Norwegian Wood. (Vintage East): Amazon.de: Haruki Murakami: Englische Bücher

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"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" "Norwegian Wood" (Lennon/McCartney).

With Norwegian Wood Murakami, best known as the author of off-kilter classics such as the Wind Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard Boiled Wonderland, finally achieved widespread acclaim in his native Japan. The novel sold upwards of 4 million copies and forced the author to retreat to Europe, fearful of the expectations accompanying his new-found cult status.

The novel is atypical for Murakami: seemingly autobiographical, in the tradition of many Japanese "I" novels, Norwegian Wood is a simple coming of age tale set, primarily, in 1969/70, the time of Murakami's own university years. The political upheavals and student strikes of the period form the backdrop of the novel but the focus here is the young Watanabe's love affairs and the pain (and pleasure) of growing up with all its attendant losses, (self-)obsessions and crises.

The novel is split into two volumes and beautifully presented here in a "gold" box containing both the green book and the red book. Young Japanese fans became so obsessed with the work that they would dress entirely in one or other colour denoting which volume they most identified with. And the novel is hugely affecting, reading like a cross between Plath's Bell Jar and Vizinczey's In Praise of Older Women, if less complex and ultimately less satisfying than Murakami's other, more allegorical, work. He captures the huge expectation of youth, and of this particular time in history, for the future and for the place of love in it. He also saturates the work with sadness, an emotion that can cripple a novel but which here underscores the poignancy of the work's rather thin subject matter. --Mark Thwaite -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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In 1987, when Norwegian Wood was first published in Japan, it promptly sold more than 4 million copies and transformed Haruki Murakami into a pop-culture icon. The horrified author fled his native land for Europe and the United States, returning only in 1995, by which time the celebrity spotlight had found some fresher targets. And now he's finally authorized a translation for the English-speaking audience, turning to the estimable Jay Rubin, who did a fine job with his big-canvas production The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Readers of Murakami's later work will discover an affecting if atypical novel, and while the author himself has denied the book's autobiographical import--"If I had simply written the literal truth of my own life, the novel would have been no more than fifteen pages long"--it's hard not to read as at least a partial portrait of the artist as a young man.

Norwegian Wood is a simple coming-of-age tale, primarily set in 1969-70, when the author was attending university. The political upheavals and student strikes of the period form the novel's backdrop. But the focus here is the young Watanabe's love affairs, and the pain and pleasure and attendant losses of growing up. The collapse of a romance (and this is one among many!) leaves him in a metaphysical shambles:

I read Naoko's letter again and again, and each time I read it I would be filled with the same unbearable sadness I used to feel whenever Naoko stared into my eyes. I had no way to deal with it, no place I could take it to or hide it away. Like the wind passing over my body, it had neither shape nor weight, nor could I wrap myself in it.

This account of a young man's sentimental education sometimes reads like a cross between Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Stephen Vizinczey's In Praise of Older Women. It is less complex and perhaps ultimately less satisfying than Murakami's other, more allegorical work. Still, Norwegian Wood captures the huge expectation of youth--and of this particular time in history--for the future and for the place of love in it. It is also a work saturated with sadness, an emotion that can sometimes cripple a novel but which here merely underscores its youthful poignancy. --Mark Thwaite -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Taschenbuch .

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Murakami forever.. 18. Dezember 2002

Von "fabulanta"

Format:Taschenbuch

".. I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me..". Haruki Murakami could not have chosen a better song for this novel. As usual, he writes about people who struggle to find their place in the world, but here, he doesn't fall info surrealism, which is found to be predominant in most of his other novels.
It's a story about love, friendship and death. Toru Watanabe starts to recall the past after he bumps into his first love Naoko in an overcrowded commuter-train. Naoko was the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki, who committed suicide at the age of 17. Since then, neither of them has been able to relate to other people. They continue to struggle with each other, until Toru realises what Naoko has realised years before- that they are not meant to be together and he has to choose between the future and the past.
This book is stuffed with colourful characters, such as Midori, Toru's new lively girlfriend and counterpart to Naoko, or Reiko, Naoko's only "real" friend in the present and an important help for Toru trying to understand Naoko..
Resume: a wonderful book- read it and get hooked.. and don't forget- there are still more to come ;-)

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Don't have it? Get it! 22. November 2002

Von Holger Feroudj

There's this wonderful book about truly interesting persons, relationships and turning-points beyond imagination - 'Norwegian Wood'. Don't try to analyze Murakami's possible intentions, or think about the 'deeper meaning' and take the book for what it is - entertainment. And what entertainment, I can tell you!!
Hardly any book left such as impression on me as this one. The characters, especially the girl Midori, are that great that I wished they'd be real persons or that Murakami had written more books with those characters. You won't ever get bored reading this book, that's merely impossible. There are unexpected events everywhere, and when I came to (one) the point where something quite sad happened (buy the book and find out for yourself what point I'm talking about) I had to put the book away and breathe for a while - it was just SO unexpected and terribly sad, I was shocked from one sentence to another (take it literally). Few books arouse such feelings in me.
And talking of arouse: This book is very sexy, too. Sexy and exciting.
You will be thrown from one corner of your emotions to another, constantly feeling with the characters, hoping that everything will be going fine or being sad when something terrible happens.
I've read the book twice - and though I already knew the story it wasn't less interesting. In my opinion it's an absolute must-have, you won't regret it.
Moreover, I think it's a good introduction to Murakami's works.
(and if your are STILL considering whether to buy or not to buy this book - BUY IT!!)

herzergreifend romantisch 3. Juli 2000

Von Ein Kunde

Als ich das Buch vor fast 10 Jahren zum ersten Mal gelesen habe, konnte ich es kaum aus der Hand legen. Der Beatles Titel "Norwegian Wood" zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch dieses in Japan damals unglaublich erfolgreiche Buch. Es machte auch mich zur Murakami-Anhängerin. Eine tragisch endende, ansonsten romantische Liebe ist die Handlung, und das Ganze sehr lakonisch erzählt. Die englische Übersetzung ist sehr gelungen. Absolutes Muss für RomantikerInnen. Aber nicht nur für die. Ein Murakami-Roman, der im Gegensatz zu "Hard boiled wonderland" und "Wild Sheep Chase" ohne "verrückte" Gestalten und irreale Orte auskommt.