The first thing I should say about my reading of Norwegian Wood was that in a single particular it was not faithful to the Japanese print run, which is that mine was a single printed and bound edition, and not the red-half, green-half you might come across.... having got that out of the way, ... Read review
"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" "Norwegian Wood" (Lennon/McCartney). ... more
With Norwegian Wood Murakami, best known as the author of off-kilter classics such as the Wind Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard Boiled Wonderland, ...
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"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" "Norwegian Wood" ... more
(Lennon/McCartney).WithNorwegian WoodMurakami, best known as the author of off-kilter classics such as theWind Up Bird Chronicle,A Wild Sheep ChaseandHard Boiled Wonderland, finally...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" "Norwegian Wood" (Lennon/McCartney). ... more
With Norwegian Wood Murakami, best known as the author of off-kilter classics such as the Wind Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard Boiled Wonderland, ...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" "Norwegian Wood" ... more
(Lennon/McCartney).WithNorwegian WoodMurakami, best known as the author of off-kilter classics such as theWind Up Bird Chronicle,A Wild Sheep ChaseandHard Boiled Wonderland, finally...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Toru Watanabe is looking back on the love and passions of his life and trying to make ... more
sense of it all. As his first love Naoko sinks deeper into mental despair, he is inexorably pushed to find a new meaning and a new love in order to survive.
"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" "Norwegian Wood" (Lennon/McCartney). ... more
With Norwegian Wood Murakami, best known as the author of off-kilter classics such as the Wind Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard Boiled Wonderland, finally achieved widespread acclaim in his native Japan. The novel sold upwards of 4 million copies and forced the author to retreat to Europe, fearful of the expectations accompanying his new-found cult status.The novel is atypical for Murakami: seemingly autobiographical, in the tradition of many Japanese "I" novels, Norwegian Wood is a simple coming of age tale set, primarily, in 1969/70, the time of Murakami's own university years. The political upheavals and student strikes of the period form the backdrop of the novel but the focus here is the young Watanabe's love affairs and the pain (and pleasure) of growing up with all its attendant losses, (self-)obsessions and crises. The novel is split into two volumes and beautifully presented here in a "gold" box containing both the green book and the red book. Young Japanese fans became so obsessed with the work that they would dress entirely in one or other colour denoting which volume they most identified with. And the novel is hugely affecting, reading like a cross between Plath's Bell Jar and Vizinczey's In Praise of Older Women, if less complex and ultimately less satisfying than Murakami's other, more allegorical, work. He captures the huge expectation of youth, and of this particular time in history, for the future and for the place of love in it. He also saturates the work with sadness, an emotion that can cripple a novel but which here underscores the poignancy of the work's rather thin subject matter. --Mark Thwaite
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...say about my reading of Norwegian Wood was that in a single particular it was not faithful to the Japanese print run, which is that mine was a single printed and bound edition, and not the red-half, green-half you might come across.... having got that out of the way, I can tell you about the contents.
Norwegian Wood is a rather condensed moment of poised literary brilliance. I approached it with trepidation, since it was so widely ... ...one hint of coarse sentimentality. Norwegian Wood is moving because it taps into universal experiences; even if you have never been depressed you will certainly be able to identify with some of the emotions laid out in almost excruciating bluntness before you. I'm hesitant to say much more about this; I already wonder if I've said too much about the plot since I approached it knowing nothing but the blurb (I've given you little more than that) and ... more
The first thing I should say about my reading of Norwegian Wood was that in a single particular it was not faithful to the Japanese print run, which is that mine was a single printed and bound edition, and not the red-half, green-half you might come across.... having got that out of the way, I can tell you about the contents.
Norwegian Wood is a rather condensed moment of poised literary brilliance. I approached it with trepidation, since it was so widely lauded and applauded and that, in the spirit of wilful cynicism, always throws a spanner into my appreciative works. But in this case, I was willing to go with the crowd, not in a loud, baying way, because it's simply not the kind of book that I feel merits that kind of reaction; it's a quiet, thoughtful, lyrical read, and as such deserves a quiet, thoughtful, admiring reaction.
This is the story of one or two years in the life of Toru Watanabe, who grew up in 1960s Tokyo. He is sent back there in his memory when he hears his favourite Beatles's song, inextricably linked with his first love, Naoko. The elusive, troubled Naoko is the girlfriend of his beloved best friend, Kizuki... please don't assume there's any dodgy love triangles; it's all far more strange and beautiful than that. Watanabe blunders through his awkward early adulthood, peopled with characters as wide-ranging as the retentive room-mate nicknamed Storm-Trooper and the arch, intelligent Nagasawa, who mistrusts any author not dead for at least 30 years (he makes an exception for Fitzgerald). Then someone else, the sparkling-eyed, rambling and brutally honest Midori, blunders into his...
The first thing to note is that it is largely the simple clarity of the writing that draws you in, even before you know a thing about any of the characters. Everything seems to be the literary equivalent of a rough sketch that in a few straight lines and a scribble suddenly is also self-evidently a very clear image of a particular object. A lot of this can, perhaps, be put down to the translation - or perhaps the Japanese language is naturally economical? I'm in no position to comment on this. But I've chosen a short example to reproduce, just to make my point:
"Streaming in through the window, the moonlight cast long shadows and splashed the walls with a touch of diluted Indian ink. I took a thin metal flask from my rucksack, let my mouth fill with the brandy it contained, allowed the warmth to move slowly down my throat to my stomach, and from there felt it spreading to every extremity."
This mixture of matter-of-factness and almost accidental poetry is the hallmark and heart of the book, and for that alone it is worth reading.
Characterisation is similarly Spartan. People are revealed gently, and only insofar as they need to be. Thus little moments become quite shocking, big surprises occasionally devastating. Whilst the general run of the plot is not unpredictable, it's more the way in which every moment is rendered human and immediate that grips the senses. I read all but 20 pages of the entire book in two train journeys of just over 2 hours, in one day. That's nearly 400 pages of beautifully pitched language, and I enjoyed every minute of devouring it in one bite. And yet the next time I read it, I will probably savour it a lot more, and take in the words all over again; it does deserve that.
Watanabe is not necessarily a particularly sympathetic character, either, deserving the odd kick up the backside for being thoughtless and insensitive. Naoko's vagueness is realistically frustrating, her room-mate Reiko's wicked humour warm and affecting. Midori is a whole bundle of bizarreness, her wittering and bluntness endearing, her family tragedy overwhelming, and her emotional openness stunning and moving.
Murakami's evocative character-scapes take in everything from 60s popular culture, to love, to heartbreak, sex (casual and otherwise, in quite graphic and yet moving detail), strangeness, and of course mental illness. And yet there is not one hint of coarse sentimentality. Norwegian Wood is moving because it taps into universal experiences; even if you have never been depressed you will certainly be able to identify with some of the emotions laid out in almost excruciating bluntness before you. I'm hesitant to say much more about this; I already wonder if I've said too much about the plot since I approached it knowing nothing but the blurb (I've given you little more than that) and it blindsided me with its beauty.
Really, all that's left to say is that if you want to read an intelligent, moving novel full of emotional clarity, economically-observed detail, wit, bizarreness and character, you will find yourself rewarded by this.
The Harvill Press edition of Norwegian Wood bears an interesting translator's note from Jay Rubin, who documents the success of the novel, and the very negative impact it had on its reserved creator.
Advantages: Powefully written, mind-altering stuff... Disadvantages: Not consistently gripping stuff...
...hold of my copy of Norwegian Wood for 99p and bought it partly because I never turn down a cheap read! I thought, for 99p, I couldn't really go wrong. Besides which, the 'blurb' intrigued me. I am glad I have read Murakami's cult classic, and yet, whether I would have bought it full price I really couldn't say.
The novel focuses on the complicated and sometimes head-spinningly disturbing and emotionally (and physically) raw world of young student ... ...melancholy song Norwegian Wood he is transported back to his student days in Tokyo; 'A world of friendships, sex, loss and desire.' And this clever packaging is what attracted me to the novel. Without giving too much away, Murakami's novel is really a love story. There are no complex plot intricacies and for those who like their action over sentiment, the novel would not be a great choice. It is about Watanabe's difficulties reconciling his future ...
lizzie_haycocks 03.09.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Advantages: Beautifully written, intriguing, wonderfully presented Disadvantages: Not as surreal as other Murakami works
They say you should never judge a book by it's cover, but it's hard when a particular gimmick you notice is 2 pocket size books - one red, one green - inside a bronze case. This is originally how Haruki Murakami's 'Norwegian Wood' was marketed to the British - a decade delayed replication of how it was introduced to his native Japan in '87.
There was even a £75 edition where the hard case was replaced by tin...A difference from the bordering Mills ... ...books now appear in and feature in poster campaigns.
No matter how you dress it up though, a good book is a good book. 4 million Japanese readers thought so, turning Murakami into a J.K. Rowling figure in his native Japan. The success was overwhelming in that it made him flee to America for a decade. Not that translations into other languages for the Truman Capote (he translated his works into Japanese) and renowned Jazz fan were any less successful.
...
mo79 07.12.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Advantages: The most prettily packaged book I've seen in ages Disadvantages: It drivels on
This book - or should I say 'books' - was bought for me as a present. It sold several million copies in Japan and became a cult classic.
For reasons best known to the publisher, the original version, and the one I got, was published in two small volumes - even though there is no significant break in the story to justify it - which are then sold in a box. It looks really nice.
Our hero, Watanabe, hears the Beatles 'Norwegian Wood' at an airport ... ...his life, things he has done, people he has known and so on.
I was - hey, I still am - a Beatles fan. And John Lennon was my No 1. But there are two songs of his I can stand because they are just a bit too maudlin. They are 'Imagine' and 'Norwegian Wood'.
This book is like that. All the ingrediants are there. This man is obviously a good writer. But this just isn't a good book. It's dull.
Why didn't the guy hear 'In My Life' at the airport? The ...
qbob 19.04.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Advantages: an interesting book Disadvantages: not the best by Murakami though
When I read Norwegian Wood I had already read The Wind up Bird Chronicle and loved it. So I was a little bit disappointed because I did not find in Norwegian Wood the fantastic and surrealistic atmosphere I found In the former book. Anyhow, Norwegian Wood is a book to be read by those who are searching. I find that the reader might sympathise with the characters... who are each one of them in search of their own life and personality. All of it with ...
aristocat 29.11.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
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Advantages: Extremely vivid surreal world. Disadvantages: Sometimes a bit slow and attention sapping.
'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman' is a collection of short stories written by HarukiMurakami; well known Japanese author with works such as 'Kafka on the Shore', NorwegianWood' and 'After Dark'.
Firstly a bit about the author; HarukiMurakami was born on the 12th January, 1949 in Kyoto. He became a national celebrity after the publication of his novel 'NorwegianWood' in 1987. Since then he has famously alternated between writing short stories and novels, as well as translating many important works into Japanese, such as F.Scott Fitzgerald and John Irving. He also won the Yomiuri Literary prize, whose previous recipients include Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe.
Now for the book; 'Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman' was published in English in 2006 available as an audio book or in print and contains 24 stories, including all five of T ...
Product Information for "Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami" »
Product details
Type
Fiction
Genre
Modern Fiction
Title
Norwegian Wood
Author
Haruki Murakami
ISBN
0099448823; 0870119435; 1860468004; 1860468098
Manufacturer's product description
When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire - to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past. See all Product Description
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