![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit
This book is set in Japan and, more precisely, in Tokyo (most of the time). I love Japan and have wanted to visit it for a long time, because of the lovely culture and the overwhelming amount of different natural sights, such as volcanoes, mountains, forests etc.. And they also have earthquakes! Awesome! I will get there at some point, I hope!
The book is about this guy Toru Watanabe who is 18 years old when we first meet him and he is going to university. He falls in love with Naoko, the girlfriend of his deceased best friend (who committed suicide). She is a troubled person, as she found her sister who had committed suicide hanging in her room when she was 10, and besides that, suicide runs in the family (her uncle also committed suicide). The main story is basically the relationship between Watanabe and Naoko and their adjustment to university life. Naoko doesn't do well and ends up in a mental institution, where Watanabe visits her twice. Meanwhile, he meets a nice, not so troubled, girl called Midori whom Watanabe likes a lot. Midori's parents both die of brain cancer. In the end, Naoko commits suicide and Watanabe chooses Midori (before Naoko commits suicide, just to be clear). Right.
So, did I like this book? Well, I thought it was quite depressing and disturbing, judging by the amazing amounts of suicides (a total of 5 in the books), 'normal' deaths (at least 2), mental patients and their stories (weird stuff) and casual sex in the book. Watanabe is repeatedly portrayed as the good guy, who wants to be faithful to Naoko, but in the meantime, he has casual sex with anonymous girls and apparently doesn't count kissing or ..well.. other sexual acts as being unfaithful to Naoko. Bit weird, I thought. Besides that, the tone of the book is just very dark.
Nevertheless, it was an intriguing and enjoyable story (it had me googling suicide rates and deaths in Japan for quite a while). The writing style is very nice and fast-paced and the story is engaging enough. I read that this is not the signature book of Haruki Murakami, as he usually has a different style of writing (with a more complex story line). However, apparently this IS the book that made him crazy famous in Japan and it is the book that everyone in Japan read (apparently). So, I am glad I read the book, but for future reference on Japanese literature, I think I should give one of the other books of Haruki Murakami a try. Also because I read they are decidedly better and have a more complex story line. I will let you know when I get round to that!
| Book: | Norwegian Wood |
| Author: | Haruki Murakami |
| Number of pages: | 291 |
This book is set in Japan and, more precisely, in Tokyo (most of the time). I love Japan and have wanted to visit it for a long time, because of the lovely culture and the overwhelming amount of different natural sights, such as volcanoes, mountains, forests etc.. And they also have earthquakes! Awesome! I will get there at some point, I hope!
The book is about this guy Toru Watanabe who is 18 years old when we first meet him and he is going to university. He falls in love with Naoko, the girlfriend of his deceased best friend (who committed suicide). She is a troubled person, as she found her sister who had committed suicide hanging in her room when she was 10, and besides that, suicide runs in the family (her uncle also committed suicide). The main story is basically the relationship between Watanabe and Naoko and their adjustment to university life. Naoko doesn't do well and ends up in a mental institution, where Watanabe visits her twice. Meanwhile, he meets a nice, not so troubled, girl called Midori whom Watanabe likes a lot. Midori's parents both die of brain cancer. In the end, Naoko commits suicide and Watanabe chooses Midori (before Naoko commits suicide, just to be clear). Right.
So, did I like this book? Well, I thought it was quite depressing and disturbing, judging by the amazing amounts of suicides (a total of 5 in the books), 'normal' deaths (at least 2), mental patients and their stories (weird stuff) and casual sex in the book. Watanabe is repeatedly portrayed as the good guy, who wants to be faithful to Naoko, but in the meantime, he has casual sex with anonymous girls and apparently doesn't count kissing or ..well.. other sexual acts as being unfaithful to Naoko. Bit weird, I thought. Besides that, the tone of the book is just very dark.
Nevertheless, it was an intriguing and enjoyable story (it had me googling suicide rates and deaths in Japan for quite a while). The writing style is very nice and fast-paced and the story is engaging enough. I read that this is not the signature book of Haruki Murakami, as he usually has a different style of writing (with a more complex story line). However, apparently this IS the book that made him crazy famous in Japan and it is the book that everyone in Japan read (apparently). So, I am glad I read the book, but for future reference on Japanese literature, I think I should give one of the other books of Haruki Murakami a try. Also because I read they are decidedly better and have a more complex story line. I will let you know when I get round to that!
