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Norwegian Wood
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 895.635
EAN: 9780375704024
ISBN: 0375704027
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 298
Publication Date: September 12, 2000
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: September 12, 2000
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
In 1987, when Norwegian Wood was first published in Japan, it promptly sold more than 4 million copies and transformed Haruki Murakami into a pop-culture icon. The horrified author fled his native land for Europe and the United States, returning only in 1995, by which time the celebrity spotlight had found some fresher targets. And now he's finally authorized a translation for the English-speaking audience, turning to the estimable Jay Rubin, who did a fine job with his big-canvas production The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Readers of Murakami's later work will discover an affecting if atypical novel, and while the author himself has denied the book's autobiographical import--"If I had simply written the literal truth of my own life, the novel would have been no more than fifteen pages long"--it's hard not to read as at least a partial portrait of the artist as a young man.
Norwegian Wood is a simple coming-of-age tale, primarily set in 1969-70, when the author was attending university. The political upheavals and student strikes of the period form the novel's backdrop. But the focus here is the young Watanabe's love affairs, and the pain and pleasure and attendant losses of growing up. The collapse of a romance (and this is one among many!) leaves him in a metaphysical shambles: I read Naoko's letter again and again, and each time I read it I would be filled with the same unbearable sadness I used to feel whenever Naoko stared into my eyes. I had no way to deal with it, no place I could take it to or hide it away. Like the wind passing over my body, it had neither shape nor weight, nor could I wrap myself in it. This account of a young man's sentimental education sometimes reads like a cross between Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Stephen Vizinczey's In Praise of Older Women. It is less complex and perhaps ultimately less satisfying than Murakami's other, more allegorical work. Still, Norwegian Wood captures the huge expectation of youth--and of this particular time in history--for the future and for the place of love in it. It is also a work saturated with sadness, an emotion that can sometimes cripple a novel but which here merely underscores its youthful poignancy. --Mark Thwaite
First American PublicationThis stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time. It is sure to be a literary event.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 poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Not just a love story
It is always a hard task for me to review a novel by Murakami because of the sheer complexity of his work. This particular novel christened 'Norwegian Wood' after the famous Beatles' song has been looked at as one of Murakami's simplest novels where he was accused of succumbing to the story lines that he has prided himself on avoiding. After reading 'Norwegian Wood' I must say with absolute conviction that these accusations are indeed invalid and have been based on the apparent plot of the novel ... Read More
Rating: - Good book by Murakami
This is the third book by Haruki Murakami I read (after Sputnik and South of the Border) and the best so far. Originally written in 1987, the book begins in an airport in Germany, as the titular song by the Beatles playing in the sound system makes middle age Toru Watanabe remember his life as a college student in the late 1960s. As a drama student living in a pension in Tokyo he has to chose between the love of the unstable Naoko (a friend from high school, girlfriend of a friend of Watanabe that ... Read More
Rating:  - A small miracle
Murakami has captured me for years with stories about modern Japan and his strange pasta making anti-heroes. The mear thought of him writing a plain romantic novel has kept me from reading this book for years - after finishing it, I can say that all these doubts has been cleared. Even though it lacks the mysterious sheeps and vanishing elephants of his other works, it still is a true Murakami master piece.
Norwegian wood is a extremely moving novel about tragic young love, and as a Murakami ... Read More
Rating: - Earthy, romantic, sad
This novel is earthy, romantic, sad and very occasionally dull, for after all the protagonist is often bored and lonely. He has few friendships, but those he has, with one exception, are very strong. He has a very strong moral sense, and deep skepticism of the values of the majority of other college students around him. He is delightfully honest.
The novel is well written. What struck me is that while written in the autobiographical style, dialogue is very important, and in fact you sometimes ... Read More
Rating: - The new Salinger without being repetitive.
Murakami's Norwegian Wood seems like another Catcher in the Rye without any traces of annoying repetitiveness of themes. Watanabe, the protagonist of the novel, has already become a figure to emulate in some respects...
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