Book Review: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

SPOILER ALERT, OBVIOUSLY

First, let me preface this review with a disclaimer: I am not a professional book reviewer. I read simply because I love the process of experiencing a story. I'd like to regard myself as a simple reader. I mainly read for the story and to experience new perspectives. I am not someone who enjoys dissecting and analyzing every little detail of a story. I don’t do well with symbolism because, 99% of the time, the significance of it goes over my head. True story. Maybe I’m too dense to think in between the lines or maybe I’m just not at that stage in the reading “life” yet. What I am trying to say is, I am just your average reader with a lot of opinions.

Phew, now that we’ve gotten through that block of text, let’s get on to the review. In general, Haruki Murakami’s novels often have a lot of hype surrounding them. I always browse through his books but never picked one up simply because there were always too expensive in my local bookstores! What can I say, I’m a cheapo reader. Anyhoo, I’ve recently received some book vouchers that I needed to use up so I thought: “What the heck! I’ll give it a go. If it’s not my cup of tea, at least it didn’t cost me any money.” LOL.

The verdict:

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I remember thinking to myself several times while reading this book that I have never read anything like this before. It was such a GOOD book and I had a very pleasant reading experience. This book has tragic storylines and a protagonist who is easy to like. What’s not to love?

My take on the story:

Basically, Norwegian Wood is a romance novel. I ABSOLUTELY LOATHE the typical sappy, romance novel. I find that the plots are too repetitive and the stories never benefit me in anyway. I would much prefer investing my time wisely and read books that give me new perspectives and a broader sense of thinking.

However, this book was different. It’s not a traditional romance novel with unrealistic love ideals and handsome men with rock hard abs. This was a tragic (and I do love my tragic stories) and very believable love story. I could almost see this happening in the real world, and that’s what’s so good about it.

The characters:

• Toru Watanabe:

I found Toru to be quite sweet and one of the most naïve people I’ve ever read about. I agree with Midori and Naoko, I absolutely love the way he talks. Sometimes, his bluntness and straightforwardness in conversations catches me off guard and I actually laughed out loud. Looove him. He is truly a great protagonist. However, I did not like the way he navigated his relationships with Midori and Naoko. He was a total asshole as times, bordering on sociopathy! But, like all of us, he is human and flawed.

• Naoko:

I found Naoko to be very odd, but not in a good way. I could see from the start that she was just using him, which affected the way I feel about their relationship. I get that they were bonded and irreparably damaged by Kizuki’s suicide but I thought she was very manipulative. She knew Toru loved her and strung him along, essentially using him as a feel-good mechanism for her to recover, at the expense of his feelings. Ugh, I’m not about that.

• Midori:

IMO, Midori was loveable, quirky and adorable. I have nothing bad to say about her! She doesn’t really have a filter between her brain and her mouth and I think that’s very endearing. The things she says to Toru are so outrageous I can’t help but laugh. I knew about halfway through their friendship that she loved Toru, which makes the treatment Toru gave her after he moved more painful to read.

 ***Although he wasn’t a main character, I believe that Storm Trooper must have an honorary mention. HE WAS HILARIOUS AND SUCH A DORK. I was so sad to see him leave. Honestly, he was THE best character in the book for me ♥♥♥

The ending:

Wow, it was a doozy to read. Honestly, I didn’t get it and I still don’t get it. I finished the book at 3:40am last night and I couldn’t do anything but lie down and think about that ending. I interpreted the ending as one where he felt totally lost, now that Naoko is dead and the hold that Kizuki’s suicide had on him has loosened. There was nothing holding his back, per say. He was floating in the sea of life with no sense of direction. I don’t know what to think!

I was so confused that I went to r/books and searched for other people’s opinions. One comment made the most sense to me regarding the ending, which is why I’m including the gist of what they were saying here.

They said that the writing in the last few pages were a very large deviation from his writing in the whole book, which is what makes the ending so unexpected. From the beginning, Murakami’s writing was clear and straightforward, often giving the reader every minute detail of all the scenes in the book. However, when we reach the ending, it’s so ambiguous that we can’t even get any logical conclusion whatsoever from the last paragraph. I wholeheartedly agree. The ending was totally unexpected and just left me with the thought of: “What the……fuck?”

I have one gripe, though. Reiko and Toru? REALLY? Come on! That was yucks x ∞. I WAS NOT A FAN OF THAT SCENE. Too weird, too weird.

Concluding thoughts:

Norwegian Wood awarded me with a great reading experience. I have heard that this is the most straightforward of all his books so perhaps I got lucky with my first introduction to Haruki Murakami’s writing. I’m not so sure that I would be such a fan if I had picked up his more ambiguous books. I’m intrigued and am looking forward to reading more of his books.

Rating: 4.5/5

*All views and opinions expressed are my own.