Author Study: Haruki Murakami Curated by Ashley Tang '19
My Review On Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood
Haruki Murakami's novels have gained immense popularity as they guide readers through some of life's darkest and most dangerous territory – the cold, dark winter woods of death and grief and abuse – and do so with wisdom and warmth. Murakami's courage to touch on such sensitive topics attracts a wide range of readers, from high schooler students intrigued by the concept of death to middle aged men who are in it for a good read .
Additionally, Murakami has always had a detailed descriptions of the characters and settings; his writing style gives his characters the ability to bring forth emotions in the reader. His ability to manipulate one's emotions by reflecting the individual in the wide array of characters in this writings is truly a talent.
Murakami can only offer a path through the frozen woods, he can't make us follow. If you find yourself wandering among the trees this winter season, I can recommend Norwegian Wood as a guidebook.
Notable Works
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Norwegian Wood by
ISBN: 0099448823Publication Date: 2003-02-01When 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. -
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by
ISBN: 0804170126Publication Date: 2015-05-05An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the remarkable story of a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. Here Haruki Murakami--one of the most revered voices in literature today--gives us a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages. A New York Times and Washington Post notable book, and one of the Financial Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slate, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, and BookPage's best books of the year -
Kafka On The Shore by
ISBN: 9780099458326Publication Date: 2002-09-12Kafka on the Shore is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, and the reasons for that convergence become clear, Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder. Kafka on the Shore displays one of the world’s great storytellers at the peak of his powers. -
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by
ISBN: 0679775439Publication Date: 1998-09-01The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force--and one of Haruki Murakami's most acclaimed and beloved novels. In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat--and then for his wife as well--in a netherworld beneath the city's placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists. Gripping, prophetic, and suffused with comedy and menace, this is an astonishingly imaginative detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets from Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria during World War II.