/lit/ - Literature

I got the sense that Wantanabe was fabricating details as a way to cope with losing his friend, especially towards the end with the world melting away as the last of the women left his life

>>10726545
I don't know, the way it's described doesn't feel like a fabrication. And it's all a series of events he's looking back on, sitting in that aeroplane.

I thought it felt a bit juvenile like a YA book but I still enjoyed it. It hits you deep when you know a bunch of people who have taken their own lives.

>>10726641
It didn't hit me.
>>10726489
One of the rare books which I've dropped. It was decent until the porn scene in the wood.
I might read it one day, although it might piss me even more.
I hate how he represents it as if girls magically fall in love with you all of a sudden.

>>10726756
What porn scene in the wood? IIRC he doesn't even have sex there.

>>10726756
mate ffs that was hardly porno

>>10726756
Why do people always sperg out about the sex scenes in Murakami's books. They're hardly unrealistic, it would be stranger if he didn't include them.

>>10726756
t. ugly

>>10726489
The only things I remember about this are that Watanabe was a bit of a fag, Nagasawa was an interesting character and Midori and Hatsumi were top waifus.

>>10726756
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who wanted to drop this book. I got through it and regret finishing it.
I read it because it was sold to me as Murakami's most grounded book. It made me realize that without all the glamor of magical realism that Murakami cannot write interesting female characters to save his life.

>>10726489
I think it was a bit juvenile as well. The "sex" scenes are cringy/poorly written most of the time. I feel like he drops a lot of references to western music and literature that feel very forced, like he's trying really hard to put them there to show his appreciation for western culture (most of them seem completely uncessary).
It also gets pretty boring somewhere in the middle (which is a problem when there are not many redeeming qualities to counterweight that). I almost dropped it, then after a month or so picked it up again and finished it.
It's not like it's totally shit, but it has a lot of problems. Wouldn't recommend it tbqh. And I was pleased to read that Murakami himself doesn't like it that much (and says that is not the kind of work he wants to be remembered for).
I thought I was in for "something like The Catcher in The Rye but that also involves some failed relationships" and it sounded like a good reading, but the book the same day I was recommended it, was very disappointed.

>>10731588
>>10730333
So what would you recommend as worth reading by Murakami? I've only read Norwegian Wood.

>>10731938
Wind up bird is fun, but A Wild Sheep Chase is what got me interested in him.

He's not a bad writer, this just wasn't his best.

>>10733234
>His life was like his recurring nightmare: a train to nowhere. But an ordinary life has a way of taking an extraordinary turn. Add a girl whose ears are so exquisite that, when uncovered, they improve sex a thousand-fold, a runaway friend, a right-wing politico, an ovine-obsessed professor and a manic-depressive in a sheep outfit, implicate them in a hunt for a sheep, that may or may not be running the world, and the upshot is another singular masterpiece from Japan's finest novelist.

Hmmm

Enjoyed this book when I read it as a teen. Decided to pick up Kafka on the Shore a few weeks ago which turned out to be a terrible mistake. Awful book. Fuck Murakami

>>10730333
Really? Midori is one of my favorite fictional characters. I wished she was real.

>>10734298
Kafka on the Shore is my least favorite Murakami, too.

>>10730079
they are not unrealistic, they are just horribly badly written prose wise. They are bland and blunt, that makes me wonder why the hell I bothered reading the book anyways, watching amateur porn is just as poetic

>>10731588
totally agree, I found in an absolute drag, spent the entire time reading it just mildly irritated over how poor it was

>>10734334
>watching amateur porn is just as poetic

One.

>>10734334
They're not badly written, they're not meant to be poetic. What are your favorite sex scenes in literature then?

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is his magnum opus, kids

>>10734334
>prose
>translation

>Hey, Watanabe. You're too big and hard, you won't fit, don't put it in! Please fuck me though!

- Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood, every 5 pages

I think one of the problem with the sex scenes is that we don't culturally know how Japanese people approach sex.
Like this. >>10739472 The whole thing felt pretty hentai-ishand I would assume that hentai have some kind of basis il experiences

>>10739601
I haven't read anything by Murakami but I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case. Japanese norms for sex and gender relations are pretty different from the west.

>>10735553
I like this form of shitposting. You're alright.

>>10734304
midori is just another MPDG but that being said she was written in a very endearing way

That scene where the student seduces the music teacher was hot desu

>>10735553

Calo always reminded me of this one autistic manager I had when I was young and still working my first fast food job. Could never stand the sight of him in-game because of it.

This man, in my country he is nothing.

>tfw you go to a jazz cafe to read some F Scott Fitzgerald before he was cool and some cute Japanese girls come and sit with you and they want to have sex with you

>>10739601
>we don't culturally know how Japanese people approach sex

Ha!
We do now.

any more books like this? I really enjoyed this one

>>10743187
It's the only Murakami without magic stuff

>hear about Murakami all the time
>see this thread
>look up premise on wikipedia
>Plot synopsis[edit]
A 37-year-old Toru Watanabe has just arrived in Hamburg, Germany. When he hears an orchestral cover of the Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood", he is suddenly overwhelmed by feelings of loss and nostalgia. He thinks back to the 1960s, when so much happened that touched his life.
>drop it before ever picking it up
I'm suddenly embarrassed for a lot of people. It may as well be about lightsabers and Pokemon.

>>10744878
What's wrong with the premise?

>>10744805
How about South of the Border, West of the Sun?

>>10742568