One of our book fairies in Oxford, UK, has taken the time to review Norwegian Wood by Murakami before hiding it for someone else to find and enjoy! Here is Amber with her review.

The Plot of Norwegian Wood

Without wanting to give away the complicated life of Toru Wantanabe, this novel deals with his life after the death of his best friend Kizuki when he was younger and how this affects his relationships and attitudes to love. Murakami focuses on the life of Wantanabe and his long-time love interest, Naoko. Also, demonstrating their expeditions through University, working life and mental anguish.

My thoughts of Norwegian Wood

Norwegian wood is a written embodiment of the true emotions in young adult life, focusing on the joys and turmoil of actually falling in love with someone. Dealing with tricky unspoken topics such as suicide and sex, this book truly opens up the mind-set of someone my age, which is why I fell in love with the work of Murakami. Personally, I would really recommend this novel, following the story of Watanabe through his struggle of love, University and friendships, it has an authentic nuance to the story, depicting the life that we don’t think could be expressed through words. Even the use of having the story set in Murakami’s Tokyo, the Eastern life style speaks to anyone dealing with messy issues that are common in day to day life. The use of language used by Murakami also felt like following my own stream of consciousness through lost friendships and heartache.

My favourite review written about this book described it as ‘Upliftingly depressing’ and I think that I exactly what this book achieves. It shows the good with the bad and doesn’t make the story a fairy-tale, it makes it messy and scattered just like real life. I think this is why I enjoyed reading it so much, it really just made sense.

I highly recommend the book especially for the teenage years and early adult. Although I honestly think that anyone who read this would have something to take away from it, an easy read but one with depth, it will draw out emotions and experiences that you thought you had forgotten. I look forward to leaving this book at University before I leave, hopefully someone will discover it and take inspiration from this legendary author!

Thank you to Amber for your review of the book! Have you read Norwegian Wood? Leave a comment below with a mini review.

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