Review by the_bookish_rose - Norwegian Wood

the_bookish_rose 's review for:

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

3.25

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Okay…. This book was way more depressing than I thought. Throughout the novel, we are following Toru Watanabe as he recalls these two women he fell in love with; Naoko, who he was in love with, but she struggled with depression and hearing voices, and Midori, who had a lively, liberated spirit. It took me a while to enjoy this book, as it is really slow-paced, and the themes of suicide and depression are hard to swallow, but this book was a gentle summer read to remind me that life is short and that spending time with loved ones is a thing we can take for granted. Also, I loved the passages with the letters going back and forth between Naoko and Watanabe, as I felt like the connection between characters was real and tangible. One thing I didn’t like was how many s*x scenes there were; they weren’t graphic but it just irked me because they just felt weird. Overall, this book was a nice break from some of my faster-paced reads.

Content Warnings