(.) Murakamis streckenweise gelungene Prosa, die Natur und Urbanität romantisierend der Stimmung des Helden unterwirft, wird auch nicht plausibler, wenn man den zur Leitmetapher erhobenen Popsong betrachtet.' - Rose-Maria Grop, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 'Es handelt sich bei Naokos Lächeln (.) um eine Art gescheiterten Entwicklungsroman, in dem das Verhältnis zu den Frauen eine entscheidende Rolle spielt.(.) (L)ike beautifully carved puppets, they have nowhere to go and very little to do.' - Nicola McAllister, Daily Telegraph Murakami shares this gift, but uses it to poor effect here: the story is far weaker than its cast. 'There are certain authors, such as John Irving and Stephen King, whose narrative voices are so powerful that they might write about the temperature and keep the reader transfixed however cheap the tune, the sound remains superb.It is an early work that not only points to but manifests the author's genius.' - Justin Coffin, Chicago Tribune '(T)he big surprise in reading Norwegian Wood is the sense that one has stumbled upon more than a mere literary artifact or an overture to a career.In Norwegian Wood Murakami has updated those two classics into the best sort of pop song: romantic, sad, deceptively simple, and impossible to forget.' - Nicholas Jose, The Age

'It is superbly crafted and full of wonderful things (.) The narrator is reading The Magic Mountain and his favorite novel is The Great Gatsby.

Please note that Brooke Horvath's review in the Review of Contemporary Fiction refers to an earlier translation (by Alfred Birnbaum), and not the Jay Rubin translation under review here.Īlmost (but not quite) all are very enthusiastic.

Norwegian Wood was made into a film in 2010, directed by Tran Anh HungĪ- : nice, well-told autobiographically tinged story of a young Japanese student around 1970.

US-publisher Vintage has published this book in a bland, boring trade-paperback edition.The current UK edition is as boring as the US one. (The Japanese original was presented the same way.) The two volumes come in a box which itself is the size of your average hardcover - very nice packaging - but, unfortunately, apparently now out of print. UK-publisher Harvill originally published this book in two small Japanese-style paperbacks, one with a red and one with a green cover.

This review refers to the new edition, published in 2000, the authorized English translation by Jay Rubin. Norwegian Wood was previously translated into English (by Alfred Birnbaum, 1989) in an edition published by Kodansha and intended solely for sale in Japan.General information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author Trying to meet all your book preview and review needs.

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