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A review by christopherc
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
4.0
Haruki Murakami's NORWEGIAN WOOD is the story of the coming of age of Toru Watanabe, a Tokyo student who grapples with a consuming love over 1968 to 1970. Toru is captivated by Naoko, the girlfriend of his deceased best friend, and remains dedicated to her even as she descends into mental illness. This all happens against the backdrop of late 1960s political radicalism, free love and classic rock and jazz.
Murakami's novels usually have fantastical elements, but this is "just" a love story. Nonetheless, perennial elements of his style remain, such as a male protagonist negotiating a labyrinth of female characters, who have intriguing connections between them though they don't know each other, and a plot point or two that seems important but are never resolved. Haruki is a good novelist, though perhaps his range is too narrow for him to be a great one. Nonetheless, I truly enjoyed NORWEGIAN WOOD. It makes some powerful observations of that difficult transition from late adolescent to full adulthood, and its description of the impact of 1960s counterculture (my favourite era of history) is somewhat enlightening.
Murakami's novels usually have fantastical elements, but this is "just" a love story. Nonetheless, perennial elements of his style remain, such as a male protagonist negotiating a labyrinth of female characters, who have intriguing connections between them though they don't know each other, and a plot point or two that seems important but are never resolved. Haruki is a good novelist, though perhaps his range is too narrow for him to be a great one. Nonetheless, I truly enjoyed NORWEGIAN WOOD. It makes some powerful observations of that difficult transition from late adolescent to full adulthood, and its description of the impact of 1960s counterculture (my favourite era of history) is somewhat enlightening.