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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Lesbophobia
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A lot less complex than I thought it would be. It’s a simple love story where the main character is conflicted between two lovers- not an altogether novel premise to explore. In the end, the book struck me more as a recording of day-to-day events in the protagonist’s life more than a fictional story and that’s not necessarily a bad thing but it failed to arouse anything in me—apart from the obvious scenes where any man would be aroused.
Maybe it was because of the expectations I went in with. Every time I do begin a book, I go in with as little as I can muster but I failed in regards to this time. I had heard many plaudits concerning the work of Murakami and subconsciously went in expecting a complex and intricately worn tale that play with the strings of my heart but as I progressed, I found it to be a lot more straightforward. The protagonist was exceedingly simple, apathetic even for most of the first half—he possessed a lot of qualities that were strikingly similar to mine. In the second half, he grew a little but not by that much, on the edge of what I considered character development.
Maybe it was the fact that everybody’s lives in it, their actions, their emotions-apart from Nagasawa-was a mere waiting of the tide moment. A lot happened in the book but not in an intriguing way. This read more like something I’d find in a news article or somewhere in a magazine in the editorial section but overall I thought it was pretty unstirring. Maybe it’s just me. But this book felt more like the recollection of real life events than it did a story. Maybe that’s why. The long passages of thought and musings made it read more like a non-fictional work than fiction but maybe that’s just the sort of fiction I’m used to.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
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:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
HOW CAN ONE THING LEAD TO ANOTHER?????
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
whether you feel fond of murakami or not, whatever your value judgment, you have to admit—he has a way with words that not many writers do. i read norwegian wood five years ago, and to this day, this part lives in the back of my mind, as a constant reminder:
you try too hard to make life fit your way of doing things. if you don't want to spend time in an insane asylum, you have to open up a little more and let yourself go with life's natural flow. i'm just a powerless and imperfect woman, but still, there are times when i think to myself how wonderful life can be! believe me, it's true! so stop what you're doing this minute and get happy. work at making yourself happy!
needless to say, i do feel sorry that you and naoko could not see things through to a happy ending. but who can say what's best? that's why you need to grab whatever chance you have at happiness where you find it, and not worry about other people too much. my experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a lifetime, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives.
i'm playing the guitar every day for no one in particular. it seems a bit pointless. i don't like dark, rainy nights, either. i hope i'll have another chance to play my guitar and eat grapes with you and naoko in the room with me.
ah, well, until then —
reiko ishida
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
this book is a lot more depressing than i expected. after finishing, i felt a strange sense of melancholy and sorrow i still can't seem to get rid of. murakami has such a unique way of writing. i didn't know a human could convey feelings through words like that before. it's so emotionally vacant, hollow and insufferable. i've always wondered if that hollowness shows how the concept of masculinity detaches men from their selfhood, empathy, and ability to connect with others, whether intentional or not. it's quite controversial and uncomfortable in some chapters. there's no woman in the book that is not being sexualized bro!! murakami women are either manic pixie dream girls or uncomfortably sexualized older women, no in between. he has an undeniable problem writing about women, though. which in some works is merely disappointing and others can be really problematic.
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ik zat er in en wilde er niet meer uit. Wat een prachtig, ontroerend boek.
Zo mooi “dat de bergen verkruimelen en de zee opdroogt”.
Zo mooi “dat de bergen verkruimelen en de zee opdroogt”.