Here’s my review of the book :
Norwegian woods follows a tale of Toru Watanabe who narrates his life and the influene of his two friend’s death in his life.
Talking about the goods of this book which aren’t much – The characters are super weird and unhinged in their own way and the character dynamics entail and keep the viewer engaged. Storm trooper was one of my favourite characters, nothing special, just a random dude who loves studying M-mmaps and keeps his room clean like a good boy. Talking about our Mc , he has a friend from junior high school named Kizuki who died in an accident and now he and the girlfriend of his friend are all alone in this world as the most important person in their lives has vanished and has joined the afterlife. But gradually Watanabe and Naoko being each other’s emotional support start going out and try to adapt themselves without their lost friend.
Now coming to the problems (there are lot of them) . The juxtaposition set between Watanabe and Naoko’s character was great – One is very rigid and the other’s a bit weak but tries her best to improvise so that she can adapt to the world. But it seems like Murakami didn’t know in which direction to pave her character. I mean he couldn’t explain what was Naoko going through properly, why she couldn’t articulate her feelings , and would often describe it with terms like “somehow” which was very shallow writing. But when it comes to describing Midori’s odd fetishes and her sexual thoughts he would become a literary wordsmith, depicting every sexual fantasies with keen detail. Midori was a good character as well – the girl is just intrusive thoughts but real, but it went too far when she did the thing infront of her late father or why she wouldn’t talk with Watanabe over pety reasons .
I feel like Murakami doesn’t really know how to write women and would often treats them as sexual objects most of the time or wish fulfillment scenarios. He has addressed multiple topics such as Naoko’s depression, Reiko’s backstory or Midori’s childhood but couldn’t expand on the idea and the execution felt often lacking severely. And what is it with the issue of solving any problem ongoing in the story with either sleeping with the girl or a suicide. I was so enthralled into Reiko’s backstory but at the end it also had sex as the major plot point and that too with a child where Reiko was enjoying it . And the last few pages with Reiko were horrendous what were those lines? “Her breasts felt like a 17 years old. It feels like I am violating a 17 year old. ” Are you okay Mr. Murakami ? I thought South of the border west of the sun was the only book that excuded energy of ” Oh I am horny so I am gonna write ” but that book also had some positive points which overshadowed such points – Although I had some problems with the choices Hajime made in his life but that aside, I loved how his crippling depression was handled in the story throughout. Shimamoto would always listen to what Hajime had to say it would be the most mundane things or something that Hajime really aims at. As an active listener I find that really amazing , there is just something magical to hear when someone is talking about something passionately or what they love to do. And South of the border west of the sun also had a great ending imo – How Murakami leaves so many questions the reader desperately wants answered complete mysteries, allowing the reader to fully use their imagination. I always was a Big fan of open endings be it books, comics, Movies – the idea of open ending leaving the audience as they resume their life but the ending still clings to them is what fascinates me and makes me a fan of open ending as the viewer can have hisbown interpretation in the way he wants to put down the final piece of puzzle .
Albeit Being a fan of Open endings , Norwegian woods didn’t even manage do that properly as compared to South of the border west of the sun. Overall to conclude the negatives this book felt like an average Murakami book with pop culture references, horny mc , weird character, man glazing dialogues by female characters and a lot of wasted potential with the female characters especially Naoko .Even Hatsumi was a wasted potential of a character – and what is up with this book with sudden death bombs dropping so casually – all three deaths were dropped so randomly even Naoko’s.
But amidst of all these negative points , the surreal life of Watanabe had some moments which were quite relatable such as the mundane things he likes to do on Sundays living in utter solitude . Although I had so many problems with the book but as the trashman I am I enjoy such dumpster fires which don’t require a lot of braincells to ponder over and are perfect bedtime books.I think I have read enough Murakami for now and After Dark will be my last book for treating his works seriously.
by Disastrous_Channel62