Dec. 26th, 2023

shewhomust: (mamoulian)
D. pressed on me a copy of Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. I've heard much praise for it in the past, though never anything that made me want to read it: now seemed like the time to give it a try.

I found the first chapter heavy going: after that I got into the swing of it, and was absorbed enough that I have read it all in a couple of days: I wasn't expecting that. Still without enthusiasm, though.

On page 131 someone says to the narrator: "You've got this funny way of talking... Don't tell me you're trying to imitate that boy in The Catcher in the Rye?" and I thought "At last!" because I'd been thinking that this was The Catcher in the Rye, only at much greater length. Also, maybe Toru is nicer than Holden Caulfield: he thinks he's the weird one, rather than dismissing everyone else as phonies... (I wonder if he does have a funny way of talking. I can't tell.)

Adolescent angst. Life and death (mostly but not exclusively suicide); sex and (an inordinate amount of) alcohol. What am I not getting here? Because clearly I am missing something.

Two things I want to know. One, what happened to the character he calls the Storm Trooper? Yes, I suppose he illustrates how characters come into your life and then drift out of it, but I thought he deserved a point of view.

And two, why Norwegian Wood? I know it's Naoko's favourite Beatles song, and I know that having a favourite Beatles song tells us something about the place and time she lived in, but why that particular song? I'm fond of it, but I'd be deterred from proclaiming it my favourite by uncertainty about what happens in it, and why: was Naoko's English good enough to understand and be puzzled by the words, and to like that uncertainty, or did she just like the tune? Or the cryptic title? (I can see why it works better than most songs as the title of the novel, but it would be cheating for an author to wish it on his character for that reason, wouldn't it?)

I'm glad to have read it. I even quite enjoyed reading it, though not enough to want more Murakami.

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