Reviews

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

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freya_sw's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.5

janicew20's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

crreamyjam's review against another edition

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4.0

"The dead will always be dead, but we have to go on living."

I have never read this kind of book before, so reading this was a different kind of experience. It has made me feel sad and has left me feel blank. It's truly one of the saddest books out there.

catbewks's review against another edition

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1.0

Update September 2023: I can't believe I ever tried to find anything redeeming about this just so I wouldn't give it a 1-star rating. What a piece of shit book.

The amount of praise this book receives truly baffles me, especially when it comes from women. Murakami does not know how to write women. His books are extremely misogynistic, but this one truly takes the cake with how problematic it is. Not only is it misogyny at its finest, but it also tries to excuse paedophilia by placing the blame on the 14-year-old child. It's absolutely sickening.

No book has ever made me as angry as this one does, so at least it has that going for it, I guess.

Original 2-star review (January 2023):

I don't know what to think. I like Murakami but sometimes his writing makes me very uncomfortable (Reiko's story was... upsetting), most of the female characters are portrayed very strangely and unrealistically and the dialogues can be really weird and stilted, even though this is probably a translation thing. Most of the times, there isn't any plot, and I'm finding that I much prefer his surrealistic novels to novels like Norwegian Wood or South of the Border.
Still, there is something special that I just can't pin down when it comes to Murakami's style. His books are addictive, his writing intoxicating, and somehow I'm always left wanting more.