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A review by kartrick
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
5.0
My introduction to Murakami. Something that struck me towards the end, having just read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is what Kundera says about dark beauty:
I couldn't help but feel this dark beauty in all of the sorrow throughout the book. And that is what gave the sorrow weight (and, according to Parmenides, made it negative).
The book has great prose that kept me hooked throughout, and was deeply moving and powerful. This is a story of sadness. There is no happily-ever-after. There are a few instances where the characters show their immaturity in the way they deal with emotions and circumstances though. Also, it's a bit uncanny how the book makes suicides seem so common.
However, as the book description says, it does a good job of conveying the music, mood and ethos of 60s Japan, which was new to me. A total ignoramus when it comes to music, I am enjoying getting to learn more about the history of music and its evolution (both classical and contemporary/pop) indirectly through the books I read. I wasn't aware of the student activism prevalent in Japan during that period, either. The student life, on the other hand, seems to be at least a bit contrived, with regards to how aimless Toru felt; I didn't understand why he perceived it that way. Nonetheless, Murakami did a great job in describing such gloom (like the never-ending swamp Toru felt he was trudging through day-by-day).
I found Nagasawa very interesting; I could relate to him a bit. And in spite of his shortcomings, Toru was likeable too. There were some scenes which I particularly liked, such as the one with Midori's father. A couple of the sex scenes were weird, to say the least, and I wondered what relevance they held to the storyline. The book doesn't really delve into characters' thoughts in a stream of consciousness style, but rather focusses more on their conflicted mental states. As a result, the book wasn't so philosophical. However, as I said earlier, it is a tale of sorrow through and through, which is only amplified by the stage of life the characters find themselves in (young adults).
I'd say it's worth a read unless you like to stay away from sad stories.
... [human lives] are composed like music. Guided by his sense of beauty, an individual transforms a fortuitous occurrence (Beethoven’s music, death under a train) into a motif, which then assumes a permanent place in the composition of the individual’s life. Anna could have chosen another way to take her life. But the motif of death and the railway station, unforgettably bound to the birth of love, enticed her in her hour of despair with its dark beauty. Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress.
I couldn't help but feel this dark beauty in all of the sorrow throughout the book. And that is what gave the sorrow weight (and, according to Parmenides, made it negative).
The book has great prose that kept me hooked throughout, and was deeply moving and powerful. This is a story of sadness. There is no happily-ever-after. There are a few instances where the characters show their immaturity in the way they deal with emotions and circumstances though. Also, it's a bit uncanny how the book makes suicides seem so common.
However, as the book description says, it does a good job of conveying the music, mood and ethos of 60s Japan, which was new to me. A total ignoramus when it comes to music, I am enjoying getting to learn more about the history of music and its evolution (both classical and contemporary/pop) indirectly through the books I read. I wasn't aware of the student activism prevalent in Japan during that period, either. The student life, on the other hand, seems to be at least a bit contrived, with regards to how aimless Toru felt; I didn't understand why he perceived it that way. Nonetheless, Murakami did a great job in describing such gloom (like the never-ending swamp Toru felt he was trudging through day-by-day).
I found Nagasawa very interesting; I could relate to him a bit. And in spite of his shortcomings, Toru was likeable too. There were some scenes which I particularly liked, such as the one with Midori's father. A couple of the sex scenes were weird, to say the least, and I wondered what relevance they held to the storyline. The book doesn't really delve into characters' thoughts in a stream of consciousness style, but rather focusses more on their conflicted mental states. As a result, the book wasn't so philosophical. However, as I said earlier, it is a tale of sorrow through and through, which is only amplified by the stage of life the characters find themselves in (young adults).
I'd say it's worth a read unless you like to stay away from sad stories.