Several in our online group highlighted the importance of the journey vs. the final destination in Japanese culture. About that, I was not surprised to see Toru leave for a long journey. It reminded me again of a Natsume Soseki character in his trilogy, this time in the novel The Gate . It seems to me also in the tradition of wanderers , thinking of Basho and other haiku authors here. And here and there in this novel, I felt there was some Zen teaching popping up, like in this quotation about the importance of the present moment:

“Stop what you’re doing this minute and get happy”

VERDICT:  Some great dialogs, but it was too realistic for me to enjoy as a usual Muramaki book. Plus there were too many hyper detailed sex scenes.

Have you read this book did you enjoy it as much as other books by murakami share your thoughts  in a comment please, share this:, 19 thoughts on “ book review and notes: norwegian wood ”.

Shame this isn’t better.

It’s not that it’s bad. It just doesn’t have the characteristics that are now associated with this author. I guess it’s good for those more focused on sex than I am, lol

Like Liked by 1 person

I’ve been wanting to read Murakami for a while and this was the book I was probably going to start with – would you recommend any of this others instead?

Yes, 1Q84! Thick but reads fast, you’ll see why when you understand the addicting structure. Otherwise https://wordsandpeace.com/2014/08/25/book-review-colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage/

Thank you! I will definitely be giving this one a go then, I’m really looking forward to finally getting around to reading some Murakami – its been a long time coming!

I hope you enjoy his style

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I’m not that interested on this one. Which is your favorite Murakami? I’ve only read 1Q84 but I want to read the Chronicles…

1Q84 is still my favorite. But you should try his latest, Killing Commendatore, a variation on Don Giovanni. https://wordsandpeace.com/2014/08/25/book-review-colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage/ is also characteristic of the author

Now I remember you recommended this one. I will. Thanks.

I hope it works for you

Great review! I haven’t read anything by Murakami yet.

If thick books don’t scare you, try 1Q84,. Otherwise: https://wordsandpeace.com/2014/08/25/book-review-colorless-tsukuru-tazaki-and-his-years-of-pilgrimage/ It seems to me these 2 are much more characteristic of his style than Norwegian Wood

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Hi – well I skipped the spoilers in case I do read it, but maybe I should try another book by Haruki Murakami first. Thanks for the review!

I would suggest to try another one. I gave 2 recommendations in the comment here by alisbooks: https://wordsandpeace.com/2020/02/19/book-review-and-notes-norwegian-wood/#comment-51835

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Norwegian Wood Paperback – September 12, 2000

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• Print length 298 pages
• Language English
• Publication date September 12, 2000
• Dimensions 5.17 x 0.68 x 7.97 inches
• ISBN-10 0375704027
• ISBN-13 978-0375704024
• Lexile measure 790L
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review.

Norwegian Wood is a simple coming-of-age tale, primarily set in 1969-70, when the author was attending university. The political upheavals and student strikes of the period form the novel's backdrop. But the focus here is the young Watanabe's love affairs, and the pain and pleasure and attendant losses of growing up. The collapse of a romance (and this is one among many!) leaves him in a metaphysical shambles: I read Naoko's letter again and again, and each time I read it I would be filled with the same unbearable sadness I used to feel whenever Naoko stared into my eyes. I had no way to deal with it, no place I could take it to or hide it away. Like the wind passing over my body, it had neither shape nor weight, nor could I wrap myself in it. This account of a young man's sentimental education sometimes reads like a cross between Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Stephen Vizinczey's In Praise of Older Women . It is less complex and perhaps ultimately less satisfying than Murakami's other, more allegorical work. Still, Norwegian Wood captures the huge expectation of youth--and of this particular time in history--for the future and for the place of love in it. It is also a work saturated with sadness, an emotion that can sometimes cripple a novel but which here merely underscores its youthful poignancy. --Mark Thwaite

From Publishers Weekly

From the inside flap, from the back cover, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; First Paperback Edition (September 12, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 298 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0375704027
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0375704024
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 790L
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.17 x 0.68 x 7.97 inches
• #54 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
• #551 in Literary Fiction (Books)

About the authors

Haruki murakami.

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 and now lives near Tokyo. His work has been translated into more than fifty languages, and the most recent of his many international honors is the Jerusalem Prize, whose previous recipients include J. M. Coetzee, Milan Kundera, and V. S. Naipaul.

Jay Rubin (b. 1941) is an American academic, translator, and (as of 2015) novelist. He is best known for his translations of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. He has written about Murakami, the novelist Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), the short story writers Kunikida Doppo (1871-1908) and Akutagawa Ryunosuke (1892-1927), prewar Japanese literary censorship, Noh drama, and Japanese grammar. In May 2015 Chin Music Press published his novel THE SUN GODS, set in Seattle against the background of the incarceration of 120,000 U.S. citizens and non-citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II.

Rubin has a Ph.D. in Japanese literature from the University of Chicago. He taught at the University of Washington for eighteen years, and then moved to Harvard University, from which he retired in 2006. He lives near Seattle, where he continues to write and translate.

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Samantha Kilford

Tech PR & Bookworm

Book Review: Norwegian Wood

September 4, 2022 · In: Book Review , Books

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.

“NO TRUTH CAN CURE THE SORROW WE FEEL FROM LOSING A LOVED ONE. NO TRUTH, NO SINCERITY, NO STRENGTH, NO KINDNESS CAN CURE THAT SORROW. ALL WE CAN DO IS SEE IT THROUGH TO THE END AND LEARN SOMETHING FROM IT, BUT WHAT WE LEARN WILL BE NO HELP IN FACING THE NEXT SORROW THAT COMES TO US WITHOUT WARNING.”

Murakami’s writing always has a strange sense of comfort – as if you’re catching up with an old friend. However, I am on the fence when it comes to Norwegian Wood . I can’t help thinking that perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I’d read it in the autumn. I can’t explain it, but it feels like an autumn novel.

The book begins with Toru Watanabe, a 37-year-old man on his way to Hamburg. After hearing the song ‘Norwegian Wood’ by The Beatles, Toru is overcome with nostalgia and begins musing about his teenage years.

Kizuki, Toru’s best friend, took his own life at the age of seventeen, leaving Toru and Kizuki’s then-girlfriend, Naoko, broken. After Kizuki’s death, the pair begin to bond and as Toru tries to offer Naoko emotional support, they end up falling in love. As Naoko struggles with Kizuki’s death, she is admitted to a sanatorium following a breakdown.

The two stay in touch as Toru enrols at university and he visits her occasionally, with the hope that a recovery will lead to a blossoming relationship. During his visits, he also strikes up a friendship with another patient, Reiko. Meanwhile, as life gets tough to deal with, Toru isolates himself from the world. He ends up meeting the carefree and fiercely independent Midori and is drawn to her.

Starting with the good, I must say that I adored Naoko. Murakami writes her in a way that is so relatable and tough to read at times. My heart ached for her. The chapters that take place in the sanatorium are some of the most beautiful, magical and heartbreaking moments of the novel. Both vivid and intimate, Murakami’s narration invites you in and refuses to let you go.

That being said, there were a few times where I wished Murakami would let me go. Norwegian Wood is very much a coming of age story and sex is a major theme in the novel. While there’s nothing wrong that, the way Murakami chooses to portray the sexual encounters in Norwegian Wood leaves a lot to be desired and a lot to be improved. The line ‘ rubbing together two imperfect lumps of flesh ‘ is burned into my brain and still leaves me nauseous long after finishing the novel.

Individually, the female characters are fine. When written into scenes involving their relationship with Toru, they are reduced to caricatures who all want one thing. Toru’s d. It’s an absurd feautre of the novel, but once they’re alone with Toru, all the women in the novel seem to turn to jelly. They become needy, dysfunctional, emotional and ready to get down with Toru. He is selfish and unsentimental and also ready to get down with them. It’s just… icky.

Additionally, the somewhat extended passage devoted to Reiko’s lesbian encounter was odd and distasteful. One, why was she telling Toru this? And two, Reiko’s story is obviously sexual assault and, truth be told, added nothing to the overall plot other than to fetishize lesbian women and sexual assault. The level of perverse detail Murakami includes simply for Toru’s pleasure still makes me uncomfortable and I had to skip forward while reading. Don’t even get me started on Toru and Reiko’s hook up and the amount of sentences dedicated to her wrinkles.

There are some quietly beautiful and poignant moments in Norwegian Wood . Sadly, the characters that are the most interesting don’t get a lot of air time. I would have happily spent more time with Naoko in the sanatorium and really dive into her mental health. Similarly, I would have loved more about Mr. Womanizer, Nagasawa.

Sadness is a very complicated emotion and, for the most part, I enjoyed the way Murakami explored it in Norwegian Wood . It’s an intriguing and unique coming of age novel about life and death, isolation and mental health. Although he is the main character, I just couldn’t warm to Toru and the deeply unrealistic way that Murakami chose to present him. Like, you’re telling me this basic dude has sex with three of the main characters – as well as countless others left unnamed – and he’s apparently SO great at it that two of the characters conclude that they’ll never have sex again because nobody can ever measure up to him? 🙄

I like Murakami, I really do, but this isn’t his best. If you’re expecting a grand and special story, you’ll be disappointed. Poorly written smutty scenes and under-explored female characters aside, Norwegian Wood is an enjoyable dive into the human mind and the stories hidden in ordinary people.

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October 10, 2023 at 2:07 am

This review, to me, is bang-on!

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Book Review: Haven’t They Grown

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Movie Review | 'Norwegian Wood'

Young Love as Divine, but a Perilous Insanity

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By Stephen Holden

• Jan. 5, 2012

The dreamy, protracted love scenes in “Norwegian Wood” recall that now quaint era near the peak of the sexual revolution when intense young love fired the collective imagination with envy, prurience and awe. Yes, there were casual hookups then, but they were not called that in the late 1960s, when the story takes place. Romantic sex still bore a mystical aura.

During the first encounter of Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), an earnest, brooding Japanese college student, and Naoko (Rinko Kikuchi), the onetime sweetheart of his best friend, Kizuki, who committed suicide, the camera studies the delicate curves of their lips merging in a near-sacred rite of communion. It is Naoko’s 20th birthday, and her loss of virginity is an earth-shaking event deepened by their shared, unspoken grief.

Afterward, when Watanabe brings up Kizuki’s name for the first time, Naoko collapses in tears and confesses that her sexual unresponsiveness to Kizuki, whom she had known since childhood, was a source of anguish. She appears to blame herself for his suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning; otherwise, his act would appear inexplicable.

I can’t remember another film since “Splendor in the Grass” (1961) so solemnly fixated on the obsessional, morbid aspects of youthful passion. Written and directed by Tran Anh Hung ( “Cyclo,” “The Scent of Green Papaya” ), “Norwegian Wood” is his adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s much loved 1987 novel . It belongs to the same feverish mind-set as Scott Spencer’s novel “Endless Love” (not to be confused with its dreadful screen adaptation), in which young love is a divine but perilous form of insanity.

After their fraught coupling, Naoko disappears from Watanabe’s life until she contacts him from a rural sanitarium where she is recovering from a nervous breakdown. He periodically visits, but after some hopeful signs Naoko’s fragile mental health deteriorates, and she descends into schizophrenia.

Watanabe follows her to the edge of the cliff, so to speak, but is drawn back from the abyss by a second woman: the willful, free-spirited Midori (Kiko Mizuhara), who is Naoko’s opposite. For Watanabe the women embody his inner tug of war between Eros and Thanatos.

The movie, like the novel, is narrated by Watanabe, who looks back 17 years to his days as a college freshman in Tokyo. In Japan, as in the United States and Europe, it was a period of widespread student unrest. But the movie makes only token attempts to acknowledge campus ferment. One scene shows Watanabe caught up in a demonstration to which he is all but oblivious.

The film has the loose narrative structure of a quasi-poetic personal journal that is more a series of reflections than a cohesive story. Watanabe isn’t dislikable, but he is humorless and self-absorbed. His doomy romanticism is reflected in attenuated, beautifully photographed scenes of times spent with Naoko at different seasons when the landscape and the turbulent weather conjure her emotional instability. Jonny Greenwood’s hovering music for string quartet and orchestra underlines the mood of seething emotional turmoil.

Later in the film Watanabe retreats to a shallow seaside cave to grieve, surrounded by waves crashing on the rocks. He huddles, quaking from the cold, by a small bonfire. Except in this scene of his own solitary breakdown, Mr. Matsuyama’s Watanabe is a glum, opaque protagonist who registers few emotions beyond a desperate desire to protect Naoko, who is susceptible to uncontrollable bouts of tears and seems increasingly unreachable.

The movie’s biggest flaw is a crucial imbalance. Midori, his eventual salvation, is much less vivid and sexually outspoken in the movie than in the novel. When the film ends you barely remember her, while Naoko’s fragility is portrayed as an exalted state of consciousness.

Reika Kirishima is sympathetic as Naoko’s fellow patient and protector, Reiko, and Tetsuji Tamayama is amusing as Watanabe’s classmate Nagasawa, a chain-smoking, dandified lothario who makes life miserable for his loyal girlfriend, Hatsumi (Eriko Hatsune).

“Norwegian Wood” registers less as a coherent narrative than as a tortuous reverie steeped in mournful yearning.

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Summary & Book Review; Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

“Norwegian Wood” is a 1987 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, which follows the story of Toru, who reflects upon his life experiences while in college. Through his interactions with various characters and his evolving relationships, mostly with two troubled young women, the novel touches on themes of loss, loneliness, identity, love, and death. The title of the book is named after the famous Beatles song. In this article, you will not only find a short summary but also my personal book review.

Overview Of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

“Norwegian Wood” is a coming-of-age story set in late 1960s Tokyo and tells the story of Toru Watanabe, who reflects upon his memories from his college years when he was 18 years old. After he begins to reconnect with a girl from his past, he reconstructs his memories and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. With its themes of love, loss, and identity, the novel has resonated with readers for decades. I read this book in 2023 and it is as relevant as ever.

The novel follows Toru as he struggles to balance his feelings of grief, confusion, and desire while in college. He meets two very different women: Naoko, whom he finds himself falling in love with quickly, but who is also still consumed by the death of her boyfriend; and Midori Kobayashi, a lively girl who gives Toru joy and insight. As his relationships with both girls intensify and evolve, Toru must come to terms with the past and set himself free from his own pain.

The novel has been praised for its thoughtful exploration of unrequited love, loss, and the search for identity. It is a powerful story about understanding pain and ultimately finding hope even amid life’s difficulties.

Murakami’s Characters in Norwegian Wood

The main characters of the book consist of one major male character, Toru, and another college friend, Nagasawa. Toru narrates the story in the book. We witness the events through his eyes and it has been said that some of the events are inspired by real-life events of Murakami’s life. Then there are three female characters who play an important part in the story and Toru’s life.

The protagonist of the novel, Toru Watanabe is a college student who is deeply affected by the suicide of his close friend, Kizuki. Toru is intelligent and introspective, but also somewhat passive and indecisive. Throughout the novel, he grapples with his complicated feelings for two women, Naoko and Midori, as he tries to navigate the challenges of young adulthood.

Naoko is a beautiful and troubled young woman who was Kizuki’s girlfriend before his death. She suffers from severe depression and spends time in a sanatorium to receive treatment. Toru becomes romantically involved with Naoko, but their relationship is complicated by her mental health struggles and the unresolved feelings they both have for Kizuki.

Midori is a vivacious and outgoing young woman who meets Toru at a university social event. Unlike Naoko, she is not burdened by the weight of past traumas, but she still faces her own challenges in life. Midori is attracted to Toru, but he struggles to fully commit to her because of his feelings for Naoko.

Reiko is a middle-aged woman and the oldest of the female characters. She becomes Naoko’s roommate at the sanatorium. She is a gifted musician and helps Naoko cope with her depression by playing music with her. Reiko is also kind and supportive towards Toru, who becomes a regular visitor at the sanatorium.

Nagasawa is one of Toru’s closest friends from college. He is confident, charismatic, and enjoys the company of women. Nagasawa is in a long-term relationship with a woman named Hatsumi, but he frequently cheats on her and encourages Toru to do the same. Although Toru is initially drawn to Nagasawa’s carefree attitude, he begins to question the morality of their behavior and the true nature of their friendship

Analysis Of Major Themes In Norwegian Wood

Major themes in Norwegian Wood are the idea of love, loss, and change. All of the characters in the novel deal with lost love and have to learn how to cope with their emotions and find a way to move on. The story examines these emotions in different ways, whether it’s Toru’s inability to shake his feelings for Naoko or Midori’s struggle to move on from her loneliness.

Another theme is friendship—the idea of people coming together, aiding each other, and forming connections that stay with them even as life changes around them. Especially Watanabe is valued for sticking around as a true friend no matter how difficult things get.

In addition, Murakami explores the idea of escape and identity. Even though the characters are young, they all try to find ways to cope with their feelings, whether it’s by running and hiding or through drugs and alcohol. Toru struggles to understand who he is without Naoko, while at the same time recognizing that he can’t stay in the same place as her forever.

Lastly, Murakami Murakami writes and explores grief and death. The characters are forced to grapple with losing someone they love as well as the inevitability of their own mortality.

Throughout the novel, they are forced to confront these issues head-on, ultimately striving to make sense of them in order to keep pushing forward.

Critical Reception of Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood was met with generally positive reviews upon its release and is now considered by many to be one of Murakami’s best works. If not his best work. Critics have praised the novel for its exploration of complex themes in a very intelligent and realistic way. While some have criticized the novel as melancholic or overly depressing, most praise it for its depiction of human connection and emotion.

General Information about the Book

Norwegian Wood was first released in Japan in 1987 and has since been translated into more than 50 languages. Many have interpreted the novel as an autobiographical story, citing similarities between Murakami’s own life and the themes explored in the book.

Characters like “Watanabe” have been read as alter egos of Murakami, a view which Murakami himself has interestingly both confirmed and denied. Whatever the case may be, Norwegian Wood is widely regarded as one of Murakami’s most successful works and remains beloved by fans all over the world.

Personal Review Norwegian Wood and Theme of Suicide

I really loved reading the book. Living in Japan at the time helped me to better understand Japanese culture and also the character in this book. It sparked philosophical thoughts in me about the high suicide rate in Japan, which is usually blamed on high work pressure. Reading Murakami made me feel there was more to it than just work pressure, there is something rooted in the culture.

Rooted in Culture

One of my thoughts for example is that Japan has a long history of let’s call it ‘ normalization of suicide’. One can think about the “Kamikaze” (Interesting book’ Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in Japanese History door Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney) pilots or “Harakiri” in Japan’s medieval times, where honor is more important than life itself.

Another aspect I think might play a role is the high level of fantasy in Japan. Of course, there is all the anime and Gibli, but also Disney is hugely popular not only amongst children but also adults.

Fantasy World’s & Paris Syndrom

There is also a famous Syndrom which is called Paris syndrome. This basically means young Japanese women create such an idealistic image of originally Paris in their heads (Romantic, all men are nice and gorgeous).

They tend to go all in. They dream about Paris every day. They go and study French. They are already picturing themselves getting married to a French guy. They love everything French, French chocolates, french cookies, and cafes. They usually make friends and spend time with other like-minded France lovers. They buy French clothing brands. All this time they do not check in with reality once and they are basically spending their life in a fantasy world they create for themselves.

This goes on for years until they have saved enough to make the trip to actual Paris. Arriving here is the first time in their life they actually check in with reality. Paris can be dirty. Paris has thieves and conmen. A lot of homeless and refugees.

Maybe people are more rude than they imagined. It is all one major disappointment. When these girls arrive back in Japan, they are crushed and actually need to see a psychiatrist to help them recover. Some of them, unfortunately, do not. This is referred to as the Paris syndrome but of course, also applies to other aspects. It is about creating a fantasy world for yourself and falling into depression when you find out that reality is nothing like your fantasy.

My Personal Reflection

Back to Murakami and the theme of Suicide, I believe these last two mentioned elements, the normality of suicide and the Paris syndrome, plays a huge role in the high suicide rates in Japan. Murakami’s writing to me seems like a great reflection of this part of Japanese culture and I greatly enjoyed his writing style.

Reading Norwegian Wood was a great pleasure to me despite the darker themes. I think that Murakami’s vivid writing style is one of my favorites and I appreciate much of Murakami’s work. Norwegian Wood compares a little to me to Fitzgerald from The Great Gatsby . A book that also explores illusion versus reality.

An Overview of Murakami’s Novels

• Hear the Wind Sing (1979)
• Pinball, 1973 (1980)
• A Wild Sheep Chase (1982)
• Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985)
• Norwegian Wood (1987)
• Dance Dance Dance (1988)
• South of the Border, West of the Sun (1992)
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994)
• Sputnik Sweetheart (1999)
• Kafka on the Shore (2002)
• After Dark (2004)
• 1Q84 (2009-2010)
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013)
• Men Without Women (2014)
• Killing Commendatore (2017)
• First Person Singular (2021)

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