✴ ✴ ✴ . 5
I have never read anything like this. I adored the whole book apart from the last chapter and ending. I know I haven't reviewed in ages!!! I am truly sorry.
Pls forgive the photo quality, I'm so sad. My camera like kinda broke and now I can't take pretty pictures of books; rather I have to use my phone. So sad. (Update: I fixed my camera by clicking a button! I am a legend.)
So what's all the hype?
Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.
I've only read one book by Murakami and I do plan on reading at least three. I adored the writing style to an extent, I will elaborate on this further later through this review. Another thing that I will address are the characters and the development of those characters. Moreover, I will conclude with some final thoughts and my overall experience reading. Although, firstly I will enlighten you all on how I went about reading a Murakami novel and how you could too!
Majority of my friends have asked me 'How do I go about reading Murakami?' this is because Murakami is considered good literature for students to be reading, especially if you're in the IB diploma and take HL English Lang/Lit - or just Lit - because this is always at the top of the lists when we go about reading novels to acquire a better understanding of different type of literature.
So, How Do You Go About Reading Murakami?
Well, firstly I would have to say get familiar with his books. By this I mean, look up his most popular/highest rated books and read through their synopsis; looking for something that will hook you or interest you to the extent that you wouldn't mind reading it. I am by no mean a 'book guru' and know everything about how you should choose your book, but this is how I did it and how I recommended it to my friends who also benefited from this process.
To be completely honest, I do believe the 'book choosing' part is extremely important. This is because I felt as though if I read any other book by Murakami and not this one I would feel differently about him. That is just from judgements of synopsis of other Murakami books and things my friends have mentioned. If you're curious, a girl in my class read Norwegian Wood and was recommending it to others, that's how I stumbled across this particular book.
To begin with the characters, I did enjoy reading about them all apart from a few that just irritated me. I believe Murakami himself has a similar basis for all the characters he writes, all of them are in some way or another related...? That makes no sense omg! To try and break that down, I feel like all his characters (in this book) are created from the same basis or same abstract view Murakami had for them. So in that sense, the characters left my mind a very pastel colour and just...bland. Consequently, I felt indifferent to the characters, I felt they were deep down the same. I don't like that. I really don't like that. The only stark contrast was between Midori and Toru, not to say that every book has to have characters that contradict and contrast each other but in the context of this novel because it is SO BLAND and dealt with a lot of grief and tragedy that you needed something... That something for me was the literature WHICH I ADORED but once I got attached to the plot line/story line, I started to care for these characters so much! Naoko was a wonderfully created character but there was just too much going on with her in my opinion. (can you tell I'm a fan of Toru and Midori?)
Furthermore, the main character and two others really kept with me even after reading the book, in comparison to the other minor characters. My very wonderful friend - Emma - told me (after my thoughts and opinions were distraught after reading the book) that she felt the same. She had read a few other Murakami books and concluded that all the protagonists of his novels are the 'same'. After hearing this, my theory of how these characters stemmed from the same tree makes more sense or at least the idea that Murakami basis his main characters on himself? Or something/someone that shares the same characteristics, resulting in many of his protagonists being the same people.
The plot and storyline was well developed and thought out until the ending, or rather the last few chapters. This book just gave me Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress flashbacks in relation to their endings. Although with Balzac, after I thought about it a year on I actually really liked the way it ended. Additionally, I had to study it a year ago for school so the analysis really got to me and I ended up complaining about the book so much but all in all it was lovely. I have the review of that here, it's a very old one.
The writing is great. The whole reason I decided to read a book written by Murakami and Norwegian Wood in particular is because of the literature. He took me to a world where I was so engrossed into this book I couldn't fathom how hooked I was. It was written very, very, very well. Murakami has a way with words and I know I say that a lot with many authors but with him it's so true.
When I started the novel, I was 98% sure I was going to rate it 5/5 stars, for many different reasons. One being the literature, the second was the characters I was attached too and the third, the world of Japan Murakami built inside my head. It was only till the last few pages and chapters did I become weary. I pulled myself from the world the book took me too and the feeling I got when I read the book and I had to analyse everything for what it was outside of the comfort of me reading the book. That was when I realised, it just pissed me off. Don't get me wrong! I really enjoyed this book when I started it and I fell in love with Midori one of the main characters involved in Taro's life but everything just go so... weird towards the end of the novel. Like what the hell??! I wholeheartedly don't know what to say about the ending and just everything leading up to that. Some people think it's genius and 'all in good literature' but seriously wtf. For me, it was a mixture of surprise in conjunction with dislike. It's been more than 3 months and my thoughts are still very distraught.
ALL IN ALL, THIS IS A REALLY GREAT BOOK that really opened me up at a time I was enclosed within myself and my studies. Sorry I've been gone for so long! Let me know if you have read the book what you thought and whether you think these characters are super sketchy or if you love them!
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