Here's one from 1987:
Norwegian Wood is the seventh book I?ve read by Haruki Murakami. Each time I come to writing down my thoughts after finishing one of his novels I can?t help but reflect the reoccurring themes that are ever present in all his novels. In fact, I find it hard to point to another author who in my mind can match the strong and refined voice that Murakami has when carrying the storytelling devices, structure and subject across a similarly large body of work.
Of course, I haven?t read his books in chronological order. I happened to start with his critical high-point, the dense masterpiece The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, whereas this, Norwegian Wood, is his most widely read work, an early breakthrough in Japan which took his readership to the millions. Nevertheless, wherever you choose to start the themes are evident, from the cerebral symbolism of wells and the subterranean to the Murakami?s most tried and tested narrative: an ordinary man thrust into a strange series of events by a mysterious girl, or in the case of Norwegian Wood girls.
This should not be interpreted as needless repetition or criticism, instead Murakami has a wonderful way of exploring his themes in varied and unique ways, from largely surreal (The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Sputnik Sweetheart and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World) to realistic (Underground) and those that straddle the two (After Dark, Hear the Wind Sing and now Norwegian Wood).
From my readings thus far, Norwegian Wood is the most direct of Murakami?s love stories. It may be this direct approach that is interpreted by some as semi-autobiographical, a point that Murakami disputes. However, it does share many similarities to Murakami?s own experience at university in Tokyo in the late 1960s, the years in which he also met his wife. Biographical or not, it hardly matters. The characters are beautifully written, embodying the confusion of youth caught in the transition from confinement to independence, how they react to their surrounds, their friendships with those that survive and those than don?t. Beyond bittersweet, this is raw, without sensationalism and sentimentality. And, above all else it is a page turner.
Here's a nice passage from the first chapter:
Once, long ago, when I was still young, when the memories were far more vivid than they are now, I often tried to write about her. But I couldn?t produce a line. I knew that if that first line would come, the rest would pour itself onto the page, but I could never tell where to start - the way a map that shows too much can sometimes be useless. Now, though, I realise that all I can place in the imperfect vessel of writing are imperfect memories and imperfect thoughts. The more the memories of Naoko inside me fade, the more deeply I am able to understand her, to remember that she had existed.
Norwegian Wood is the seventh book I?ve read by Haruki Murakami. Each time I come to writing down my thoughts after finishing one of his novels I can?t help but reflect the reoccurring themes that are ever present in all his novels. In fact, I find it hard to point to another author who in my mind can match the strong and refined voice that Murakami has when carrying the storytelling devices, structure and subject across a similarly large body of work.
Of course, I haven?t read his books in chronological order. I happened to start with his critical high-point, the dense masterpiece The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, whereas this, Norwegian Wood, is his most widely read work, an early breakthrough in Japan which took his readership to the millions. Nevertheless, wherever you choose to start the themes are evident, from the cerebral symbolism of wells and the subterranean to the Murakami?s most tried and tested narrative: an ordinary man thrust into a strange series of events by a mysterious girl, or in the case of Norwegian Wood girls.
This should not be interpreted as needless repetition or criticism, instead Murakami has a wonderful way of exploring his themes in varied and unique ways, from largely surreal (The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Sputnik Sweetheart and Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World) to realistic (Underground) and those that straddle the two (After Dark, Hear the Wind Sing and now Norwegian Wood).
From my readings thus far, Norwegian Wood is the most direct of Murakami?s love stories. It may be this direct approach that is interpreted by some as semi-autobiographical, a point that Murakami disputes. However, it does share many similarities to Murakami?s own experience at university in Tokyo in the late 1960s, the years in which he also met his wife. Biographical or not, it hardly matters. The characters are beautifully written, embodying the confusion of youth caught in the transition from confinement to independence, how they react to their surrounds, their friendships with those that survive and those than don?t. Beyond bittersweet, this is raw, without sensationalism and sentimentality. And, above all else it is a page turner.
Here's a nice passage from the first chapter:
Once, long ago, when I was still young, when the memories were far more vivid than they are now, I often tried to write about her. But I couldn?t produce a line. I knew that if that first line would come, the rest would pour itself onto the page, but I could never tell where to start - the way a map that shows too much can sometimes be useless. Now, though, I realise that all I can place in the imperfect vessel of writing are imperfect memories and imperfect thoughts. The more the memories of Naoko inside me fade, the more deeply I am able to understand her, to remember that she had existed.
