Norwegian Wood

[Mr. Bungle]

I know this isn't really a writing post, but I am presuming that most of the people who check out this forum are well-read and I would like to get some discussion going about this book.

I just finished Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami and was really blown away by its simplicity and simultaneous complexity. Has anyone else read it?

I am particularly interested in discussing the last paragraph of the book.

Looking forward to responses.

[dozer]

i havent but want to get kafka on the shore, most reviews say its jawsome.

[Mr. Bungle]

I also read The Windup Bird Chronicle which was really all over the place but extremely interesting. I am glad that he has so many books to check out :)

[Something Fast]

My lady love absolutely swears by his novels. I haven't read any of his stuff though, although I have read a bit by David Mitchell, who's supposed to have been heavily influenced by Murakami. I keep meaning to read something by him to see what he's like.

[lostreality]

not what i was expecting this thread to be about.

but, what genre of writing is it?

[Mr. Bungle]

You can't really nail him down to one genre. Norwegian Wood is at its most basic a love story. But it is so much more interesting than just that. The other book by him that I read, THe Windup Bird Chronicle, is also hard to describe. He has a lot of sci-fi type elements, but I would never ever call a book by him sci-fi. I have thoroughly enjoyed the two books that I have read by him and I think you can't go wrong checking out either of the two I mentioned here. Maybe then you can think of what possible genre he writes within.

Also, Norwegian Wood was so popular in Japan I believe he had to move out of the country because he was too big of a celebrity to do anything there. Of course I think the Japanese take things to the extreme sometimes (old lady love dolls on the fdront page for instance), but I think they are correct in celebrating him as an amazing author.

[Bifrost]

Although I do love to have new, popular threads in the Writing Forum, I really think this is more of a Books Forum thread.

I've moved it in there now, but I've left a handy link...

With regard to the Writing Froum folk being well read...Well...Um...I'm the only remaining mod (timformation being AWOL for some time now) and I read a book about every 3 to 6 months...