LT/ENG
Studentiškas laikotarpis, liūdesys, vienatvė, pasitikėjimas, liga, meilės atsitikimai, savižudybė, pasitikėjimas, nerimas, draugystė, mirtys, augimas, ir visi to meto gyvenime sutikti praeiviai ir jų gyvenimo naštos: uždaras, liūdnas ir tamsus Naoko pasaulis, gyvastinga, netelpanti rėmuose laisva Midori siela, gyvenimo mėtyta ir vėtyta Reiko asmenybė...

Ar žmonės keičiasi metams bėgant?
Ar galima nugalėti tamsą?
Kiek esame skolingi gyvenimui?
Kokia išraiška apibūdina tikrąją meilę?
Kaip paleisti užgulus artimojo netekčiai?

Jeigu būčiau perskaičius knygą studentiškais laikais, emocijos būtų paskandinę to meto mane. Dabarties "aš" priėmiau ramiau, giliau ir paprasčiau, o ir pastarųjų metų žinios apie tai kas "japoniška": alkoholis, savižudybės, depresija ir t.t leido kitaip matyti ir vertinti romano herojų pasirinkimus, reakcijas. Nepaisant to besąlygiškai pasidaviau autoriaus "japoniškai" ramiam, neemocingam, bet labai paveikiam vedžiojimui istorijos labirintais...

Liūdesys

I can't explain it! I want to inhale the pages of this book, grind them up, and snort them right up my nose! I want in placed directly in my brain, my very BLOODSTREAM! Murakami's words make me feel just like Nicole Kidman in that scene in Moulin Rouge where she is rolling around on that fur rug in her negligee, moaning and writhing in pleasure and saying 'Yes! Yes! Dirty words! More! More! Naughty words!' Although Murakami's words aren't so much naughty and dirty as they are prismatic and mysterious. I wish I could weave his sentences into a rug to roll around on. They're magical and mystical... they break my heart.

Well, this was my first encounter with Murakami. And I have to say that I loved it. I cherished every single detail that Murakami meticulously wrote without exhausting the reader.

Superficially speaking, it was a novel centring around "Love" that was the main theme but not the only theme of the book. It touched on the political condition of that time and the rebellious university students' anger or even idiocy against some other political parties, which always caused indifference in the main character, Toru, towards them. I also took the writer's point that he was trying to make about the "love, sex, depression, and grief issues" among people, mostly teenagers.

Toru Watanabe, the main character of the novel, heard the "Norwegian Wood" song by "The Beatles," which was being played at the airport. It triggered a memory and brought him back to 18 years ago when he was a 20-year-old guy studying at university.

[Spoiler Alert] When he was 17, he had a friend, Kizuki, who was Toru's best and only friend. And Kizuki's girlfriend, Naoko. They were always together, hanging out, having fun, and being each other's only friends. With the sudden death, suicide, of Kizuki, everything changed. It seems like with his death, he took a part of the living, a crucial part which was necessary to live, away from them to the deepest part of the dead's world.

[Spoiler Alert] Many things happened, Toru led an oddly sad life from then on. He fell in love with Naoko, slept with her, had many one-night stands, met some new people, fell in love with another girl called "Midori," a lively vivacious one, also kind of the opposite of Naoko when you take a profound look at their personality differences. He met Nagasawa, a rich guy who had an exquisite taste in literature, too, and was living in his dorm. He met Reiko, a real friend of Naoko, when they were living in the mental hospital. Her back story was one of the best parts of the book that I really adored and enjoyed.

Now that I'm writing this, Norwegian Wood is being played in the background, and I'm really moved...

P.S:
I'm happy that I read English translation. Please, please, if you wanna enjoy reading this book, just read it in English. I'm sure that Persian translators have ruined the book by censorship.

Quotes:

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."

"What happens when people open their hearts?
They get better."

"Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment."

"Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that."

"But who can say what's best? That's why you need to grab whatever chance you have of happiness where you find it and not worry about other people too much. My experience tells me that we get no more than two or three such chances in a lifetime, and if we let them go, we regret it for the rest of our lives."

"I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed and that I stood next to you here like this?"

"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."

"No truth can cure the sorrow we feel from losing a loved one. No truth, no sincerity, no strength, and no kindness can cure that sorrow. All we can do is see it through to the end and learn something from it, but what we learn will be no help in facing the next sorrow that comes to us without warning."

"I have a million things to talk to you about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning."

"Letters are just pieces of paper," I said. "Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them, and what vanishes will vanish."

"What a terrible thing it is to wound someone you really care for and to do it so unconsciously."

"Only the Dead stay seventeen forever."

"If you're in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark."

"What makes us the most normal," said Reiko, "is knowing that we're not normal."

"People leave strange little memories of themselves behind when they die."

"Memory is a funny thing. When I was in the scene, I hardly paid it any mind. I never stopped to think of it as something that would make a lasting impression, and I certainly never imagined that eighteen years later, I would recall it in such detail. I didn't give a damn about the scenery that day. I was thinking about myself. I was thinking about the beautiful girl walking next to me. I was thinking about the two of us together and then about myself again. It was the age, that time of life when every sight, every feeling, every thought came back, like a boomerang, to me. And worse, I was in love. Love with complications. The scenery was the last thing on my mind."

"She's letting out her feelings. The scary thing is not being able to do that. When your feelings build up and harden and die inside, then you're in big trouble."

So. Damn. Good. Toru Watanabe is reminded of the love, and of the pain, of his youth every time he hears Beatles' songs such as 'Hey Jude' and... 'Norwegian Wood'. The reader is then cast back to Toru's late teenage and early 20s youth in the late '60s and early '70s centred around Tokyo. A simple premise - an old(er) person recalling their youth? Not with Murakami is it isn't! So. Damn. Good.

Murakami surprised many at the time, by writing a 'normal' novel as opposed to his magical realist mainstays; and he himself admits to be being 'shocked' and 'dismayed' when this book turned him from a niche cult writer to a world famous celebrity author! And therein lies the beauty of this amazing piece of work, as it is anything but normal. The cast of characters are innovative, formidable and brain hurting (yes, hurting!), from the almost callous ultra-realist Nagasawa, to the highly strung but firestorm of almost unhinged practicability on her own terms Midori.

As per usual, his writing is pitch perfect; and in addition the dialogue and some of the exchanges in this book blew me away. This is anything but just a normal novel. FIVE STAR READ - 11 out of 12.

My 2008 one sentence review was: 'An understated masterpiece by Murakami'

Goddammit. I really wanted to hate this book. There's so much about it that I abhor, but I can't bring myself to give it less than three stars.

Sometimes, I joke with my sister that she needs to expand her character repertoire. Usually, her stories feature a nerdy, lonely, odd teenage boy who's hopelessly in love with a girl, usually a manic pixie, who'll never have him. That boy spends most of his time staring at the girl, wondering if she likes another guy, complaining about how she treats him like a child, and writing voyeuristic stories on his computer about said girl.

As I read Haruki Murakami's most popular work -- Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore -- I am forced to come to the conclusion that his stories are exactly like the stories that the nerdy, lonely, odd teenage boy would write whenever he wasn't staring at his manic pixie. Murakami's characters wish they could be Holden Caulfield, but for them, that's a hefty aspiration. No, Murakami's protagonists -- if you can even call them protagonists -- are borderline self-inserts, almost akin to the male leads in those horrid bro-comedies, written for nerdy, lonely, odd teenage boys -- and nerdy, lonely, odd men.

Before you dismiss my criticisms, lets take a moment to think about this. What female characters can you relate to in his novels? They aren't actually characters. They're meant to force our so-called protagonist through his arc, often through eye-roll worthy sex-scenes that these nerdy, lonely, odd teenage boys wish they could have. And, mind you, these protagonists don't just have regular sex -- they have mind blowing sex. And they don't just have it with one girl -- they have it with multiple girls, who all praise his sexual prowess.

These girls don't develop past their base stereotypes -- stereotypes typically found in any popular manga. Like Naruto. Or Clannad. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Ryou, Nagisa, Naoko, Midori, Reiko, whatever.

But these nerdy, lonely, odd teenage boys are too pretentious for manga. Therefor, they need their literary novels, strife with plotless melodrama, navel-gazing, and lots of sex with luke-warm females.

Please don't tell me that I don't get the brilliance behind Murakami's words. I've read Salinger, Maugham, and Fitzgerald. They do it better. They don't write self-inserts for their audience. And while their female characters are occasionally woe-fully underdeveloped, they don't worship the protagonist of their respective novels. As a female, I wonder what these women see in Murakami's males. They're nothing more than the Japanese version of the manic pixie. But then I remember that these females are just kuunderes and tsunderes -- nothing I haven't seen in any slice of life manga filled with nerdy, lonely, odd teenage boys who stare wistfully into the sky while cherry blossoms fall upon their silvery, wispy hair.

In fact, if you're a fan of this novel, I'd like to introduce you to Makoto Shinkai. He's a director with a style akin to Hayao Myazaki and a pen that lacks his talent. His characters stare at each other and wax emo poetry, akin to what you'd find on deviantart, in voiceover while pretty pictures float over the screen. That is how I felt while I was reading this novel. The prose is quite good, but the story, plot, and characterization fall short on every mark.

What exactly was the purpose of this novel?

Contrary to popular belief, The Catcher in the Rye has a purpose. I'm lost at the comparisons between Holden and Toru. Holden's little brother died from cancer a few years prior to the novel's opening. I think that's enough to justify his angst, considering that during that time period, his death was probably more painful than it would be in present day. If you've read the misery-porn that is My Sister's Keeper, you'll have an idea of how cancer effects fictional characters.

Toru's best friend committed suicide. I'll give his depression a pass. That's about it. His countless sexploits honestly made me want to introduce him to Anita Blake. They'd have fun together.

And yes, I know there are guys who attract multiple women and have various sexual relationships. Toru's sex life, however, was not presented in a realistic light. It was voyeuristic. I did not know why these women liked him and, more importantly, why they deemed him a sex god.

If you're wondering why so much of this review is devoted to sex -- here's the answer -- the novel is equally devoted to sex. Sex, death, loneliness, depression, and extreme oddities that even James Joyce would raise an eyebrow to.

The sheer pretentiousness of the protagonist and his friends is enough to elicit an exasperated sigh.

The better I got to know Nagasawa, the stranger he seemed. I had met a lot of weird people in my day, but none as strange as Nagasawa. He was a far more voracious reader than me, but he made it a rule never to touch a book by any author who had not been dead at least 30 years.

"That's the only kind of book I can trust," he said.

"It's not that I don't believe in contemporary literature," he added, "but I don't want to waste valuable time reading any book that has not had the baptism of time. Life is too short."

"What kind of authors do you like?" I asked, speaking in respectful tones to this man two years my senior.

"Balzac, Dante, Joseph Conrad, Dickens," he answered without hesitation.

"Not exactly fashionable."

"That's why I read them. If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. That's the world of hicks and slobs. Real people would be ashamed of themselves doing that. Haven't you noticed, Watanabe? You and I are the only real ones in this dorm. The other guys are crap."

This took me off guard. "How can you say that?"

"'Cause it's true. I know. I can see it. It's like we have marks on our foreheads. And besides, we've both read The Great Gatsby."

Because of course, special snowflakes, literature is only good if you deem it worthy, and if someone doesn't like what you like they're a hick or a slob. Please, jump thirty years into the future and become acquainted with your indie-than-thou hipster counterparts. They enjoy sipping coffee at bistros while they twirl their thriftstore eco-friendly scarves and discus the plights of starving African children while they listen to The Smiths, watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (and complain about the American adaptation of Open Your Eyes -- Vanilla Sky), while they read pretentious novels such as this to feel like they're superior to their peers. They probably jerk off to their liberal arts degrees at night while they fantasize about Charlie Kaufman.

It doesn't surprise me that this novel was popular amongst teens and young adults. Here, they have a lackluster Holden Caulfield to look up to. One who never realizes that, he too, is a "phony". We get the occasional dismissal of Nagasawa's ways, but they come late and are rather pathetic. Our passive protagonist does nothing but watch his so-called friend destroy his girlfriend bit by bit. He comforts her, offers her advice, but never tells Nagasawa off.

As I read through the scenes with Nagasawa, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. And, of course, this special Gary Stu -- who reads American literature, has a huge penis, can hook up with any girl, charm anyone, get anything he wants, who's rich, who's bound for success, who's one of the best students in their university, has a nice, intelligent, steady girlfriend, and claims to have slept with seventy girls -- chooses Toru as his friend. Wish fulfillment anyone?

As for Toru's sexual relationship with Naoka? He took advantage of her. This could be considered rape. She was not emotionally sound. She could not give consent. Would Toru have had sex with her if she was drunk and he was sober? Knowing him, probably so. And he'd have some artistic, pretentious excuse. But here's Toru's take on it:

I slept with Naoko that night. Was it the right thing to do? I can't tell. Even now, almost 20 years later, I can't be sure. I suppose I'll never know. But at the time, it was all I could do. She was in a heightened state of tension and confusion, and she made it clear she wanted me to give her release.

Because, of course, when a girl is crying over her dead ex-boyfriend, you just have to have sex with her. It's the only thing that'll make her feel better. And, of course, she's a virgin. And, of course, she has an orgasm because Toru is just that good.

What I don't understand is his hypocritical attitude towards sex. Doesn't he realize that he's just like the girls he has random one night stands with? He's no better than they are, but he describes them with such disdain, as if by being male, he's better than they are for wanting meaningless sex, but dirty for being with them. Later on in the novel, he regrets his attitude towards sex -- for two paragraphs. And that's only for his six month girlfriend. The other eight girls are "stupid" girls for whatever reason.

I'm also lost at Murakami's portrayal of sex for females. It's like he thinks women don't enjoy sex or masturbation unless they're having sex with a man. The girls give Toru hand jobs and blow jobs, while he gives nothing in return. And if he is "giving" it's when he's having sex with a girl who needs "release". From his mouth:

"It includes every man on the face of the earth," I explained. "Girls have periods and boys wank. Everybody."

Midori is something of a nymphomaniac, but when she actually gets into bed with Toru, she ends up giving him a hand job. What does he do for her? If you guessed nothing, you're right.

As hardly anything happens during the course of this novel. it would be pointless to comment on the pacing, but as I anticipated the introduction of Midori (who was nothing more than the standard manic pixie dream girl, down to an actual pixie cut, but still more entertaining than Toru and Naoko) I was rather disappointed to find that I had to slog through 60 pages before she made an appearance. This is why I hate passive protagonists (by the way, that's an oxymoron). They do nothing but sit on their pompous little asses and sip whiskey while they read John Updike, comment on their lost loves, gaze out their windows, write achingly emo love letters, and dream of dropping out of college because everything is just so beneath them.

Now, what did I like about this novel? Toru's interactions with Midori. His conversations with her are what kept my interest. They were beautifully written and gave Toru a spark of personality. But even they didn't give this book meaning. A few romantic scenes with fireflies, beer, kissing, and conversations about death won't save a novel. For me, this was like the anti-thesis of Looking for Alaska or The Catcher in the Rye. There was little humor, little focus, and few dynamic characters.

Naoko and Reiko didn't feel like real character. They felt like what a male wanted a female to be like. I suppose my greatest disappointment was that I was expected something profound, because I loved the premise and few sections, but the rest fell flat. It felt unreal, like a fantasy a nerdy, lonely, odd teenage boy would've conjured up for himself. Especially Naoko's commitment to Kizuki. And Reiko, like almost every female in this novel, had to have a sexual relationship with Toru, though she's old enough to be his mother and acts like an older sister. And, of course, it's the greatest sex of her life. Best of all? Murakami describes it all in pornographic detail. Almost all of the sex scenes are ridiculously gratuitous, but Murakami would have us believe that they're for "release".

The blurb tells readers that this is a novel about moving on from grief. The problem is that there are no attempts to move on. The characters languish in their grief, roaming blindly in their pretentiousness, and fizzle out towards the end. Outside forces act on them, but they do nothing.

I want to know what the purpose of this novel was. While the description was nice, the dialog was rather on the nose. The characters say everything they feel at any given moment. I won't even start on Toru's thoughts. I like the premise. I like forbidden love. I like love triangles, depressed girls, and tsunderes. I do not like 350 pages of pointless angst, sex, weirdness, and quaint descriptive prose. For me, this was the equivalent of Twilight without the vampires and with a male narrator. It has its moments, but as a whole, it's an odd, painful experience. There's so much good in this novel, but it's buried underneath unnecessary prose and an odd chauvinistic tone.

I'd only recommend this novel if you're ready to roll your eyes at various moments. Toru's moments with Midori and her father are sweet. They bring out an interesting side to his character. His moments with Reiko were interesting and his moments with Naoko held potential. In the end, he goes through a small change. But it's not enough for me to give this a full four stars.

3.5 stars. I will, however, check out the movie. The poster is pretty beautiful as well as the trailer but, like the premise, it's probably a lie. If you want a modern coming of age story named after a classic rock song check out Into the Great Wide Open by Kevin Canty. It lacks a love triangle, but it's much, much better.

I will never be able to fault Murakami’s style, but god I hate his writing.

It is just so disappointing.

This book had beautiful moments of atmospheric prose. But the content was so slimy and seedy, and made me feel like I need a bath.

And Murakami has no idea how to write women.

UGH!!!
This book bugged the hell out of me for a few reasons:
#1. There is a somewhat extended passage devoted to a lesbian encounter that wouldn't be so terrible in and of itself, as sex in general is a major topic BUT the novel as a whole leaned towards describing the physiological experience the woman were having and would brush over the mens again and again. There would be like 5 paragraphs on the woman and then 1 sentence were it would say something along the lines of, "she took me in her hand and I came".

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

It seemed like an exercise in writing (hmmmm, what would it be like to write from the females perspective) more than a contributor factor to the story.

#2. The girls in this book were all needy, dysfunctional, emotional or detached but sexy as all get out while the male was unsentimental, level headed and also sexy.

#3. the main male character had sex with 3 of the girl main characters (as well as countless unnamed characters) and apparently he was FABULOUS at it because 2 of the characters decided that they would never have sex again. that it could never measure up.

OH BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTHER!!!!!!!!!!!

This Story is on one side a story of misadventure and a melancholic exploration of adolescent love and another side a thought-provoking and poignant study of memory, morality and mortality. Murakami never disappoints and always writes with a poetic richness that leaves almost every line hanging with symbolic possibility, loved it!
The main protagonist takes you back to the 1960s and his youthful goings on with his peers, his adventures are steamy so comes with adult warning! The story is set in thriving Tokyo and also shifts location to a relaxed mountainous retreat. You really get to love the characters that Murakami creates which I also felt with his other novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. To think that his works have been translated from Japanese into English and still hold a poetic and deeply thought-provoking quality is truly mesmerising stuff. It's by no means just a love story. This story is more about lived experiences, where his other novels have tones of supernatural and incorporated mind games. The book title if you are wondering is taken from a Beatles track 'Norwegian Wood' which is one of the novel's characters favourite songs.

There is a movie adapted from this book which is worth checking out, that was what gave me the incentive to read this book during April instead of 'Kafka on the Shore' of which i was more eager to read before this title. Thanks to the movie release prompting me, turned out was one excellent story of Love and Loss. Considering I used same procedure 'read the book watch the movie' with a few other novels and was disappointed with books like 'Let the right one in' 'Girl who played with fire' 'Never let me go' and 'Rosemary's baby' theres still hope for watching the movie adaptations of these titles, now I need to find time to watch these movies.
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Review also here on my webpage

YouTube kitap kanalımda Japon edebiyatı hakkında daha detaylı bilgi edinebilirsiniz: https://ytbe.one/QbT0zmxxnoM

BRUH. Bu kitabı tek kelimeyle özetleyecek olsaydım kocaman bir BRUH derdim. Hatta bu kitabın gözünüzde daha iyi canlanabilmesi açısından küçük bir örnekle başlayayım. Livaneli'yi ve Elif Şafak'ı alın, ikisini bir Uzakdoğu restoranına yemek yemeye götürün, sonra ikisine de yarasa çorbası içirin... İşte alın size İmkansızın Şarkısı kitabı!

Şimdi kitaba böylesine düşük bir puan verdim diye bu puanı kitabın içerdiği yoğun cinsellikten ötürü verdiğimi sanıp beni kendi edebiyat çarmıhlarına germek ve kanlı bir ayin düzenlemek isteyen Murakami holiganları olacaktır elbette. Ama yanılacaklar... Kitaba neden bu puanı yakıştırdığımı söylemeden önce gelin bazı noktalardan bahsedeyim.

Öncelikle bir kitabı bitirdiğimde o kitap hakkında hem Türklerin hem de yabancı okurların başka platformlarda yazdığı pek çok yorumu okurum, böylece farklı milletlerin bir kitap özelinde nasıl düşündüğünü anlayabileceğim harman bir veri toplarım. Bunların hepsini kendi düşüncelerimle karşılaştırırım ve şu an okumakta olduğunuz incelemeyi oluştururum. Bu kitap özelinde ise yabancı okurların yaptığı bazı olumsuz yorumlarda yanlış tespitler olduğunu fark ettim.

Yabancı okurların yaptığı yorumlarda bu kitap, çok fazla cinsel sahnenin bulunduğu, karakterlerin sevişmek için her fırsatı kolladığı, kadın karakterlerin zayıf, basit ve kolay elde edilebilir gözükmek için ellerinden geleni yaptığı şeklinde farklı eleştiriler almış. İyi de, Japon bir yazarın Japonya'da geçen ve Japon karakterler içeren bir kitabını Japon toplum yapısındaki cinsellik ve kadının rolüyle değil de kendi milletlerimizin ahlaki değerleri ve kabulleri üzerinden yorumlayacaksak bunun ne anlamı kalır ki? Yabancı okurların bu yazdıklarıma ulaşamayacaklarını biliyorum ama olur ya belki bir gün yolları bu siteye düşer ve Google Translate üzerinden bu incelemeyi çevirmek isterler, olur mu olur...

Japonlar hakkında küçük bir bilgi vermem gerekirse, yıllarca Japonya'da yaşamış ve orayı, insanlarını gözlemlemiş olan Onur Ataoğlu'nun Japon Yapmış kitabına göre ""Evlenmeden olmaz" anlayışı yerine "olmadan evlenilmez" prensibinin benimsendiği" bir cinsel dünyaları var Japonların. [s. 92] Yani Japonlarda cinsellik bizim gibi bir tabu değil. Gençler özgürce, istedikleri kişiyle istediklerini yapabiliyorlar. Bu, bizim ahlaki değerlerimize uyar ya da uymaz, konumuz bu değil. Bu yüzden kitaplar da yazıldıkları milletin değerleri ve kültürleri perspektifinde değerlendirilmelidir diye düşünüyorum.

Çok küçük bir ekleme daha yapmak istiyorum. Yine Onur Ataoğlu'nun Japon Yapmış kitabının dediği gibi "Japon toplum yapısına göre bir kadının kendi görüşü yoktur" [s. 102] Gördüğünüz gibi yabancı okurların bu kitap hakkında yaptıkları olumsuz yorumları çürütmüş oldum. Kitapta yoğun bir cinsellik varsa bu, Japonların cinsel tercihlerinden dolayıdır, kitaptaki kadınlar zayıf ve kolay elde edilebilir gibi yansıtılmışsa bu da yine Japonların ataerkil toplum yapısında kadınların kendi görüşlerinin bile olmasına izin verilmemesinden dolayıdır. Bu yüzden bu kitabın 2 yıldız ederlik kısmı, bence, Murakami'nin kendi kültürünün özgür anlayışını kitabında iyi yansıtmış olmasından dolayıdır.

Kitaptaki cinselliğin boyutuyla ilgili eleştirebileceğim tek kısım bir tecavüz güzellemesinin olması:
"Eğer gece gece aklınıza birine tecavüz etmek gelirse, aman sakın karıştırmayın" dedi Reiko. "Soldaki kırışık olmayan vücut Naoko'nunki."
"Yalancı. Benimki sağdaki yatak" dedi Naoko." [s. 171]

Haha, amma komikmiş Reiko ve Naoko... Yani şu satırları bir Türk yazarımız yazsaydı emin olun o kişinin ağzı yüzü çoktan linç olmuştu. O yüzden de tecavüz konusunun ırkı, cinsiyeti, kültürü, zamanı veya milleti olduğunu düşünmüyorum. Tecavüz, tecavüzdür. Sonucunda kalıcı psikolojik hasarların kaldığı, güzellemesi veya en ufak bir esprisinin bile kabul edilemeyeceği, zamana, kültüre bağlı olmayan ve evrensel bir konudur.

Ayrıca olumsuz kısma geçmeden önce benden size küçük bir tüyo olsun... Murakami gibi kitaplarında Batı'nın değerlerine ve kültürüne çok yer veren yazarlarla Mişima gibi kendi değerlerine bağlı geleneksel yazarların kitaplarını karşılaştırmalı olarak değerlendirirseniz kendi okuma serüveninizde çok ilerlersiniz. Mesela Dostoyevski de bir Panslavist'ti, Slav değerlerini savunuyordu ve ölümüne doğru da Rus milli halk değerlerine çok bağlı hale bir yazar haline geldi. Bunun tam tersi, Turgenyev de genel olarak liberal Batılılaşmayı ve Avrupalılaşmayı savunuyordu. Turgenyev ve Dostoyevski arasında yapabileceğiniz karşılaştırmalı edebiyat incelemelerini, Mişima ve Murakami gibi Japon yazarlar ya da Orhan Kemal, Fakir Baykurt gibi toplumcu gerçekçi ve Oğuz Atay, Yusuf Atılgan gibi bireyci Türk yazarlar arasında da yapabilirsiniz.

Gelelim kitaba benim neden 5 üzerinden 2 yıldız verdiğime... Arkadaşlar bu kitap dümdüz bir kitap. Yani bu kitabı okuyup da kendimi kitap okumuş olarak saymazdım ben olsam. Hiçbir esprisi ve hiçbir edebi kaygısı yok yani. Livaneli ve Elif Şafak kitaplarında olduğu gibi dil, biçim, edebi haz ve üslup açısından okuruna katabileceği hiçbir şey yok. Bu kitabı "Japon Cinselliğinde Öğrenmeniz Gerekenler" başlığı altında kurgu dışı ve öğretici bir kitap olarak yayımlayın daha isabetli ve daha iyi olur. Çünkü bu şekliyle kesinlikle bir edebi değeri yok bence.

Hem bu kitap sadece 40-50 sayfa bile olsaymış gerçekten de yeterli olurmuş. Çünkü 370 sayfa kitapta boş boş gevezelikten başka bir şey gördüğümü söyleyemem. Bu kadar dümdüz ve edebi kaygı içermeyen bir kitabın da yazarın popüler olmasını sağlayan esas kitap olduğunu duyunca çok şaşırdığımı söylemem gerekiyor. Yani bu kitabı okuduğum zaman içerisinde SüngerBob Kare Pantolon ve Patrick'in maceralarını izleseydim kendime daha çok şey katardım diye düşünüyorum.

Murakami'nin diğer kitaplarında gerçek ve gerçeküstünün başarılı bir şekilde harmanlandığını okumuştum fakat maalesef ki bu kitabı benim için büyük bir fiyasko oldu. Yani bence İmkansızın Şarkısı kitabı da "ölmeden önce okunması gereken kitaplar" listelerinde değil, "okumadan önce ölünmesi gereken kitaplar" listelerinde olmalı. Bu kitabı okumazsanız hiçbir şey kaybedeceğinizi düşünmüyorum. 370 sayfa boyunca yazarın hiçbir edebi kaygı gütmeden dümdüz bir kitap yazmasını okumak yerine pek çok başka nitelikli kitabı gerek benim önerilerimle gerekse de kendi keşiflerinizle bulabileceğinizi ve okuyabileceğinizi düşünüyorum.

Esas "İmkansızın Şarkısı", kitaplara karşı hissedilen olumsuz düşüncelerin sırf tepki almak uğruna bir yerlerde belirtilmemesi, yazılmaması ve bu yüzden de başka okurların kendi zamanlarını kaybetmelerine sebep olmaktır. Olumsuz eleştirilerin belirtilmesini "imkansız"laştıran şey, sizin başka insanlardan alacağınız tepkilere, kendi düşündüklerinizden daha çok önem veriyor oluşunuzdur. O halde bu yazımı buraya kadar okuyan sizlerden ricam, bugünden sonra bizim için zorla imkansızlaştıran şeylerin şarkılarını kendi düşüncelerinizle kimseden çekinmeden yazabilmeniz yönündedir. Siz, kendi benliğinizle, kendi düşüncelerinizle biriciksiniz.

Πρώτο βιβλίο για το 2019 και χαίρομαι που επέλεξα να είναι αυτό. Το λάτρεψα! Η αφήγηση του Μουρακάμι είναι τόσο ζωντανή που καθ'όλη τη διάρκεια της ανάγνωσης ζούσα κι εγώ στο Τόκιο μαζί με τον Τόρου Βατανάμπε και όλους τους ανθρώπους που στιγμάτισαν τη φοιτητική, και όχι μόνο, ζωή του.
Πλέον, το τραγούδι Norwegian wood των Beatles θα μου θυμίζει αυτή τη μελαγχολική μα συγχρόνως γλυκιά ιστορία, ακριβώς όπως θυμίζει στον Τόρου τη πρώτη του αγάπη.

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
Norwegian Wood ~~ Haruki Murakami



WOW ~~ what a terrific read Murakami's Norwegian Wood is! I loved this book. Even without the presence of talking cats, hollow earth monsters, and dimensional shifting characters, Norwegian Wood is a magical read. Best of all, we still get those Murakami flourishes of The Beatles (obviously), references to THE GREAT GATSBY, a character or two with uniquely large penises, and cats of the non-talking variety.

RANDOM THOUGHT 1: How brilliant to build and structure an entire novel around two lines from a lyric ~~
I once had a girl
Or should I say she once had me



After reading many reviews here, I believe my take on Norwegian Wood to be quite different than most readers. This is Toru's story from start to finish. It is not the story of the love affair between Toru and Naoko as so many claim. Naoko, is a supporting character in Toru's journey as are Midori, Kizuki, Nagasawa & Reiko. I understand the fascination with Naoko, the doomed heroine we wish to save, but she is not the core of this story. The soul of this story is Toru ~~ we all wish we had a Toru in our life. It is Toru's journey we are embarking upon.

RANDOM THOUGHT 2: Norwegian Wood is Murakami's homage to THE GREAT GATSBY with Toru cast in the Nick Carraway role; this makes the others loosely cast ~~ Naoko is Daisy Buchanan, & Kizuki is Jay Gatsby. This would make Midori ~~ Jordan Baker, Nagasawa ~~ Tom Buchanan & Reiko ~~ Myrtle Wilson. It's not as far fetched as you are initially thinking.

OK ~~ let's move onto a proper review.

“What happens when people open their hearts?"
"They get better.”
Haruki Murakami ~~ Norwegian Wood



I found Norwegian Wood to be a beautifully optimistic book in the end. But it was a painful journey to arrive there. It is a wonderful book filled with some of Murakami's most beautiful prose. Our hero is Toru Wanatebe, a charming, honest, straight forward, no nonsense young man. Toru is perhaps Murakami's most easily identifiable lead character in all his books. Toru is wise beyond his years, a very deep thinker, and reads classic literature ~~ Mann, Fitzgerald, Hemingway. And he is very fucked up.

The story is told by Toru ~~ again, let me be clear on this. Norwegian Wood is the story of Toru's journey into adulthood; Norwegian Wood is not the love story of Toru and Naoko. To make it so limits what Murakami achieves ~~ and what he achieves is brilliant. Toru moves to Tokyo for his university studies because he wants to get away from a difficult event ~~ the suicide of his best friend Kizuki. Kuzuki's death has shattered Toru; his only way forward is to move on.

Naoko, the girlfriend of Kuzuki also comes to Tokyo for the same reason; a chance encounter one day brings them together. Toru is in love with Naoko but Naoko cannot love him back; she is broken. She is filled with a darkness that no one can penetrate. She isn't fighting demons; she is the demon.

Into this world comes Midori; she is the anti-Naoko ~~ fun, vivacious and full of life. But as with everyone else in this world, Midori is broken as well. Midori falls in love with Toru; but the road to love is filled with obstacles. They each struggle to keep their demons in check in this world built upon passion, grief, sex, denial, friendships and death ~~ lots of death.



Toru is increasingly torn by what he perceives to be his duty to Naoko and his feelings for Midori. The problem is that Naoko is incapable of love. She has never been able to love anyone. We do not learn the reason for Kizuki's suicide, but I believe it is due to Naoko's inability to love him. Kizuki has been devoted to Naoko his entire life; they grew up together. At 17, I believe he came to the realization that the love he felt for Naoko was not returned & never would be. To Naoko, their relationship was a game. Naoko does not have relationships, instead she plays games with the emotions of those who love her. Even her relationship with Reiko is built upon these games she plays.

Naoko is broken beyond repair, and she knows it. Yet she continues to play games with Toru. It will be many years before Toru realizes Naoko did not love him and was incapable of love; I'm sure he comes to realize Naoko's hand in Kizuki's death as well. Toru is the rock that so many build their lives on, and yet when with Naoko he becomes weak-willed and blue. She strings him along leading him to believe she desires him, but it is all a game. And there is always the ghost of Kizuki casting a shadow over the two of them ~~ a ghost that still haunts Naoko.

And there is Midori; she loves Toru, is available to him emotionally in a way that Naoko will never be, and best of all, she is not looking for a savior. If anything, Midori can save Toru. And yet Toru cannot commit to her. He is frozen. It is Toru’s indecisiveness that makes him live a life filled with drinking, casual sex, uneasy friendships, forced isolation, regret and melancholia. I told you Toru is fucked up.



Murakami, while emphasizing themes of death, love and disconnectedness, on Toru's journey, does not ignore the details Toru's day to day life as a university student. We journey with Toru to his classes, part time jobs and drinking at clubs with his only male friend, Nagasawa: we experience Toru's forays with casual sex and hookups and his inability to relate to the world around him. We feel the pressures on Toru to make choices at a young age. I loved Toru, wanted him as friend and was so angry at the poor choices he made along this journey.

Now, about that ending ~~ many of you who read Norwegian Wood have complained about the vagueness of the ending. I disagree. I think it was one of Murakami's clearest endings. Throughout Norwegian Wood, Toru never seems able to define himself apart from the people around him. He states himself that he is nothing special, possesses no special skills. He even describes his penis as ordinary. He's constantly the third wheel in his relationships ~~ Kizuki & Naoko, Naoko & Reiko, Nagasawa & Hatsumi. He tells stories about his roommate to impress people all the while never really telling anyone, including the reader much about himself. Toru defines himself by his perceived responsibility to be Naoko's emotional stability. With her gone, he's suddenly lost his purpose. The one thing he's been living for is gone and now he has to choose to move forward with his life as himself, not as Kizuki's friend, not as Naoko's lover, but as Toru. For the first time he must navigate the world as Toru. How liberating and terrifying it must be for him to be free from the past for the first time in his life. The subtlety of the ending perfectly reflects the delicateness and elusiveness with which Murakami renders this story of youth. He doesn’t wallow in the emotions but lets us feel Toru’s bewilderment as he approaches the crossroads of his life. Deceptively simple in terms of plot, the writing is so beautiful & the result is surprisingly affecting.

In the end, Norwegian Wood is a book which you can't help but loving. Murakami wins the reader over with abundant charm, echoes of youth, and a story we can all relate to.

I’m late to the Murakami party, but I’m glad I arrived. People here seem to be enjoying themselves, passing his books around enthusiastically while ordering many rounds of sake and Japanese beer and nibbling on cucumber with nori and soy sauce. I think I’ll stay a while.

Last year I read What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – his book on long-distance running - and quite enjoyed it. But this is the first book of his fiction I’ve read. I hear it’s atypical Murakami: no magic realism, no noir.

What a strange book this is, comprised of simple, unshowy sentences, lots of muted emotions and understatement. It took a while to work its magic on my mind and imagination, but it eventually did. He plants symbols: a forest, a well. The melancholy Beatles song, a fave of some of the characters, kept going through my head as I read. Youth suicide seems to be a major theme. So is the nature of love and friendship. There are erotic and sensual passages.

Gradually, oh so gradually, the book began to affect me. It’s all about memory, moody atmosphere, accepting things you can do nothing about but trying to learn from one’s mistakes. It’s about enjoying the view.

There’s a mournful, elegiac feel to it, right from the beginning, when the 37-year-old writer, Toru (the book feels autobiographical but I don’t think it is) looks back on his intense relationship 20 years earlier with his friend Naoko.

For a long time, Naoko, Toru and Kizuki were inseparable, and then Kizuki died. Toru was the last person to see him alive. Naoko checks herself into a facility, and Toru visits her and her friend Reiko there.

Reiko’s story – one of many powerful multi-page monologues – will break your heart.

Toru also takes a shine to his fellow student Midori, a high-spirited woman who’s got her own problems but a much different approach to them. She provides a boisterous, life-affirming contrast to the rather glum Naoko.

And then there’s Toru’s womanizing friend Nagasawa. One of the most poignant sections in the book concerns Nagasawa’s girlfriend Hatsumi. Toru informs us of her suicide, and then we go back to see a scene between Hatsumi and Toru that, in retrospect, is terribly moving.

In fact, Murakami plays with chronology a lot, and I think it’s this structure, this gradual accretion of details, that has a cumulative emotional effect.

I came to admire Toru, too, for his truthfulness. He’s a little hard to read – kind of like Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby, a book he loves – but he’s got a code of honour. He never lies. He tries to do what’s right, even when he feels powerless.

I’m not sure if his obsession with Western things is typical of a Murakami protagonist: there are references to Mike Nichols’s The Graduate, Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, songs by the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Oh yeah, the book is set in the late 60s and early 70s, when the cultural shifts occurring in the West must have seemed liberating.

I was surprised with how little Japanese culture itself is referenced. But it’s telling that this was Murakami’s monster breakthrough book in his own country.

Clearly, it’s connected with people around the world, too. Finding your voice, discovering your vocation, surviving death and unrequited love: post-adolescent angst is common wherever you are.