Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Norwegian Wood

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

24 reviews

annahollamby's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

boring and incredibly unlikeable. found myself wondering so many times if the author has ever actually met and interacted with a real woman before. like genuinely. the way he talks about women and sex is gross and pathetic. yet more complex female storiess and characters lost to the male gaze and the manic pixie dream girl trope. also sincerely What The Fuck (r.e. the supposed lesbian character realising she's a lesbian because of a 13 year old 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮 only for her lesbianism to be cured in the end by (you guessed it!) a penis... Fucking Gross.

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busra425's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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juandb's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

WARNING: major spoilers for the book, minor spoilers for Burning (2018) and Safe (1995).

While I do agree that it gets a bit weird sometimes, mostly due to Murakami's self-indulgence in regards to how much -and how deeply- sex is described (the scene at the end between Watanabe and Reiko felt particularly out of place), I mostly disagree with the reviews I've read that thrash the novel because of how awful the characters are; don't get me wrong, I do believe that most characters are pretty harmful both towards themselves and others, with Watanabe himself being the most so. But I just don't think that makes the book a bad one.
I read it as the story of an adolescent (let's keep in mind that for at least half of the book, Watanabe is a minor) whose remarkable levels of self-pity, coupled with a nonexistent capacity for empathy, prevent him from seeing just how much of a negative effect his actions have on those around him. He frequently -and thoughtlessly- acts in ways that cause considerable pain to both Naoko and Midori, and very scarcely considers the impact o those actions. With Naoko, he claims to worry about her wellbeing, but these thoughts rarely convert into actions; or rather, into some form of refrain. He appears and reappears in her life at times that he shouldn't, and when he does, he interacts with her in ways that he shouldn't. Her strange behavior (which is understandably so, given her decaying mental health), as well as Reiko's reassurances, are enough to keep him from ever considering the possibility that he might not be a great influence for her.
Speaking about Reiko, while she is generally nicer than most other characters, I felt like all things considered, she ended up being a negative influence both for Naoko and Watanabe. Her having lived in the asylum for so long, as well as her age and simply her manners, makes both Naoko and Watanabe (as well as the reader, at least in my case), see her as a sort of mentor figure; but I believe her carefree approach to Naoko's mental health is an important factor in the worsening of her condition. Through their letters we see Naoko become more and more detached from the world, gradually finding it more difficult to write her letters to Watanabe and then even developing auditory hallucinations; but Reiko insists that she's still fine, only admitting that she might need some more proactive help at the very end. Her whole thing about knowing whether someone will get cured or not just by looking at them seems to me like an indication that she isn't a very healthy influence for other patients. And even after Naoko's death, she seems to be of the opinion that there wasn't much that could be done about it -when Watanabe expresses this thought, she doesn't challenge it.
As for Naoko herself, I thought she was the most interesting and enigmatic character. She reminded me of Shin Hae-mi, from the movie Burning (2018), and Carol, from Safe (1995). Like Shin Hae-mi, she is misunderstood by pretty much everyone around her, becoming increasingly lonely and helpless; like Carol, her health problems are addressed by isolating her from the outside world, surrounded by people who, despite their best intentions, are unable to help her.
I read many negative opinions of Midori, and I do partly agree with them. At times she seems a bit too into the "quirky, not traditionally feminine, kind of innocent yet assertive girl" which makes it hard to take her seriously. However, she does deliver one of my favorite scenes from the book, when she writes her letter to Watanabe while sitting next to him. I do wonder whether it would have been a better ending if she simply hadn't forgiven him, which would have been a nice change from the submisiveness that women have towards Watanabe in the story. Either way, in spite of how things resolve later, it is a deeply moving scene, probably because it is the only time Watanabe is directly confronted in this way. He spends the rest of the novel downplaying the effects of his actions on other people, but this time, someone is explicitly telling him how hurt they were because of him. His reaction is telling: he makes no mention of felling guilty after reading the letter, and in fact, right after reading it he talks about how he went for a walk because he had nothing to do, and how he tried to write to her but ended up writing to Naoko.
My other favorite scene is when Watanabe accompanies Nagasawa and Hatsumi for dinner. In my view, Nagasawa is the character that allows Watanabe to feel better about himself in comparison. Nagasawa is a bad person, and Watanabe knows this. He evidently takes pride in how he eventually cuts ties with him, though not before having indulged him for so long, going out with him at night to find cheap sex. Nagasawa is a cold, selfish character who makes Watanabe, a slightly less cold, slightly less selfish character, feel like he is a good guy.
And to me, this scene is what makes that most evident. The whole evening, Hatsumi is crying for help, a help that Nagasawa knows she needs but isn't willing to give her. And when Watanabe has the chance to talk to her on his own, he offers barely any real, honest advice.
So to me, the story is about an unempathetic man who doesn't see the harm he causes, and so ends up surrounded in pain and death. It is understandably a hard read, but in my view, it's clear that its darkest elements -the overly masculine perspective, the abundance of sex, the one-dimensionality of the female characters- are purposely used to show Watanabe's distorted view of reality and people. The only elements I would change are, as I said, the way things end with Midori, as well as the overly crude depictions of sex.

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lynnofseptember's review against another edition

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2.0

i am ashamed to own this book, truly horrific.
listen, beautiful writing, at times, but god damn the pedophilic commentary is one of the many things you have to look past, and it’s not worth it.

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lshkrk's review against another edition

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

3.5

the ending is disgusting and female characters just serve as vehicles for boosting and inflating the protagonist’s ego. have a nice read:)

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aeterna's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

1.5

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nikolas_kolinski's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Norwegian Wood - review

"Norwegian Wood" is an unusual, chaotic, sometimes even extremely bizarre book.
All this could be also fascinating or interesting, were it not for the fact that, precisely because of these flaws, Murakami spoils his own work.

Let me start by saying that I particularly appreciated the author's style: direct, clear, fast, but still thoughtful and particular.
Torū Watanabe's story is a story of life, of a life that is certainly tragic and marked by death, but of a life that, in Japan, can still be truthful. In fact, I believe that this is the main meaning of the work: the thin bridge that links life and death, the acceptance of the latter and, if you like, even a reflection on the high rate of suicides on Japanese soil and their enormous social impact.
It is also a life story because, often, the most unexpected things happen, people disappear without a word, nothing more is known about their fate, they continue on their way, perhapsawandering a little in the shadows. In this, the author has truly captured the essence of the everyday, which is often absent in literature.

To see Sturmtruppen disappear from one day to the next, without knowing where he has gone or how he is, or to learn without any warning of Hatsumi's death, or even worse, Naoko's death...it makes sense.

Because there is rarely anyone or anything to warn us of what lies ahead in the future.
Here, unfortunately, the merits of Norwegian Wood end.

It could have become one of my favourite books, it could have stood alongside my other few five-star books, but, while trying to get past a few indecent scenes while reading was acceptable, the ending ruined this literary work and almost made me hate it.
But let's go in order.
One of Murakami's biggest problems, are the female characters, which are not only often based on stereotypes and have a marginal characterisation, but also only function on the basis of the physical aspect that any of their relationships can offer to to the protagonist.

Of all the female characters in the novel, most of them, even the most unexpected, have a sexual relationship with the protagonist.

And this is simply unacceptable because, where one could find depth (as one sometimes does in Watanabe's reflections), there is only a body, described in great detail and an end in itself.
This brings us to another major flaw: the sexual component in the book is exaggerated to say the least. It is difficult to read more than fifteen pages without finding a sexual description of a woman or a physical relationship. Although, it is true, this aspect could be important and in some way a solution for the protagonist to deal with his problems (especially because of his young age), all these scenes spoil the magic of the novel and its ability to reflect in depth.
Could this component have a symbolic value? Yes, perhaps so. But there are infinite ways to symbolise something and this seems to me the most unsuitable and the one most at odds with the themes dealt with by the author.
We come to the fateful final scene:

I saw the character of Reiko as a figure of help for Naoko, as a mentor figure for Watanabe, a symbol of the bond between the two characters and, consequently, a symbol of the bond between the strength, but also the fragility of life and the necessity, but also the acceptance of death.
Leaving aside the, to say the least, perverse account of the past event in which there is a sexual relationship between Reiko, an adult of at least thirty years of age, and a piano student of hers, only fourteen years old, in general, I had no great problems with the presence of this character in the story.
As mentioned earlier, the effort she puts into trying to make Naoko feel good and to help her reconnect with the real world and with Watanabe is especially appreciable.
However, after Naoko's suicide, a terrible and unacceptable thing happens.
Reiko, wearing Naoko's clothes and having held a 'second funeral' for her together with Watanabe, wants to have sexual intercourse with him, who accepts this.
Putting aside the huge age gap between Reiko and Watanabe (who, despite being over 18, is still very young and not yet totally aware of himself and his actions), I fail to see the point of this scene.
The only consequence it has is to ruin Reiko's relationship as advisor and teacher for Watanabe, to ruin the friendship between the two, to ruin the relationship between Naoko and Watanabe (who, let us remember, had not had sex, although he wanted to, with Midori, his 'new girlfriend', out of honesty and loyalty to Naoko, but incredibly does not hesitate to have sex with Reiko) and to ruin the relationship between Watanabe and Midori, even without the latter's knowledge.
If, all the nights spent with girls found by chance in a bar thanks to Nagasawa's help, albeit representing a wrong gesture, acted as a 'cure' for Watanabe to overcome the problems in his life (and later, also acted as a way for the protagonist to question his own identity and the value of his actions), with the sexual intercourse between Reiko and Watanabe it goes too far.
I sincerely hope that, after the open ending of the story, Midori left Watanabe, who turned out to be a terrible person, addicted to sex and extremely selfish (as stated by Nagasawa, who, incredibly, was ultimately right).

"Norwegian Wood" is a book with enormous potential, yet squandered by the author, who, despite having demonstrated that he is capable of writing with some depth and has a particular and interesting style, prefers to let his story fall flat, forgetting all the progress and reflections in the novel and thus abandoning the introspective magic of the protagonist and the depth of the theme of life and death, and leaving room for utter banality.

No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning.

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madamdun's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

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greatu's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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ninaaaaa's review against another edition

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3.5

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