mybookjournal

I was actually in a dilemma…as to whether I should rate this book 4 or 5, reason being the cliff-hanger ending which I seriously can’t put up with but still I could not bring myself to give anything less than 5 either!! To begin with I was so curious that I actually listened to ‘Norwegian wood’ song by Beatles once I started with the first few pages of this book and right then I somehow predicted a melancholic story ahead and I was SO right! Although I really enjoyed the company of the (lonesome) Toru Watanabe, (indifferent) Naoko, (thoughtful) Reiko, (talkative) Midori, (ambitions and unemotional) Nagasawa and (sweet and emotional) Hatsumi they seemed very real and alive to me. Meeting each one of them was a bittersweet experience.

What can I say about the writing it was absolutely spellbinding! The way Murakami unfolds the story, the feelings and the complexity of each characters layer by layer in a simple way, I am sure it’s just going to stay in my mind like forever. Also the approach he takes to illustrate nature was soulful…I could almost feel those rain droplets or the cold chill within. Somehow I never wanted this book to end…but it did! Anyway I am glad I came across such a book which just swept me away with it.

“In the midst of life, everything revolved round death” this is what ‘Norwegian wood” was all about!

If this was just a simple-straightforward writing from Murakami (as he says in the translator’s note) well then I really want to know what his real writing is like!