A review by savvannnna
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

5.0

This text completely lacked the dimension of sci-fi/magical realism common to the other three Murakami novels I've read, but the story is no less compelling or insightful. Actually, the similarity of the overall flavour of the book to the others proved to me how brilliant a writer Murakami is since he's able to evoke the same impression of mystery, discovery, memory, and palpable sense of loss, doubt, love, and friendship with and without the use of fantasy as a plot device. Norwegian Wood—with the dreaminess, simple and flawed yet deeply sympathetic protagonist/narrator, and rich tapestry of incredibly well developed characters that I've come to associate with the author—is one of the best books I've read, and to me it stands as a beautiful, fascinating illustration of adolescence, tremendous loss, grief, and delicate hope.

Incidentally, the movie was a terrible adaptation of the book.