Scan barcode
A review by gw7
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Why am I giving this one star? Because I feel like it.
I think the main thing dragging it down for me was this cishet view, or exploration, of sexuality which simply doesn't interest me anymore. Unfortunately, that meme where the first picture is of a primary school teacher and pupil and the second is of ancient philosophers (talking with cis people about sexuality vs talking with queer people about sexuality) rings true. The first possibility being that these are indeed important, earth shattering, interesting and new ideas for cis het people still, today, or the second being that this is simply an older book and, while the ideas may have been fresh and intriguing at the time, are now pretty obvious to a lot more people.
Now, I'm sure that there was plenty of stuff in here that went over my head, but that's not the reason I'm rating it lowly either. If I look at authors like James Baldwin and Ocean Vuong, reading their astounding works my brain is almost constantly in the kind of writhing torment of a 12 year old in an advanced calculus class (or whatever kind of maths is hard, I'm gay, I don't know), and yet I still understand it. Why? Because they're writing about humans, and the human experience, and if they can't explain that in a way that the average reader can understand, well, good for them and it has its audience- but essentially, that's on them, not me. But, to double back, that wasn't the case here, either- the characters were all perfectly understandable, with the only confusion around them arising from me not being entirely sure what Murakami was trying to write them asas in did he realise he was writing a pedophile or were the characters/world juts extremely homophobic and that's all the thought of it- but also, why no police when they literally thought she'd molested a child?!?!?!?!???? but, back to the cishet-isms, these were perfectly good portrayals of teenagers, especially teenage boys, but why on earth do I want to read about them? Why should I care? Why is this groundbreaking? Why is this a modern classic?
I did not dnf this, though. I did read 209 pages in a day... just so I didn't have to be reading it tomorrow still... but, that means there is something to be said about the easy flow of the writing (which is always hard to talk about with a translation but... eh...)... but like... still not enough to be a... highly regarded modern classic??? Like, it's not a bad book... but I genuinely don't get it. I can't even be bothered to think about why I didn't like it. I don't even think there was enough information in this book for me to be morally opposed to it. I'm not a woman, so I can't comment on that but, as far as the rest of it goes, I feel like I would have to read more Murakami and watch/read interviews etc. to understand if they are just flawed characters or whether he actually believes that, y'know? Neither of those things will I be doing thought. Probably. I don't know. I kinda indifferent, I guess. And I'll probably forget it shortly. It was fine.
Also, it wasn't that sad? Like...??? I don't even know anymore. I'm just done. (don't get me wrong though, dark, full on topics, I just mean, as far as works of fiction go... I don't know what to say- I acknowledge that these particular characters went through some kinda rough stuff. It's these kind of things that make me go, okay, sure, if these things happened to actual people, of course I would be devastated for them and yes they would have every right to be entirely destroyed and grieve and grieve and grieve but like... when they happen to fictional characters...??? I don' know, man, just kinda makes me realise how terrible my life is, y'know? Genuinely a reason I tend to stay away from books that people say are sad and devastating- cause they usually turn out not to be... which makes me feel... great...)
Weird review, okay bye.
I think the main thing dragging it down for me was this cishet view, or exploration, of sexuality which simply doesn't interest me anymore. Unfortunately, that meme where the first picture is of a primary school teacher and pupil and the second is of ancient philosophers (talking with cis people about sexuality vs talking with queer people about sexuality) rings true. The first possibility being that these are indeed important, earth shattering, interesting and new ideas for cis het people still, today, or the second being that this is simply an older book and, while the ideas may have been fresh and intriguing at the time, are now pretty obvious to a lot more people.
Now, I'm sure that there was plenty of stuff in here that went over my head, but that's not the reason I'm rating it lowly either. If I look at authors like James Baldwin and Ocean Vuong, reading their astounding works my brain is almost constantly in the kind of writhing torment of a 12 year old in an advanced calculus class (or whatever kind of maths is hard, I'm gay, I don't know), and yet I still understand it. Why? Because they're writing about humans, and the human experience, and if they can't explain that in a way that the average reader can understand, well, good for them and it has its audience- but essentially, that's on them, not me. But, to double back, that wasn't the case here, either- the characters were all perfectly understandable, with the only confusion around them arising from me not being entirely sure what Murakami was trying to write them as
I did not dnf this, though. I did read 209 pages in a day... just so I didn't have to be reading it tomorrow still... but, that means there is something to be said about the easy flow of the writing (which is always hard to talk about with a translation but... eh...)... but like... still not enough to be a... highly regarded modern classic??? Like, it's not a bad book... but I genuinely don't get it. I can't even be bothered to think about why I didn't like it. I don't even think there was enough information in this book for me to be morally opposed to it. I'm not a woman, so I can't comment on that but, as far as the rest of it goes, I feel like I would have to read more Murakami and watch/read interviews etc. to understand if they are just flawed characters or whether he actually believes that, y'know? Neither of those things will I be doing thought. Probably. I don't know. I kinda indifferent, I guess. And I'll probably forget it shortly. It was fine.
Also, it wasn't that sad? Like...??? I don't even know anymore. I'm just done. (don't get me wrong though, dark, full on topics, I just mean, as far as works of fiction go... I don't know what to say- I acknowledge that these particular characters went through some kinda rough stuff. It's these kind of things that make me go, okay, sure, if these things happened to actual people, of course I would be devastated for them and yes they would have every right to be entirely destroyed and grieve and grieve and grieve but like... when they happen to fictional characters...??? I don' know, man, just kinda makes me realise how terrible my life is, y'know? Genuinely a reason I tend to stay away from books that people say are sad and devastating- cause they usually turn out not to be... which makes me feel... great...)
Weird review, okay bye.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Lesbophobia and Homophobia