#Toru from Norwegian Wood

[tenjiiku]

While writing edo Rin I’ve come to a bland realization that Toru and him would get along

[justforbooks]

Haruki Murakami

The acclaimed Japanese author’s deceptively simple writing combines fantasy and reality in stories of everything from missing cats to dystopian histories via fantasy thrillers and meditations on love.

Japan’s bestselling living novelist Haruki Murakami started writing aged 30 and became a literary sensation in 1987 when his fifth novel Norwegian Wood was published. His mixture of realistic and dreamlike narratives has earned him a dedicated fanbase, and his name is often floated as a contender for the Nobel prize in literature. If you’re new to him, or want to re-read his greatest hits, here are some places to start.

The entry point

Murakami’s novels can be crudely separated into two categories: the fantastic and the realist – although many fall somewhere in between. Published in 1987, Norwegian Wood lacks the otherworldly strangeness that has come to characterise much of Murakami’s most popular work. Instead the novel is a deceptively simple reminiscence of young love. Landing on a German runway, narrator Toru Watanabe hears the titular Beatles song and is transported back to his college days and turbulent love affairs with two different women. Nostalgic and sweet, Norwegian Wood is Murakami’s most accessible novel, and the book that transformed the author into a literary superstar in Japan.

If you only read one

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is peak Murakami, and features many of the things the author is known for (Mysterious women! Vanished cats! Phone sex! Spaghetti!). Unemployed thirtysomething Toru Okada is looking for his missing cat and missing wife when he sleepwalks into a wild goose-chase of increasingly bizarre events. “The best way to think about reality,” he declares, is “to get as far away from it as possible.” Part detective story, part nightmarish Alice in Wonderland, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle becomes a story about Japanese history, bizarre mysteries and red herrings. Abstract, infuriating and very funny, it is Murakami at his most beguiling.

If you’re in a rush

If you want to make a critically acclaimed film, adapt a Murakami short story. The South Korean thriller Burning took Murakami’s story Barn Burning as its foundations, while, more recently, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi won an Academy Award for his adaptation of Drive My Car. Some of Murakami’s finest storytelling can be found in his microcosmic worlds. Sleep, published in the New Yorker in 1992 and included in the short story collection The Elephant Vanishes, was the first time Murakami wrote from the perspective of a woman and the result is stunning. The story offers a character study of a devoted wife who is suffering from a sleeplessness that is not quite insomnia. Murakami frequently – and justifiably – receives criticism for how he writes female characters, but Sleep is a brilliant story that uses the liminality of the night to evoke the unease of being a woman in a patriarchal society.

The memoir

Murakami’s biography could be the backstory for one of his protagonists. The author was running a jazz club, turned 30, and quit to become a novelist. The rest is bestseller history. Murakami’s slim memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, offers an insight into his diligent creative practice. “Most of what I know about writing I’ve learned through running every day,” he explains. Only seriously taking to running in his 30s, Murakami reflects on the comparisons between marathon-running and writing , and demystifies the author’s practice as regimented routine, endurance training and occasionally injury inducing.

It’s worth persevering with

Across three volumes and over a thousand pages, 1Q84 is Murakami’s most ambitious novel to date, encompassing cults, assassins, parallel realities, two moons and creatures that emerge from the mouth of a dead goat. Following twin story threads of fated lovers, Murakami’s epic is set in a version of 1984 that slips between the familiar and unfamiliar. While 1Q84 is certainly sprawling, it’s structured like a maze with the occasional trick mirror and trap door. It was bemoaned by some critics as a disappointment when first published in 2011 and its length may be intimidating to the casual Murakami reader, but descend into 1Q84’s world and you’ll be treated to a page-turning thriller, a tender love story, a pulpy mystery and a meditation on the metaphysical mysteries of a world not dissimilar to our own.

The one that deserves more attention

After its publication in English in 2001, Sputnik Sweetheart left the orbit of Murakami’s more popular works. It’s a shame because the novel offers a refreshing variation of the author’s most predictable trope: women vanishing. Narrated through the eyes of a typical Murakami narrator (male, pining, passive), at the heart of Sputnik Sweetheart is a lesbian romance between Sumire, a wannabe Jack Kerouac, and Miu, an older, refined wine importer. Lusting after Miu, Sumire begins to shed her bohemian exterior, transforming herself to become Miu’s chic personal assistant. The unequal romance soon develops into self-obliteration as Sumire seems fated to be forever Miu’s sputnik – orbiting her from the isolation of space – before she disappears. Sputnik Sweetheart’s yearning romanticism is as tender as it is uncomfortable.

The masterpiece

Departing from his typical thirtysomething, whisky-drinking, jazz-listening protagonists, Kafka on the Shore is narrated by 15-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura. Fleeing his violent, dead father after receiving an Oedipal prophecy, Kafka finds refuge working in a small coastal town’s library. Alternating with Kafka’s tale is Satoru Nakata’s, an older man who lost his childhood memories at the end of the second world war, but instead gained the ability to converse with cats. Nakata is forced on the run after he crosses paths with a sinister cat-catcher who goes by the name Johnnie Walker. Both characters embark on vision quests, with one foot in everyday Japan and the other in a magical undercurrent that delivers the characters to each other. Murakami has said that the urgency behind his stories is “missing and searching and finding”. Kafka on the Shore eludes genre pigeonholing, and instead exemplifies its author’s ability to map a dreamscape labyrinth, one with its own strange poetic justice.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[itisdreamcatcher]

A old-new read, hehe...

Trigger Warnings: Death, Depression, Lesbophobia, Intercourse (explicit), Sexual harassment, Rape, Suicide

Norwegian Wood is a novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It was written in 1987 and it is primarily centered upon 1960s Tokyo college student Toru Watanabe's life and relationship with two girls: Naoko and Midori Kobayashi. Naoko is more reserved and emotionally sensitive, while Midori is more of a free spirit. Through this love triangle, Toru's story is a coming-of-age story, during the exciting countercultural late-1960s. Additionally, Naoko and Midori both experience growth and development through their relationship with Toru, involving the exploration of burgeoning sexuality, loss, grief, and love.

As in Murakami's other works, Western music plays a significant role in the story and tone. The novel itself is titled after song "Norwegian Wood" made by the Beatles from their 1965 album Rubber Soul.

[kierrasreads]

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Review

Plot

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 magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.

Discussion

Overall, an interesting read! Poor Naoko definitely had a lot of issues tormenting her her entire life. The place where she got some treatment (maybe a resort? That’s the best word I can think of) certainly sounded like a paradise! Or it does if you crave routine and removing yourself from the outside world.

There were some parts where I wanted to smack Toru with a newspaper! Get yourself together before stringing Midori along like a puppet on a string!

The songs referenced throughout the novel? Fire!

Rating

4/5

[shinjikairos]

Norwegian Wood

I haven't read a novel that has made me want to write a letter before.

I vaguely remember in the recesses of my memory: a little more than a decade ago in junior college, Norwegian Wood was a hit amongst those who read. Here and there I would see the novel in the hands of someone reading on the train or in school.

I wonder if it's a false memory that I've created. I have no doubt that in some ways that the novel was popular, but I don't have any concrete memory that could really back it up.

I only know that at one point in time a good friend of mine quoted the line:

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

There's so many layers of irony to this though. Everyone who was interested in novels would have heard of, or even read Norwegian Wood, so already everyone would have been thinking the same thing. And secondly, the character who says this line is Nagasawa, who is the most insufferable character in this book.

But, these teenage Singaporean students in the early-2010s, how could they, or how were they grasping a novel that was written in the 80s and set in the late 60s?

How would I have understood Norwegian Wood at 19 instead of 29?

Without having read all the light novels with 'manic pixie dream girls'?

Without having watched Casablanca, or knowing who Humphrey Bogart is?

Without having read The Great Gatsby and its equally forlorn narrator in Nick Carroway?

Without having been to Japan and walking through the streets and locations in Tokyo: Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ueno?

Without having bought my own turntable, playing records softly in the middle of the night?

Without having experienced the intimate and passionate warmth and touch of another?

Would it all have been like reading a fantasy novel of faraway people and larger than life characters?

Because as someone in my early-30s reading Toru, a 40-year plus character recounting his early-20s, I feel like I understand Murakami's words all too well, but at the same time at an extreme distance. Like I'm constructing my version of Norwegian Wood using scrap memories from unrelated parts of my own life.

As I listen to the Beatles' Norwegian Wood, a new memory enters my life. More likely than not, it's going to be a fleeting one. I remember things a lot less clearly now than I used to, and it scares me a little sometimes, just like how the novel begins.

I don't know who'd I'd address this letter to. But I just might address it to me in the future when I have forgotten.

[papayas-yum]

A Review of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Just about every time there was a woman introduced in this novel, I felt more and more disappointed. It just reminded that men view women in a different light; it's almost like women aren't even people, what with the way that these female characters were all presented/portrayed.

I didn't like the unnatural dependency that all of these women had to the protagonist. To me, Naoko, one of the lead female characters, didn't serve much of a purpose because of the fact that the majority of her storyline was still clinging to Toru (protagonist). I felt like almost no part of her was separate from the male protagonist, and in some ways, I got the feeling that she wasn't really a character, but something of an object to Toru.

Midori wasn't her own character either, because throughout the entire she was just sexualized to the point where I can't even pick out a discernable personality trait of Midori herself. Her only dialogues are about sex and her body, there's one scene where she basically begs Toru to think of her while he does jerks off. There's a scene where she tells Toru about getting naked in front of a shrine of her recently deceased father, that I thought was unnecessary (or at least, I couldn't find a purpose for it). She's not her own person; she also has an odd fixation with Toru, like Naoko; whenever I think of either her or Midori, I also have to think of Toru because I felt like they were so intertwined (and not in a good way).

Reiko, the only other relevant character, is a character I was initially interested in when reading NW, and I wish that there was more exploration to her. The one thing I didn't really like was that her SA was explained in detail, which I found kind of unnecessary. I feel like there's no good reason to graphically explain or describe SA. And she too was weirdly attached to Toru. (and the last scene she was in with Toru threw me so off guard because I didn't see the point in it).

Mieko Kawakami (author) pointed out in this interview to Murakami that women in his novels seem to be stuck into an overtly sexual role, no matter what sort of character they're supposed to be. I haven't read other Murakami books, so I can't say that much on them, but it looks like the portrayal of women isn't too different from NW. And while it's true that Naoko and Midori and Reiko each have their own internal turmoils that are mentioned in NW, but I can't help but notice that those struggles are overshadowed by their sexualization and attachment to Toru.

I guess it really sounds like I hated NW, and to some extent, I did, but I guess "disliked some aspects of it" works better. I did really like the writing, and how this was a sort of exploration of loss and grief and depression and the character's inner struggles, but I can't just overlook the way these women were written. It was so odd, and I won't lie, it grossed me out.

NOTE: I'm not good at reviewing; in fact, I'm kind of bad at it. I just wanted to talk about how I feel about books I read because it's fun lols, so take this with grain of salt (or many).

quote I liked lols: "I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it—to be fed so much love I couldn't take anymore. Just once."

[projecthipster]

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami

This portrait of May Kasahara is by the brilliant but sadly seemingly forgotten blog Art for every page of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

“The point is, not to resist the flow. You go up when you're supposed to go up and down when you're supposed to go down. When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top. When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom. When there's no flow, stay still. If you resist the flow, everything dries up. If everything dries up, the world is darkness.”

This is a book about a man who gets so sad that he decides to sit in a hole. And then it starts getting weird. It never really stops, and it never really ties everything together, but it does barrel toward a conclusion that feels appropriate for reasons that can’t entirely be explained. There’s a sense of cohesion in a mirrory sense, if not in a mystery-solved sense. There are flashbacks to the Second World War in Manchuria that read like entirely different, vaguely related short stories. Those are interesting, but also the parts that drag the most.

The truth is, it's a little difficult to describe what The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is, because it's so much that I hardly remember most of it. This was my second Murakami book, after Norwegian Wood, which was a thematically interesting but generally pretty low-key drama. Wind-up Bird starts on that same foot, following an unemployed Murakami Protagonist Man, here named Toru Okada, who, like the rest of his Murakami Protagonist Man kin, spends his days in suburban Tokyo cooking pasta, drinking beer, listening to jazz, feeling generally melancholy, and having less than exemplary and realistic relationships with the women in his life. His cat, named after his evil politician brother-in-law, has run away, and his wife Kumiko soon follows. There's a well in an abandoned neighbouring house, which he discovers alongside a death-fascinated teenager (see header picture.) Various conversations with strange women and old soldiers occur. Toru realizes that meditating in a hole might open other worlds to him. The reader, at least this reader, only realizes the significance of this later, that this man who so subverts the heroic masculine ideal in his generally passivity here becomes important for his inherent talent for being passive, as Toru is swept up in a secret conspiracy, dating back to the horrors of the war, to enter a spirit realm where the forces of good and evil are more fundamental, and therein defeat evil in a crucial battle. That makes it sound like a high fantasy novel, which it's not, except in the sense that it maybe kind of is.

What it is is dreamlike, esoteric, meandering, and hard to recommend or understand. You just have to, like, experience it, man, which is a very hipster thing to say, and I think that may be why this book more than other Murakami (but as well as most Murakami) is on hipster lists.

Read this if you have a lot of time, a missing cat, and a deep hole to sit in.

I give this hipster book four disillusioned wanders through city streets out of five.

Project Hipster is a futile and disorganized attempt to dive into the world of things that the internet has at some point claimed "are hipster," mostly through ListChallenges search results.

This review comes from the first list, Hipster Lit: If You Haven't Read 'em, Pretend You Have.

Stay deck.

[polly-chan]

Norwegian Wood novel follows Tori Watanabe, a college student in Tokyo exploring themes such loss, love and loneliness. It is different from other Murakami’s works since it involves no magical element. The book explores isolation and disaffection.

Here some thoughts about the final chapter - Spoiler Alert 🚨

Toru does not understand where he is, surrounded by many people and scared he decides to stay on the phone. This represents a desire to overcome loneliness and live.

I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it -- to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once.

- Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

[ichigotia]

recent reads !

— [♡]; long time no see on this silly blog :) i was in a reading slump for all of february and most of march, but i have since gotten out of it :) i recently declared as an english major so now i'm double majoring in education and english ! people in my life haven't been surprised, it's like finding a fork in a kitchen but i'm very excited hehe,, anyways ! here are some of the most notable books i’ve read these past few months !

lonely castle in the mirror - mizuki tsujimura

i've heard so many good things about this book, and while i thought it was really good, i felt like i had an inkling of what the plot twist was going to end up being. regardless, i liked the characters and i liked how the story as a whole ended! it felt like a bunch of thread being woven together and then the end product was a little square of cloth that is this book :) tldr 4.5/5

the woman destroyed - simone de beauvoir

this book was good overall, as a woman myself, i get it. this book consists of three separate stories, and the last one that the book is named after is one of my favorite things that i've read. beauvoir does so well in encapsulating the feeling of knowing you have been wronged, but being unable to refrain from inevitably placing the blame on yourself. tldr 4.5/5

breasts and eggs - mieko kawakami

i'm a big fan of kawakami and i had high hopes for this book and they were very much met and exceeded. kawakami is able to address the intersections that come up in one's experience of being a woman. i just love kawakami's way of story building in general, so this book is one of my new favorites. tldr 5/5

norwegian wood - haruki murakami

i was so excited to finally get my hands on one of murakami’s works, but i just couldn’t get through this book. the edition that i have has such a small print and each page is packed so it feels unnecessarily long and i could barely make it past a hundred pages before i had to completely give up on finishing the rest of it. murakami’s often referenced in other books i read and his work is fairly acclaimed but i couldn’t stand this book and i regret buying it during one of my barnes and noble trips ! i don’t remember the names of any characters except that the main character, who i was able to remember only because his name is toru and i love toru oikawa from haikyuu. but this toru seems very flat, i dislike how murakami creates women characters, his writing style is generally not for me, and above all i hate the sexual conversations he sneaks in periodically. i plan on selling this book to one of my local second hand bookstores and most likely staying away from murakami’s works in the near future. tldr 0/5 dnf :/

dogs of summer - andrea abreu

i don't know what i expected when i started this book. i read this book in its entirety on my commute to and from uni, and i found myself grimacing on the train during some parts. this book was such a real experience that i know i'm going to be thinking about years down the line. it's such a brutally true and authentic perspective of girlhood. tldr 4/5 + make sure to check trigger warnings

[nathansjapanblog]

Reflections on a Year of Reading Japanese Literature

Books read : “Geisha, A Life” by Mineko Iwasaki, “I Am A Cat” by Natsume Sōseki, “Norwegian Wood” by Haruki Murakami, “The Tale of Genji” by Lady Murasaki, "Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter" by Shoko Tendo, “The Reason I Jump” by Naoki Higashida, “The Last Samurai the Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori” by Mark Ravina

I learned about the mountain systems in Japan from “Norwegian Wood”. In chapter 6, Toru is hiking to visit Naoko in a sanatorium called Ami Hostel. When I think of mountains, I think of an uninhabitable area, surrounded by patches of uneven land, and unlivable conditions. But, knowing that there’s a sanatorium so deep within the mountain range, I was proven wrong. When I think of buildings outside of urban areas, I think of run-down houses eroded away over time, but knowing that there are people able to live in a building so far in the mountains, and it’s easily accessible by outside people proven by Toru, I see mountains as a habitable place, with necessary resources such as food and water, instead of a cruel and harsh place.

I learned about the Meiji Restoration in “The Last Samurai the Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori”. The book itself is a biography about Saigo Takamori and I learned that the Meiji Restoration was what marked the end of the samurai class in Japan. At first, I thought that samurai were just figures of fiction, but after reading it I learned that they were an actual class, which was later made obsolete by the Meiji Restoration. This caused Saigo to lead the rebellion against Japan’s modernization and resulted in his death on the battlefield, which marked the end of feudalism, and the beginning of modern-day Japan. A quote that I liked that shows this is, “Old Japan and new Japan had met in battle. Old Japan had lost.”, on the second page of the book.

I was really surprised with what I learned from “Geisha, A Life”. More specifically, how exploitative and predatory Japan’s geisha industry and culture is. Young teenagers are taken in by Geisha houses and are trained to become one. Compared to here in the United States where you’d still be required to attend school, Geishas dedicate themselves to their careers, sacrificing their academic career to learn the way of the Geisha. Mineko is a prime example of this. Auntie Oima had asked Mineko’s father to give up his daughter to her, to become her successor. Instead of being at the age of a teenager when most people make this choice, this was when Mineko was even younger, around the ages of 3-6. I still can’t understand how they can expect someone of that age to make such a difficult decision to leave their family, to pursue training for a job. Although Mineko didn’t train in her early years, it’s still a very difficult decision that adults would struggle to make, and she was still that young. Even more tragic is how many daughters her father lost multiple of his daughters to this industry. Mineko was not the first.

I’ve learned multiple lessons throughout this year of reading Japanese literature. From “Geisha, A Life”, I’ve learned that hard work triumphs over all. The author, Mineko Iwasaki was the most famous, and highest-grossing Geisha, however, that didn’t come without difficulties. Even though she did have a strong start in her career by becoming the Maiko of Auntie Oima, she still had to work hard for the status that she holds today. From “I Am A Cat”, I learned that things that may appear strange to us might be completely normal to someone else. In the book, we look at society from a cat’s perspective, and the cat is perplexed by the things that appear as normal day-to-day life to us, but when looked at by a cat, we're strange to them. In “Norwegian Wood” I learned that suicide not only kills you, it kills everyone around you too. Toru was deeply affected by his friend Kizuki’s suicide, and it affected him for years to come throughout his life. By taking your own life, it also takes the lives of the people around you who care about you. I didn’t read much of “The Tale of Genji”, but what I learned from the beginning is that reputation is built off habits, not actions. Genji had a high status to be upheld, even being called “Genji, the Shining One ''. With such a status, he must carry himself with dignity and grace at all times. It’s not a singular action that he does that makes him be viewed in a positive light by many, it’s the repeated actions and habits that he builds to show that he’s a good person, which can apply to anyone. In “Yakuza Moon: Memoirs of a Gangster's Daughter" I learned that redemption will never be off the table. Throughout the book, we can see the author Shoko reflecting multiple times on her life, and she still goes deeper and deeper into darkness and continues doing bad stuff. By the end of the book, however, we can see that she got married, and is living happily. She had redeemed herself. In “The Reason I Jump” I learned that understanding each other always gets us closer to one another. The author of the book, Naoki, is a person with autism. There’s not a real central plot to the book, but it’s just him answering questions about how he perceives the world. Similar to the thematic statement previously mentioned in “I Am A Cat” understanding one another can lead us to being closer to one another. Things might appear weird to us, but we don’t know how normal it can be for them. Finally, in “The Last Samurai the Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori '' I learned that the old will sometimes be missed. In the short section of the book that I have read, the Meiji Restoration overall made Japan a stronger and a prominent world power, but it brought the end of Feudalism. With the end of Feudalism, multiple people were affected negatively, such as the samurai, who had lost their status. Even though overall, the new was better, many people will still miss the old Japan.

I learned that fiction books don’t appeal to me as much as nonfiction books. Throughout the year I have tried to read multiple fictional books, but ironically the only ones I was able to finish were nonfiction. Every single book that I had dropped throughout the year had been fiction except for one that didn’t have an overall story. I don’t know why I don’t like fictional books, even though I enjoy a good story whether it be on TV or reading a comic, but something about just pure words being a fictional story doesn’t allow me to fully immerse myself in it, even though that’s the author's main purpose of writing a story.

(WORD COUNT: 1,105)

[ninolloween]

Review of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

When I started Norwegian Wood, I was taken away immediately. I picked up this book at a time in my life when the premise of Toru’s story closely matched my own. I was 19 and about to turn 20 in one of the world’s biggest cities. And worse, I was in love. Love with complications.

 I fell in love with Murakami’s writing from the very first chapter. I recall a specific passage from the first few pages when Watanabe is reminiscing the days he’d spent with the girl he loved 18 years ago. 

“I didn't give a damn about the scenery that day. I was thinking about myself. I was thinking about the beautiful girl walking next to me. I was thinking about the two of us together, and then about myself again. I was at that age, that time of life when every sight, every feeling, every thought came back, like a boomerang, to me. And worse, I was in love. Love with complications. Scenery was the last thing on my mind.” 

This passage was beyond beautiful to me, I recall reading it over and over when I first laid my eyes on it. I had been listening to Clair de Lune as loud as humanly possible in my ears. The sun had finally come out in London and the girl I loved was sleeping beside me. I had shut off anything but the music and the book in front of me.

Throughout my experience reading this book, I tried relentlessly to chase this feeling again, and Murakami’s writing and prose in the earlier chapters definitely got the feeling close. I loved hearing about Toru settling into university with Storm-trooper and hearing him speak of Kizuki, Naoko and their history. I could sense all of the potential paths this book could explore with their love and mental states after Kizuki’s death; and how Midori’s presence later in the book would affect this. 

However, I have not been more disappointed with a story before in such a long time. 

There were so many hopes I was not aware I had until after the book disappointed them. 

I think the book began to deteriorate once Naoko went away to the mental facility. Because at this point, the book began to lose the dynamic that made it the most intriguing. Now, I’m aware Norwegian Wood isn’t a novel about the love between Naoko and Toru, it’s a novel about Toru remembering his life 18 years ago. And Naoko is only supposed to be a chapter, albeit a significant one, in the novel retelling his younger days. 

But it seems like the more I repeat this to myself the more confused I am with Murakami’s vision with this story. Because frankly, Toru simply is not a character written well enough to justify a novel retelling his younger days from his perspective alone. And I think that is the main issue I have with this novel. Where Toru resembles the flatness of a street built of gravel, Murakami wants us to believe he is a mountain that scrapes the skies. 

I initially thought it was intentional how Toru seems to revolve his entire life around the women he meets. For the first half of the novel we get a glimpse at Toru’s university life. I enjoyed reading his conflicted view on the political groups in his student group and his interactions with storm trooper were filled with so much chemistry. I was crossing my fingers that he’d become a main character and perhaps Murakami could explore their friendship and how it could parallel him and Kizuki. I was beyond excited! 

But, to my disappointment, Storm trooper just flat out left their university and never appeared again. And any sort of conflict to do with his university is written with no more complexity than a simple “this thing happened, and this is how i felt I guess”

 If Toru Watanabe isn’t writing a letter to Naoko, thinking about Naoko’s breasts, thinking about Midori’s breasts or spending time with either of them, he is doing the most mundane things imaginable. And every time I notice this, I wonder why Murakami decided to base a whole novel off of him.

For me, Naoko was the novel's central character. The novel is literally titled after Naoko's favourite song, which should be sufficient proof, but to each their own. She was a character that was the centre and heart of the novel. A heart submerged by darkness beneath a vast ocean, the only light that ever lets it be seen being cast from Toru. And this is what disappointed me the most about this novel.

Despite thinking that the portrayal of her mental health wasn’t exactly the best, I was still so intrigued to read of her inner thoughts whenever she wrote to Watanabe. But, we never get to see this side of her unless she is writing to him. This would not be a problem in itself however, if it wasn’t for the absolute letdown of a lead that Toru is. 

Naoko was Kizuki's girlfriend when he died. She and Watanabe both felt a strong connection to him and travelled to Tokyo for the same reason: to escape the town where he died and everyone they knew. But, unlike Toru, Naoko harbours a mental illness she suffered from since before Kizuki’s passing. I mentioned how her sudden disappearance was when the novel began to disappoint me. But I think it is because of the wasted potential in exploring more about Naoko. Instead of seeing how Naoko dealt with the death of her lover, after dealing with the death of her sister. Then sleeping with your lover’s best friend on your 20th birthday, an event that caused a commotion so wide she had to leave the city without notice to recover. 

I really wanted to learn about her mental condition and inner dialogue. Not only would this have been a well-deserved respite from Toru's point of view, but it might have effectively looked into the novel's themes of adulthood and mental health.

Instead, we get an in-depth account of Toru's travel to the site, with Naoko only interested in how many women he has slept with. We hear a lot about Naoko's condition through Reiko, but we only see it through Toru's eyes. And it appears like sleeping with Naoko is Toru's top priority. The same appears to be true for Murakami.

I cannot think of any reason other than Toru is supposed to be a self insert character that young men without a girlfriend in their early uni days should imagine themselves as. Because the way that every woman Toru interacts with has their bodies so sexualised for absolutely no reason must have been intentional right? But, after some research, a lot of people agree that this aspect is just a Murakami aspect. As all of his novels include this issue. 

However, I think this could be easily fixed. If I were to have been Haruki Murakami’s editor in 1985 I’d have suggested he remove so many of the chapters of Toru's everyday life and perhaps include a few chapters exploring the other characters further from their own perspectives. This would’ve been the most logical solution, to be able to see how others perceive Toru, especially Naoko during her days in the mental facility, would’ve been a page turner for me. 

There are many other topics I'd want to point out, but these are the ones that I'm most strongly invested in. I tried so hard to fall in love with this book. But I couldn't.

1/5 Stars.

[stonewallsposts]

December 2023 Reading  

I've finished up the year having read 71 books. 10 in this month alone.

Io non ho paura- Niccolò Ammaniti  (2011) 

One of my favorite Italian stories so far. The story covers Michele, a young boy in a fictitious small farming village in southern Italy. One day, through a dare, he finds what he thinks is a dead body in an abandoned house, but doesn't tell anyone. He goes back to confirm this and finds the boy is alive, but barely intelligible. At first, he imagines the boy might be a secret sibling, but before he can tell his father, he sees a news story about a kidnapped child, and he recognizes the boy as the same one he found. 

He tries to befriend the boy, but the captive is malnourished and not making sense. He tries to bring him food each day, but this is difficult with the intrusion in his home of an outsider that is speaking secretively with his father. Michele begins to wonder if his parents are involved with the kidnapping. 

One day, he admits his secret to his best-friend, who immediately betrays him. His parents protect him, but admonish him that he can never go see the boy again or the boy will be killed. At some point, Michele knows things aren't working out with negotiations, and the police are closing in....and in an effort to save the boy, he helps him out of captivity. But as he helps him out, the captors arrive and it is Michele's father who shoots Michele, not knowing it was his own son down in the hole. 

The Italians- John Hooper  (2015) 

John Hooper is an English writer that has lived in Italy for many years. He brings his personal experience as well as his knowledge of Italy's history to explain, from his angle, why things in Italy are as they are.  

Norwegian Wood- Haruki Murakami  (1987) 

A story of love and loss set in 1969-1970. Toru and Naoko are two young students love each other, while sharing the loss of a loved one- Kizuki, Toru's best-friend and Naoko's boyfriend. Toru and Naoko fall in love, but can't get past the loss. 

The War of the Worlds- H.G. Wells  (1898) 

A well-known story that I finally decided to read in the original. Martian invaders come to earth and overpower the earthling's technology... then die from pathogens that they weren't used to. 

The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood  (1985) 

I was not a huge fan of this book. I didn't care for the writing style, which I found kind of choppy and difficult to follow.  

The Secret History- Donna Tartt  (1992) 

The story of six classical studies students in a small Vermont college, who, when trying to experience a drug-fueled bacchanal, end up killing a local farmer. The aftermath brings out different qualities of each of the students and there are lasting effects of their attempt at reviving an ancient cultic rite. 

The Time Machine- H.G. Wells  (1895) 

Another well-known story that I wanted to read in the original. The time traveler goes to the distant future only to find that rather than a more developed mankind, there has been a devolution and a split of mankind into Eloi- the descendants of an upper-class, and Morlocks- the descendants of the working-class, who had been forced underground. An interesting quote towards the end, as he considers the situation: "I grieved to think how brief the dream of the human intellect had been. It had committed suicide. It had set itself steadfastly towards comfort and ease, a balanced society with security and permanency as its watchword, it had attained its hopes- to come to this at last. It is a law of nature that we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal in perfect harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no need of intelligence when there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers." 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz- L. Frank Baum  (1900) 

Another well-known story that I thought I'd read in the original. This telling is somewhat different than the movie version I grew up with. The story starts the same with a tornado, and Dorothy being carried away to Oz. There the house lands on the wicked witch of the east. She sets off towards Oz to meet the wizard who she is told can get her back to Kansas. She picks up the scarecrow, tinman, and Lion on the way. On the way they go through the Poppy field. They reach Oz and the wizard tells each of them that they must kill the wicked witch of the west before he/she/it will help them. They go to the west and the witch sends wolves, crows, and bees against them, but our heroes defeat them all. Finally she dispatches the flying monkies, who bring the group to her, but they are unable to touch Dorothy due to her silver slippers and the mark of the kiss from the good witch. But Dorothy is unaware of her untouchability, and the witch tricks her into submission. At one point, the witch does manage to steal one of Dorothy's shoes, but Dorothy, in a fit of anger, tosses a bucket of water on her and kills her. 

She returns to Oz only to find the wizard is a fraud. But he was originally from Omaha, and got there by a balloon, so he decides to try returning by balloon. Dorothy, however, misses getting in, and the wizard and balloon leave without her. She is desperate and is told that perhaps Glinda, the good witch of the South could help her. She leaves to find Glinda and is presented with several obstacles along the way: trees that attack, a land full of china figurines, a forest under threat from a giant spider, and a hill defended by Hammer-heads, creatures with no arms, that knock others over with their heads. 

They finally arrive at Glinda's castle, where Glinda uses her power to grant each of the companions their wishes, and finally tells Dorothy that all she had to do was click the heels of her shoes together and take three steps to go wherever she wants. She thus returns to Kansas. 

The Tenent of Wildfell Hall- Anne Brontë  (1848) 

Great book about a young woman who arrives with a secret past. The story reveals that she married believing she could change a profligate but charming man, but found out through hard experience that she could not. Having united herself to him though, she was essentially without rights. The story chronicles societal mindsets about the dual standards of acceptable behavior for men and women, and how very toxic traits are fostered and perpetuated.  

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?- Philip K. Dick  (1968) 

As the book cover advertises, it's the inspiration for the movie series The Blade Runner. The story covers a bounty hunter's progress eliminating 6 escaped androids. These androids are a highly advanced type that are very difficult to detect, but the one thing androids can't do is show empathy, which is considered a purely human trait. I suppose the story could essentially said to be about what makes us human. One of the central elements of the novel's post-nuclear war setting is that most animal life has been wiped out, and any animals, even down to insects, are revered as highly prized pets. This human identification with organic life is something the androids, simulated to appear as human as possible to the outside observers, can't appreciate. 

[pen2print]

Haruki Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood is a 1987 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The novel is a nostalgic story of loss. It is told from the first-person perspective of Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his days as a college student living in Tokyo. “Haruki Murakami’s ‘Norwegian Wood’ is a novel that transcends mere storytelling, delving deep into the recesses of the human soul. Set against the backdrop of…

[itisdreamcatcher]

hiii

hru?

i saw that norweigan wood by murakami is ur fav book.¿ i've been debating with myself on whether i should read murakami or not so its always interesting when i find someone that has read his work. what made you want to pick up noreeigan wood, if u dont mind me asking? :)

hi!

I'm busying myself with everything possible (slipping back into reading after a bit of a slump!)

how are you? <3

I must preface this by saying, that people usually start with Norwegian Wood because it's the easiest to get into Murakami's works if you start it with that but it is no easy read, by any mean

So, he focuses his writing on magical realism. But, this genre is somewhat fluid, I'd say, since his novels range from fantasy to non-fiction, which is always fascinating. Magical realism is usually characterised by the inclusion of fantastical elements in fiction that appears realistic but, it's a little bit of a different story for Norwegian Wood.

This book was so simple, simply written, yet so powerful which is always interesting to me, since it has many layers. The movie (the bits I've seen and the ppl's critiques) portrayed the book to be a love story which simply doesn't cut it in my eyes.

Some would say the main theme of the book is love. I disagree. I'd say it's discusses how to live with loss and pain. How not to drown in the abyss of emotions. How not to get consumed. Especially since the book is basically introspective, dealing with the pain associated with losing a loved one. - not talking about the characters or the exact plot since I do not wish to spoil you but! Trigger warning!!! Read them!!!

CW/TW: alcohol use, death of a loved one, mental illnesses, sexual content, suicide, depression, lesbophobia, sexual harassment

It's a heavy read. I had moments when I needed to put it down simply because of the empathy towards the characters and the pain I felt with them. Since you'd be reading it, you'd basically live through everything Toru Watanabe's going through. And man, oh man, it's a lot.

Note - the female characters are written by a man. Beware. I felt more connected to the main character, a guy - Watanabe, than any female character. They just... didn't click to me and they were 2D in my mind. But, considering the time when it was written, by whom and with what knowledge and experience, I understand. (I always consider author's personal biography when analysing the book and thinking about the plot)

Considering the book explores the concept of loss and the need to overcome one's struggles with grief, there are many great plots. Two of many them are...

“What happens when people open their hearts?"

“They get better.”

And...

“Despite your best efforts, people are going to be hurt when it's time for them to be hurt.”

If you feel like you could stomach it, if the book wouldn't harm you mentally or, if you could take it slowly, reading it slowly to process everything (bc it's worth it, at least to me), then I suggest you start reading it with an open heart, understanding mind and critical eye

I picked up Norwegian Wood in 2021 because I was getting into somewhat classics and Murakami seemed interesting so, instead of snatching it from the school's library in my mother tongue, I decided to read it in English. I do not regret that decision.

Again, brilliant book, but beware of the TW and the lack of depth in female characters. All in all, I could look past it and I'm not easily trigger so, it was a good read for me.

If you decide to read it, do write to me! I cannot wait to hear your thoughts on the book ☀️

[glenrocklibraryteens]

Book Review/Norwegian Wood

Book review: Norwegian wood

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Page number: 390 Genres: Coming of Age, Literary Fiction Rating: 5 stars Reviewer: Miranda Garcia-Galvez

Norwegian Wood follows Toru, a serious college student studying in Tokyo, who’s completely in love with Naoko, a beautiful but troubled young woman. However strong their mutual devotion may be, its inevitably tainted by the death of their best friend years prior. As Naoko retreats into the “comfort” of her own mind, Toru meets a vibrant, unusual young woman who takes an interest in him. With this story, Murakami paints a picture filled with nostalgia, sorrow, and hopeless love.

Words cannot begin to describe what an extraordinary triumph Norwegian Wood is. As my first Murakami book, I had no idea what to expect. I had heard he was a renowned author of various genres, but that was it. However, I was more than satisfied by even the middle of the book. The story starts with Toru, our protagonist, in his 40s and arriving at Hamburg Airport. As the song Norwegian Wood floods the plane on a cold, rainy November day, Toru’s mind floods with nostalgic memories of his early twenties in 60s Tokyo. From there, we are transported to a story of addicting, easy-to-get-lost dialogue and endless waves of nostalgia through Toru’s eyes. Norwegian Wood’s representation of loss and grief, and its impact on a person’s psyche and relationships, couldn’t have been communicated better. The novel leaves readers enraptured, grief-stricken, and absolutely dumbfounded throughout its course. Having devoured this book in two days, I can definitively say this book is worth it for those who love truly real depictions of humans in every sense.

Norwegian Wood Playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yfrcND2bRxwsquuYLoySH?si=HTFPqXANTd6B_Yq-PlywEg

Norwegian Wood by The Beatles: Despite being the obvious title of the book, this song, as the readers will learn, has emotional ties to Toru and Naoko.

And I Love Her by The Beatles: This song is a clear representation of the era when most of the story is told, as well as Toru’s infatuation with Naoko.

I Want Someone Badly by Jeff Buckley: This song embodies the yearning and loneliness that Toru has been feeling since the start of the novel.

We’ll Meet Again (Cover) by She & Him: I imagine that Toru would say these lyrics to Naoko on more than one occasion, and the feel of the song also fits the novel perfectly.

I’ll Be Seeing You by Billie Holiday: this song perfectly represents how Toru and Naoko must feel in their grief about Kizuki, especially Naoko who is consumed by depression.

[darkacademiacathedral]

I want to spend some time talking about Murakami's Norwegian Wood.

It would be an understatement to claim that this book is a mood of its own. Rather, I would dare to say that it is a whole range of moods compiled into one volume. There are so many hard-relates packed into this one volume of 400 pages. It is at once a book about mental health, dark academia (or maybe academia in general), erotica, human experience, and lazing around.

This book has a lot of nothing much happening, which I have come to realise and accept, is my favorite kind of fiction. Whether it was Mrs. Dalloway's reveries on the past, or the paralysis of the Dubliners, I enjoyed the nothingness, or the sheer plotlessness of these books by Virginia Woolf and James Joyce respectively.

Now I haven't finished Norwegian Wood yet, but I am at least deep enough into the book to be able to expect a discernible plot — but it is mostly vignettes from the first-person character Toru Watanabe's life. This doesn't take away from the book at all, rather places it in a different category of its own.

We find Watanabe deal with unexpected flings, and unplanned encounters with zany characters such as Storm Trooper, Midori, and Reiko. We find him occasionally reading fiction that we recognise, such as Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain and Faulkner's Light in August. We see him do all sorts of ordinary things, yet we find him to be detached from humanity. He is oddly Christ-like, uncannily good-natured, and strangely free from trouble.

The heart of humanity is not present in Watanabe's character at all; he seems almost robotic, like an automaton doing things he's programmed to do. Rather, the humanity of Murakami's masterpiece comes from the events and people that surround this character: the hypocritical revolutionaries, the card-carrying fanatics, the crippled and the ailing, the welcoming friend who is also a nymphomaniac, and those many people in Tokyo going about their daily business.

I really am enjoying this book, and I don't want it to end so soon.