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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
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Now a major motion picture.When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki.Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire - to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire - to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marches into his life and he has to choose between the future and the past. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780099554561
Book Description Softcover. Condition: New. This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed <i>Wind-Up Bird Chronicle</i> has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time. It is sure to be a literary event.<br /><br />Toru, a quiet and preternaturally 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. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.<br /><br />A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, <i>Norwegian Wood</i> takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love. Seller Inventory # DADAX0099554569
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9780099554561
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Seller Inventory # B9780099554561
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Book Description Condition: New. In English. Seller Inventory # ria9780099554561_new
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Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780099554561
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 400 pages. 7.80x5.08x0.98 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0099554569