Haruki Murakami: Norwegian Wood

The other day I went into a bookstore, looking for some acdemic stuff as usual. This time however the regular search on the politics shelf left me empty handed, so i headed for the general novel picks and thats how i ended up with Norwegian Wood. Honestly ive been a fan of Murukami in sometime now, so no surprise to get smth of his. however ive always gone for his underdogs, the low-rated, heavily criticised pieces of works, except this time...and what a journey that was. Norwegian Wood is a one-breath novel, that goes under your skin with the first line and seems to keep up with you for quite sometime, so evrytime you try to pick up smth else, you still feel its presence. Yes yet again it's a plain story, simply written like all his works, but this time the story was so gripping, taking a bsic love dillema and internal struggle to give it all sorts of dimensions from bridges of east west culture in japanese society, to its nationalistic sense and sense of preservation/traditionallity. And did i say a basic love dilemma..lol ? the character Toru is an emotional capitulation, who deals with what life brings in the best way possible to make it through some 30 years later!
What a wondeful novel!
Lol..a long post,
hope you will share what you think if youve read it,
~

I want to read it badly. In fact, I voted for it in last month's book discussion poll.

It's sat on my shelf waiting to be read. I have a week off next week, maybe I'll get round to reading it.

I suggested it for August's 'book of the month', it came second

But yes, I'm really looking forward to reading it, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Murakami

Who's been reading Murukami around here? I've got Kafka on the Shore and What I Think About When I Think About Running. What should I read next?

StillILearn said:

Who's been reading Murukami around here? I've got Kafka on the Shore and What I Think About When I Think About Running. What should I read next?

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Earlier this year I practically read every Murakami book I could get my hands on. He tends to reuse his characters and themes a bit too much in some of the books imo. But if I had to pick i'd say the best ones are Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Thank you, Zolipara! I'll chose one of those. Uh. Which was your favorite? Oh! Oh! Oh! Will you put them in order? Can you?

Its hard to put them in order, but perhaps The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle on top.

I've heard of him but have never read any of his work. I used to read car magazines and just now I'm starting to read books.

That's the one I got. :flowers:

I agree with Zolipara regarding the re-use of themes and symbols in Murakami's works. However, there is usually a fresh context which carrys you along. I found his short stories to be very accessible and original - try out The Elephant Vanishes.
I love Murakami for the insight he provides into Japaness artistic culture, although he is reputed to a bit of an outsider in his homeland. Try David Mitchell's Cloud Nine for a true outsider's take on things Japanese.

I love love love this book - I picked it up accidently and I love him. It is the strangest novel and for some reason when Murakami describes food I want to eat!!

Watch a world exclusive trailer for Norwegian Wood - video | Film | guardian.co.uk

Well, it certainly looks good.

I liked N.W., but Wind Up Bird Chronicle is far better.

beer good said:

Watch a world exclusive trailer for Norwegian Wood - video | Film | guardian.co.uk

Well, it certainly looks good.

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Now I've seen it, and my initial impression is that they took a many-layered and subtle novel about a time of change and turned it into one man's quest to have sex with crazy women. Yes, it's an absolutely gorgeous film, and well worth seeing for the cinematography alone; lots of long shots using both environment and wordless acting to set scenes, including one incredible tracking shot through a windy field that I could swear goes on for an hour without getting old. But the script is often a little on the clunky side (not extremely so, but when you have entire 5-minute scenes that are just one single take of two people having a frank conversation, it helps if the conversation doesn't seem... well, scripted). Both the acting and the score by Johnny Radiohead suffers from the same problem; as long as the movie is moving along they're excellent, but when they get to the big drama scenes they pour it on too thick.

Gorgeous film. Not bad, as relationship drama goes. But not my Norwegian Wood