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Norwegian Wood

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Norwegian Wood

Written by: Haruki Murakami
Narrated by: John Chancer
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About this listen

From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore: A magnificent coming-of-age story steeped in nostalgia, “a masterly novel” (The New York Times Book Review) blending the music, the mood, and the ethos that were the sixties with a young man’s hopeless and heroic first love.

Toru, a serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. As Naoko retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

Stunning and elegiac, Norwegian Wood first propelled Haruki Murakami into the forefront of the literary scene.

©1987 Haruki Murakami (P)2013 Random House Audio Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction Norwegian Literature

What the critics say

“A masterly novel. . . .Norwegian Wood bears the unmistakable marks of Murakami’s hand.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“Norwegian Wood . . . not only points to but manifests the author’s genius.” (Chicago Tribune)

“[A] treat . . . Murakami captures the heartbeat of his generation and draws the reader in so completely you mourn when the story is done.” (The Baltimore Sun)
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I want to start by saying, I used to LOVE Haruki Murakami novels…read them all, even Pinball (not quite as intriguing) and the one he wrote about running. I am drawn in by the cerebral twists and turns, as if one could, we imagine the journeys in detail. Even the descriptions of meals comfort and soothe amidst the chaos or toiling turbulent ethos of the narrative.

I started this audio read by detesting the reader’s voice. I thought it was just a bad day, but then realized it was the submissive, coy portrayal of the female characters in the book that grated on my nerves.

Next I started seeing what my younger self didn’t like in parts of his other novels, the sexualization of all his female characters - more as objects of curious interest or obsession, than characters who have equal richness (not merely additive or addictive presence for the benefit) to the main character. After reading 3/4 of the book, I couldn’t help but compare Murakami’s writing to Irving. It is like masterbation on the page. There is a distant self-righteousness; a disdain in his unaffected questioning of others on some sort of superior (definitely not moral) higher ground.

Now I am compelled to go back to my favourite Hardboiled Wonderland at the End of the World and Kafka on the Shore with new eyes. Will it be worth the trip? No audio read for that journey, thank you very much.

Freudian Slip? Eros IS Murakami’s superego

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A perfectly decent story, except as many critics have pointed out, it is infused with misogynistic undertones throughout. The female characters are not developed as full people in their own right, but as the fetishized phantoms of the author.

The narrator of this audiobook took Murakami’s misogyny one step further by using the exact same vapid cadence and tone for all the female characters regardless of the actual lines being read. This managed to pervert the dialogue such that it became genuinely difficult to understand the intentions behind almost any line spoken by a female character. Arguably, this might make the narrator perfect for this book, as he amplifies Murakami’s misogyny. While listening to the audiobook, I often pictured the lines of female characters as written in my head, and was surprised at how the narrator chose to read them aloud, as they seem to have an entirely different intention in text.

This book was wildly popular among Japanese youth at the time of its release, for good contextual and cultural reasons. Unfortunately, it offers precious little of interest to us today beyond some vague historical contours coloured by Murakami’s own biases.

Misogynistic undertones

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narrator tries to get French names and other musicians from other countries correct, on the other hand he gets the most important name wrong. it's pronounced wa ta na beh, not wa ta na beee

Ignorant narrator, but good acting

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The story made me feel good, worried, uncomfortable at times. It made me laugh in Public.
Beautifully written.

Compelling Story

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Joy Chancer’s voice grated on me the more I progressed. He does this squeaky high-pitched voice every time he reads the dialogue of a female character and it really made the recording difficult to listen to. In terms of the novel itself, Murakami is incredible and I really enjoyed listening to the book except for the annoyingly rendered female dialogue.

Incredible story but irritating narration

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Are the themes life and death or sex and death? Interesting treatment of mental health.

Hmmm

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Excellent story and Toru, the main character and narrator is very relatable. He is real, honest and just trying to get by in a strange world. It’s quite a dark book and many of the characters are living very troubled lives. But it’s a meaningful book and the way he questions life and things that happen is very profound. Highly recommend.

Dark but fascinating story

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I was in the mood for one of murakamis surrealist novels. this was not one of them. This novel has none of the comforts of his other books it reads like something teenage boy would write. He portrays his female characters as either crazy or unbearably annoying. One of them he describes as an old lady (she is 40) as having a wrinkled body and face but with the "tits of a little girl". The sexual descriptions are really disgusting. There is no surrelism in this book just filth and annoyance. I would not waste my time with this one it will just colour the rest of his work in a bad light.

Disgusting

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