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A review by samchase112
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Media — especially books and movies — about grief have hit me quite hard, affected me a lot, in the past year, and this novel is absolutely no exception. Intimate, nostalgic, it's a dreamy exploration of living and living with death. I'm not quite sure how exactly I feel about it, but I know that I do feel because of it. I've pasted some quotes below that I couldn't help dog-earing, but beyond that there's nothing more to say.
Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life… Death exists — in a paperweight, in four red and white balls on a billiard table — and we go on living and breathing it into our lungs like fine dust.
Death was not the opposite of life. It was already here, within my being, it had always been here, and no struggle would permit to forget that.
I miss you awful sometimes, but in general I go on living with all the energy I can muster.
And I'm just going to keep on getting stronger. I'm going to mature. I'm going to be an adult. Because that's what I have to do. I always used to think I'd like to stay seventeen or eighteen if I could. But not anymore. I'm not a teenager anymore. I've got a sense of responsibility now. I'm not the same guy I was when we used to hang out together. I'm twenty now. And I have to pay the price to go on living.
By living our lives, we nurture death. True as this might be, it was only one of the truths we had to learn.What I learned from Naoko's death was this: 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.
And when I awoke I was alone, this bird had flown…
Death exists, not as the opposite but as a part of life… Death exists — in a paperweight, in four red and white balls on a billiard table — and we go on living and breathing it into our lungs like fine dust.
Death was not the opposite of life. It was already here, within my being, it had always been here, and no struggle would permit to forget that.
I miss you awful sometimes, but in general I go on living with all the energy I can muster.
And I'm just going to keep on getting stronger. I'm going to mature. I'm going to be an adult. Because that's what I have to do. I always used to think I'd like to stay seventeen or eighteen if I could. But not anymore. I'm not a teenager anymore. I've got a sense of responsibility now. I'm not the same guy I was when we used to hang out together. I'm twenty now. And I have to pay the price to go on living.
By living our lives, we nurture death. True as this might be, it was only one of the truths we had to learn.
And when I awoke I was alone, this bird had flown…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Sexual content, Death, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Vomit, Rape, and Medical content