{"id":575,"date":"2015-11-26T01:44:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T20:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fableandi.com\/?p=575"},"modified":"2020-04-04T19:33:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-04T14:03:51","slug":"norwegian-wood-haruki-murakami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebooksatchel.com\/norwegian-wood-haruki-murakami\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami"},"content":{"rendered":"
Norwegian Wood<\/em> is a love story set in 1960s in Japan. The book is about the complexities of love, death, mental illness, suicide and the struggle of the characters to get past tragedies in their lives and find happiness with each other.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Norwegian Wood is a complicated love story narrated in a simple manner that raised Haruki Murakami\u2019s position in the literary world to what it is today. The story begins with Toru Watanabe recollecting his younger days at college on hearing the Beatles song, Norwegian Wood. When nineteen, he rekindles his friendship with Naoko who was the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki, who committed suicide when seventeen. Toru falls in love with Naoko as they struggle to come to terms with the tragedy and realize that Kizuki\u2019s death is the bond that binds them as well as limits them. As the story progresses, Toru is faced with the choice of infinitely waiting for Naoko, (who resigns herself to a mental health retreat centre to overcome her grief) or allowing Midori (who he meets at the university and with whom he strikes up an instant connection) to be a part of his life. While Naoko is fragile and delicate and mesmerizes Toru, Midori is outspoken with strong viewpoints and surprises him with her unpredictable nature. Toru being fed up of meaningless sex with random girls, tries to define his relationship with Naoko and Midori, but can never reach a definite conclusion.<\/p>\nReview<\/h3>\n