Norwegian wood by Haruki Murakami..
Book review
Mild spoilers
Rating 3/5
This was vigorously recommended by many and since I had already finished all the English translated work of another Japanese legend Kiago Higashino it was natural to give this one a go!
It’s unbelievable but every Japanese has read this novel! It’s been translated into many languages and this is the official English translation!
The best thing about the novel is that I listened to Norwegian wood by Beatles and many other English numbers as recommended in the novel!
I guess that’s the problem with hype because frankly I was let down by the novel though as an afterthought I think that’s how it was meant to be.
To capture the confusion of a growing teen alone in a college with just death despair and boredom sorrounding him is a great feat indeed.
Though I wonder how the protagonist can afford to have so much bloody time to literally screw around! My college days I don’t remember having time to itch my own eyes!!
All in all I think college life is more or less the same everywhere. The rooms, the food, the fuss, the fights and girls!
But why the author has to infuse so much of death and dispair is beyond me! Maybe that’s why the novel has such a fan following! The real reason of course can very well be the fact that it feels like a soft porn novel with vivid description of the protagonist’s sexual escapades!
So an apparent coming of age novel set in the 1960s it ends up being too dramatic, too dark and frankly too unreal!
So you have this dude called Watanabe (don’t care if the spelling is right!) in a college and he has a friend and his girlfriend and then he has a friend who wants to be his girlfriend but something happens to his friend and now his friend’s girlfriend is his responsibility and his girlfriend!..hope this is not very confusing!!…also his friend’s girlfriend who is now his girl/friend has a girlfriend and she has a emotional story to boot!….just your average teen soap opera!!…
This first step into the Murakami territory has been a let down for me! Hopefully the next ones will be better.
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