Book Review: Norwegian Wood
This was a very strange book, and despite rating it 5 stars I do think it has its flaws. My rating reflects the effect this book had on me rather than its merit as a literary work. I feel qualified to comment on the former, not so much the latter.
Going into this book I did not know what to expect. All I had absorbed from the cultural zeitgeist was that Murakami is a great writer who does not portray women well. I think that both of these are true, to an extent.
The protagonist of Norwegian Wood, Watanabe, is a young college student who is navigating the suicide of his best friend. Although, saying this hardly gives an idea of the contents of the book.
The best way I can put it is that this book feels like a dream, or at least a sort of contrived scenario that could never happen in the real world. That being said, Murakami’s writing pulls you into the world of the book in such a way that you never think about the unrealism of it, in the same way that a dream has its own internal consistency when you’re in it, despite how fantastical it might be.
On some level, I found certain parts of this book to be relatable, as a young man in his 20s. However, some other parts are completely foreign, including many aspects of Watanabe’s college experience. My own college life feels a bit watered down by comparison, although again, Murakami himself said that while Watanabe’s college experience is loosely inspired by his own, it is far more eventful and interesting than his was.
On a separate but related note, the fantasy of an introspective young man making his own way in the world while being validated by those around him is an attractive one, but potentially quite unrealistic. Especially many (most) of Murakami’s female characters seem to speak and act in a distinctively male-centered manner. It’s not that I’m saying that they act like men, but rather that they act like men imagine women to act, or how they wish they would. There are many descriptions of the female characters’ bodies as well, but given that the narrator is a 20 year old male college student, I didn’t find this to be too jarring.
There isn’t really a traditional climax to this book, and I am unclear as to what moral, if any, can be taken away from it. Still, for the strange combination of emotions that Murakami left me with, I can confidently say that I enjoyed this book, or at least I savor the feelings it left me with. If you are a young male person with introverted tendencies, I would recommend reading the first chapter, at which point you can decide if you wish to continue.