Book Review; Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Read: 21/6/21 - 16/7/21Format: PhysicalSpoiler free: YesMy rating: ★★★★½
.｡*⋆⍋* Norwegian Wood • Review *⍋⋆*｡.
“𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 ? 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘣 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩. 𝘔𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘨𝘰, 𝘸𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴.”
I found I had to take frequent breaks while reading this book, maybe to disassociate myself from the story. This to me reflects one of Murakami’s greatest talents: his ability to portray raw emotion through his characters. I also often happened to be travelling while reading which fit the story’s displaced feeling very well.
Throughout the entirety of the novel we uncover very few details about our main protagonist, Toru. He is simple and clean, like a blank canvas. He could be anyone, he could be you, the reader. This portrayal, paired with the strong symbolism of loss and nature, sculpts a hauntingly relatable world such that I ended up needing to take refuge in other stories while reading!
The representation of women and sex wasn’t amazing, nor was it accurate, but I don’t think it was supposed to be. The story is told as a first person narrative from a Japanese adolescent male in the 1960s. Furthermore, I found the female characters weren’t shallow sexual symbols but instead delivered the life and essence of the story. I liked that they each seemed to represent some vitality Toru lacked and from each individual he learnt something which made him emotionally stronger.
At the beginning I expected the structure to take the novel somewhere else, to build up more of a concrete story. However, in the end the pages revealed a deeper analysis of adolescence, loss and the emotional turmoil that comes alongside it. Murakami taps into the human psyche, mental health, social structures, loneliness and love so beautifully I recommend giving this one a go.
