A review by arsenelouppain
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This could have been a 5-star read, but I always feel that Murakami's works are overly-sexual. There's absolutely nothing wrong with including sexual content in a novel (especially a coming-of-age novel), and to its credit, a lot of the scenes in this book did actually serve a purpose to further the plot in some way, but
as Toru was mourning Naoko's death, the first memory of her he talks about was the blowjob scene. But Toru was somewhat of a selfish person at times, so perhaps that can be excused. However, at the end of the story, he and Reiko had sex. Which was just...odd. Especially considering that Reiko had been established as a "somewhat" lesbian earlier in the novel. My only guess is that it was a way to express their grief, and be closer to Naoko, but it was still weird to me.
Then again, maybe I'm simply not smart enough to understand Murakami.

Otherwise, this was a wonderful novel. I whole-heartedly consider it to be a contemporary classic. The characters are fleshed out, and the writing was profound. It's a great book for those who enjoyed The Bell Jar, The Great Gatsby, and The Catcher in the Rye.
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