Friday, August 15, 2014

Review of Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Title: Norweigan Wood
Author: Haruki Murakami
Source: Borrowed from the library
Rating: 4/5









Goodreads Summary:
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.

This was my first Murakami novel. I own Wind-up Bird Chronicles but I decided to pick a shorter novel of his first to make sure I liked his writing before I invested too much time into it. I loved this book and I cannot wait to read more by this author.

The story follows Toru who is a young college student in Tokyo who is completely devoted to a young woman named Naoko.  He is trying to deal with trying to come to terms with his best friends death and deciding what he should be doing with his life. Naoko feels like she is unable to handle the stresses of college life and life without her boyfriend who was Toru's best friend and she checks into a hospital to get away. Toru funds himself torn between waiting for Naoko and reaching out to new young women.

This is a coming of age novel I wish I read earlier because I loved it so much. This is a slow read, I wanted to absorb everything that Murakami was saying so I took my time reading this and savoring it. 

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