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“I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it -- to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once. ”
During this reading of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, I felt more in sync with Toru and, consequently, even more reflective and melancholy than last time. Not that those feelings weren't always present. However, I spent a lot of time thinking about Toru's juggling act with life/relationships and whether it, or any juggling act we perform, really has any meaning. A sense of loss is painted over nearly every page. All is seemingly all doomed to dissolve as soon as it begins. So yeah, I liked this better on a second reading. 4.5 stars.
Original review:
By this point, I've read several Haruki Murakami books. I've really come to appreciate not only his use of language and the meditative quality he evokes, but also the sense of the surreal. Frankly, I like the convoluted twists and turns, the improbable histories and even the talking cats. One of his earlier novels, Norwegian Wood is well-written and has a fairly straightforward plot. It also had that reflective quality I like. So I knew I was reading Murakami, but I wanted the protagonist to look up into the sky and see two moons or have some other reality bleed into our own reality. Was it good? Yes, it's Murakami. This might even be a novel that's preferable to some readers. However, later novels like 1Q84 and The Windup Bird Chronicle appeal to me more.
During this reading of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, I felt more in sync with Toru and, consequently, even more reflective and melancholy than last time. Not that those feelings weren't always present. However, I spent a lot of time thinking about Toru's juggling act with life/relationships and whether it, or any juggling act we perform, really has any meaning. A sense of loss is painted over nearly every page. All is seemingly all doomed to dissolve as soon as it begins. So yeah, I liked this better on a second reading. 4.5 stars.
Original review:
By this point, I've read several Haruki Murakami books. I've really come to appreciate not only his use of language and the meditative quality he evokes, but also the sense of the surreal. Frankly, I like the convoluted twists and turns, the improbable histories and even the talking cats. One of his earlier novels, Norwegian Wood is well-written and has a fairly straightforward plot. It also had that reflective quality I like. So I knew I was reading Murakami, but I wanted the protagonist to look up into the sky and see two moons or have some other reality bleed into our own reality. Was it good? Yes, it's Murakami. This might even be a novel that's preferable to some readers. However, later novels like 1Q84 and The Windup Bird Chronicle appeal to me more.
