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ak_tipton 's review for:
Norwegian Wood
by Haruki Murakami
Maybe I read this book too late in life to really "appreciate" it, but I really did not care for it. I struggled to finish it, and honestly wouldn't have if it hadn't been on my Kindle and due back to the library. (You can't renew Kindle books.)
The plot is basically: the main character, a real bore, falls in love with his friend's girlfriend after he commits suicide. He essentially rapes her when she is vulnerable and then she strings him along for several years before committing suicide herself. In the meantime, the main character falls in love with a manic pixie dream girl too, who is hateful and vengeful and completely unrealistic. The main character is a fantastic lover that makes women not want to ever have sex with anyone else, ever again. Probably 50 pages or more is dedicated to describing every single meal the main character eats, every movie he sees, every song he hears, and every book he reads - some of which he reads twice. I'm not understanding what is so revolutionary about this.
Every now and then are quotes like this:
“Letters are just pieces of paper," I said. "Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.”
“Only the Dead stay seventeen forever.”
“People leave strange little memories of themselves behind when they die.”
Yep...people really identify with the deep truths in this book, such as the fact that people leave memories when they die, and that people who don't die get older. I just truly do not understand what all the fuss is about with this book, and why the "love story" is depicted as anything other than abusive, because it absolutely was.
The plot is basically: the main character, a real bore, falls in love with his friend's girlfriend after he commits suicide. He essentially rapes her when she is vulnerable and then she strings him along for several years before committing suicide herself. In the meantime, the main character falls in love with a manic pixie dream girl too, who is hateful and vengeful and completely unrealistic. The main character is a fantastic lover that makes women not want to ever have sex with anyone else, ever again. Probably 50 pages or more is dedicated to describing every single meal the main character eats, every movie he sees, every song he hears, and every book he reads - some of which he reads twice. I'm not understanding what is so revolutionary about this.
Every now and then are quotes like this:
“Letters are just pieces of paper," I said. "Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish.”
“Only the Dead stay seventeen forever.”
“People leave strange little memories of themselves behind when they die.”
Yep...people really identify with the deep truths in this book, such as the fact that people leave memories when they die, and that people who don't die get older. I just truly do not understand what all the fuss is about with this book, and why the "love story" is depicted as anything other than abusive, because it absolutely was.