![]() ![]() There are some things that seem to stand out in a variety of areas of Japanese culture though. ![]() It’s impossible for me to speak from experience on the matter: I have been a tourist in Japan and nothing more. It was enough for the primary character of the novel, Toru Watanabe, to become something of a Holden Caulfield-esque coming of age hero. ![]() However, despite what could be called its international readability, a common theory is that there was something about Murakami’s novel that spoke to people, particularly youth, of Japan in a way that others hadn’t. It is a very North American Japanese novel, at first blush. Norwegian Wood is undoubtedly accessible, having perhaps a dilution of all of these elements as well as huge influence from western music, literature, and even cigarettes and wine. One hears a lot of things about Murakami’s particular style: that it is whimsical, patient, fragmented, and strange. Interesting, then, that many claim “this is the novel that everybody in Japan has read,” and also the first Murakami novel this reviewer has experienced. I had never written that kind of straight, simple story, and I wanted to test myself” (Murakami 295). “Many of my reader’s thought that Norwegian Wood was a retreat for me,” says Haruki Murakami about the novel that propelled him into a new stratosphere of popularity, “For me personally, however, it was just the opposite: it was an adventure, a challenge. ![]()
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