Reviews

Tokio blues (Norwegian Wood) by Haruki Murakami

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sholt's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

justiceofkalr's review against another edition

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3.0

I finally finished this! This was a struggle and had this same story been written by anyone other than Murakami I’d have easily given it one or two stars. Murakami’s beautiful writing is really the only thing that saves this for me. By far the least favorite of his books for me.

linaslzr's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

negin_moradi's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Not sure what to say about this. I prefer thinking about "Kafka on the Shore" to keep my good memories of Murakami.

tead's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was refreshing in the sense it came from a male perspective, as a female reader. It delves into the life of a college student in Japan whose raw experiences show how complicated life and love can be. The pain of grief and balancing multiple relationships is explored in a way that exposes the harsh and cruel nature of it. This is a book that requires more than one read for it to be truly understood. As ‘misogynistic’ as other reviews have stated, I feel as the novel is reflective of its time, where Murakami’s writing is simply reflective of the culture of the 1960s. I did really love the mentions of the music of the time, such as the Beatles, CCR, Bill Evans and Gilberto. It was fun recognising tunes I know. It was such an interesting book to start back on, right after a reading slump, beautiful yet unsettling in so many different ways. Characters in the book are certainly not easily likeable but I think that’s the beauty of a book like this.