As I write this article I am listening to the song Norwegian wood by the Beatles. This is the best thing about reading. You learn so much, You are exposed to things you never knew existed. You are introduced to people, places and events that were or are important but were lost in time or failed to reach your senses. You are transported into the world of the writer and along with him/her you experience all that moved them, feel the things that impacted them and make your world a little more richer and make your mind wider and smarter than before. A reader with a curiosity is all it takes to have a smart thinking man. I was reading the book Norwegian wood by Haruki Murakami and as I finished the book I decided to listen to the song that was the obvious inspiration for the novel; the song is absolutely beautiful.
This book is a digression from the usual fare created by Mr Murakami. It is not realist fantasy. This book stands out among his list of creations for having no elements of fantasy or magic. It is a down to earth love story, but it could never be categorized as ordinary! As always it does feature a cat though, maybe cats were a good luck charm to Mr Murakami, maybe he thought it brought luck to mention cats in his books. I have read three of his books and all of them have scenes involving cats, the importance of the cats themselves in the scene, varies but they do feature nevertheless.
The best thing I love about the book are the honesty of the characters. They aren't super sensitive lovers, they aren't goody good boys and girls, not one character is a stereotype. Each one has their quirks and the author sees no need to deprive them of these. His mind churned out characters who were interesting and he has shown them just they way they were - no editing to suit the way the world sees people. He has not straight jacketed them to fit into the stereotype of their ages, nationality, profession or any other classification. It is even averred by the protagonist Watanabe at many places - "I am an ordinary guy".
As with all of Mr Murakami's books the theme of loneliness jumps out at you in every page. I can't help but believe that the author must have had been a lonely man in his life, for I cannot believe that a man can describe so much loneliness without actually having experienced it. The description of life of a university student in a hostel made me go back to my hostel days. Reading about this I had a realization that a boy's hostel was the same no matter which part of the world it was in, be it in a college hostel in Coimbatore in India or a privately run hostel in an advanced city like Tokyo.
Mr Murakami's characters all have a sense of justice of their own. They do not conform, they do not behave in ways society defines as appropriate, be it in the way one character talks to his girlfriend at a fancy dinner party he throws or the protagonists physical intimacies with women other than the one he loves. Something seemed extremely relevant to me in the book for the times today, what with groups advocating women's equality and brands adopting it as a selling point. A woman character is depicted as being as raunchy as a man. And yet she is also shown as being extremely sensitive in a scene where the protagonist fails to notice her new hairdo. I loved the fact that Mr Murakami didn't think twice about showing the fact that women have as varied thoughts about physical intimacy as men, they have fantasies as well, they are "dirty" as well. And that's what equality is about, accepting the fact that whether one has a penis or one has a vagina, their minds are capable of the same thoughts!
The book is filled with references to books and music. Music, I really had no idea about any of them mentioned excpet The Beatles and in one instance Simon and Garfunkel. The author refers to "The Great Gatsby" as the greatest book written through one of the characters. The character in reference also makes a statement saying he does not read any book by an author who has not been dead for a minimum of 30 years, such is the distaste for contemporary literature.
And finally about love, after all it is a book about love. Love is not something that is bound by rules. It is not a duty, neither is it a burden. Love in the book is a feeling which is liberating. It is something which is not hard coded. As one of the protagonists friends says when he is torn between a love that is blossoming and one that is not - "These things happen, you have got to take your chance at being happy." This book portrays love as complicated, not definite and not always successful. Love can be beautiful as it can be hurtful. It can be happy as it can be extremely sorrowful. Love is the centerpiece of this book and everything surrounds it beautifully.
This book is a beautiful read - flowing like an unperturbed stream gurgling away happily with scenes of Japan flowing by. If anything can be a problem, it is the peppering of lengthy philosophical rhetoric at a few places. I lost my patience with these, but that does not mean everyone will. A wonderful read all in all.
This book is a digression from the usual fare created by Mr Murakami. It is not realist fantasy. This book stands out among his list of creations for having no elements of fantasy or magic. It is a down to earth love story, but it could never be categorized as ordinary! As always it does feature a cat though, maybe cats were a good luck charm to Mr Murakami, maybe he thought it brought luck to mention cats in his books. I have read three of his books and all of them have scenes involving cats, the importance of the cats themselves in the scene, varies but they do feature nevertheless.
The best thing I love about the book are the honesty of the characters. They aren't super sensitive lovers, they aren't goody good boys and girls, not one character is a stereotype. Each one has their quirks and the author sees no need to deprive them of these. His mind churned out characters who were interesting and he has shown them just they way they were - no editing to suit the way the world sees people. He has not straight jacketed them to fit into the stereotype of their ages, nationality, profession or any other classification. It is even averred by the protagonist Watanabe at many places - "I am an ordinary guy".
As with all of Mr Murakami's books the theme of loneliness jumps out at you in every page. I can't help but believe that the author must have had been a lonely man in his life, for I cannot believe that a man can describe so much loneliness without actually having experienced it. The description of life of a university student in a hostel made me go back to my hostel days. Reading about this I had a realization that a boy's hostel was the same no matter which part of the world it was in, be it in a college hostel in Coimbatore in India or a privately run hostel in an advanced city like Tokyo.
Mr Murakami's characters all have a sense of justice of their own. They do not conform, they do not behave in ways society defines as appropriate, be it in the way one character talks to his girlfriend at a fancy dinner party he throws or the protagonists physical intimacies with women other than the one he loves. Something seemed extremely relevant to me in the book for the times today, what with groups advocating women's equality and brands adopting it as a selling point. A woman character is depicted as being as raunchy as a man. And yet she is also shown as being extremely sensitive in a scene where the protagonist fails to notice her new hairdo. I loved the fact that Mr Murakami didn't think twice about showing the fact that women have as varied thoughts about physical intimacy as men, they have fantasies as well, they are "dirty" as well. And that's what equality is about, accepting the fact that whether one has a penis or one has a vagina, their minds are capable of the same thoughts!
The book is filled with references to books and music. Music, I really had no idea about any of them mentioned excpet The Beatles and in one instance Simon and Garfunkel. The author refers to "The Great Gatsby" as the greatest book written through one of the characters. The character in reference also makes a statement saying he does not read any book by an author who has not been dead for a minimum of 30 years, such is the distaste for contemporary literature.
And finally about love, after all it is a book about love. Love is not something that is bound by rules. It is not a duty, neither is it a burden. Love in the book is a feeling which is liberating. It is something which is not hard coded. As one of the protagonists friends says when he is torn between a love that is blossoming and one that is not - "These things happen, you have got to take your chance at being happy." This book portrays love as complicated, not definite and not always successful. Love can be beautiful as it can be hurtful. It can be happy as it can be extremely sorrowful. Love is the centerpiece of this book and everything surrounds it beautifully.
This book is a beautiful read - flowing like an unperturbed stream gurgling away happily with scenes of Japan flowing by. If anything can be a problem, it is the peppering of lengthy philosophical rhetoric at a few places. I lost my patience with these, but that does not mean everyone will. A wonderful read all in all.
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