Blog 2

Hi everyone,

Norwegian Wood was Murakami's fifth novel, and it was published nearly a decade into his career. The following year, in 1988, he would publish Dance Dance Dance- which marked the return of Boku. In subsequent novels, it would seem that Murakami exited his "Boku era", as every full-length novel after Dance Dance Dance features a named protagonist; this pattern continued until 2017's Killing Commendatore, in which the nameless narrator returned.

At any rate, Norwegian Wood seems to be Murakami's first full-length novel with a named protagonist- marking a clear shift in his literary style. 

And... To be frank, I'm not sure if I'm a fan of it. At first, I was enthralled by the story's more grounded approach, one which I thought to be wholly uncharacteristic of any Murakami I had previously read. However, as the story continued to develop, I found myself more and more distracted by the characterization of certain characters. Namely, the female cast. 

It seemed to me that these characters were written into the story solely to further Toru. They seemed one-dimensional in a way that made Norwegian Wood difficult to engage with-- especially when one main focus of the novel is Toru's relationships with these women. 

For instance-- and this may be a hyperbolic statement-- I don't believe there is a single scene in the book involving Midori where she does not mention sex in some way. In this way, I believe Midori's character is flattened, and I found myself completely disinterested in the story surrounding her and Toru. 

What I found compelling about Boku in Wild Sheep Chase was the fact that this detached, aloof protagonist was watching the world progress around him as the supporting cast moves the plot. I believe that is not the case in Norwegian Wood, in which I would argue that Toru-- not Naoko-- is the main driving force of the story.

That's not to say these issues with writing female characters were not present in Wild Sheep Chase, just that I did not find them nearly as distracting as I did when reading Norwegian Wood.

Perhaps there is a deeper meaning behind the gratuitous sex presented in Norwegian Wood that I am simply not seeing. However, to me, this novel suffers greatly due to the fact that Murakami does not write women well.

Evan Laufman