| Norwegian Wood | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 166 reviews)
Sales Rank: 3782
Category: Book
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Label: Vintage
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 298
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0375704027
Dewey Decimal Number: 895.635
EAN: 9780375704024
ASIN: 0375704027
Publication Date: September 12, 2000
Release Date: September 12, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A small miracle September 19, 2008
Murakami has captured me for years with stories about modern Japan and his strange pasta making anti-heroes. The mear thought of him writing a plain romantic novel has kept me from reading this book for years - after finishing it, I can say that all these doubts has been cleared. Even though it lacks the mysterious sheeps and vanishing elephants of his other works, it still is a true Murakami master piece.
Norwegian wood is a extremely moving novel about tragic young love, and as a Murakami love story it is everything one would hope it to be. A terribly intimate story, filled with memorable characters and exceptionally fine prose. Retaining the authors typical musing of life, death, music and literature, in a fine blend with a young person troubled with a world he cannot understand - the world is strange when you're a stranger.
 Earthy, romantic, sad September 14, 2008
This novel is earthy, romantic, sad and very occasionally dull, for after all the protagonist is often bored and lonely. He has few friendships, but those he has, with one exception, are very strong. He has a very strong moral sense, and deep skepticism of the values of the majority of other college students around him. He is delightfully honest.
The novel is well written. What struck me is that while written in the autobiographical style, dialogue is very important, and in fact you sometimes learn important things about the protagonist through dialogue first: (stop if you haven't read book) how much he is in love with Midori, and just how much self discipline it takes to go through the day and remain active. This is quite realistic, as conversation often gives us insight into ourselves.
As an interesting aside with some relevance, Barack Obama's two years attending Columbia University were spent in relative isolation with few friends (source, Wall Street Journal editorial, Sept 11, which was actually objective).
The new Salinger without being repetitive. September 2, 2008
Murakami's Norwegian Wood seems like another Catcher in the Rye without any traces of annoying repetitiveness of themes. Watanabe, the protagonist of the novel, has already become a figure to emulate in some respects...
 An Utter Waste Of Time August 11, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've read three of Murakami's books, and quite frankly, I don't understand his appeal to so many people.
In this book Watanabe is a listless, dull, young man. To give you a taste for his depth, witness the following excerpt of a conversation he had with a friend who, according to Watanabe, had a profound insight into Mozart's music: "...with Itoh's smart and heartfelt commentary ('There - that part., "How about that?')...." Other conversations throughout the book are equally stimulating.
I struggled to get through this book filled with suicide and depression, without any insights.
Haruki's Best August 7, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have read all Murakami's Books mostly in Japanese. I have been in love with the book ever since 16. I recently bought this book because I wanted to see how my favorite book is translated in English. I was deeply impressed by the translation - very accurate and great choice of words to preserve a tone of the book. I totally recommend this book.
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