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Emily (Books with Emily Fox on Youtube)'s Reviews > Norwegian Wood
Norwegian Wood
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Oh boy...Where to I even begin.
Pros: The writing and storytelling are good.
Cons: Every time I started to enjoy this book, the author made sure I didn’t.
1. The way the female characters would be compare to babies or kids during sexual scenes was a dealbreaker for me.
She had the breast of a little girl.(p.290)
Yeah that’ll do it.
2. I, once again, have to point that this is another book where the author seems obsessed with the wrinkles of a ~40yo woman. It’s now a personal pet peeve of mine. We literally get a whole paragraph about them when we first meet her. It’s a recurrent discussion throughout the book and I can already hear the excuses that it’s often for the POV of the 18yo or that maybe she’s insecure about it. Sure. Maybe. But ever since I started noticing how common this is, especially from male authors, I can’t unseen it and it annoys me.
3. The sex scenes, let’s talk about the sex scenes.
I wanted to explain to her, "I am having intercourse with you now. I am inside you. But really this is nothing. It doesn't matter. It is nothing but the joining of two bodies. All we are doing is telling each other things that can only be told by the rubbing together of two imperfect lumps of flesh."
I’d rather go back to reading fairy porn by Sarah J Maas.
4. My most serious complaint� the female characters didn’t ring true to me at all. Why are they all acting and saying these things around the MC?! The most flagrant one is when Reiko tells him about her SA. Why do male authors seem incapable of talking about SA without fetishizing it?
(view spoiler)
But this one is probably my favorite:
(view spoiler)
Could some of it be cultural differences? Because it’s set in 1968?
Maybe but I rate my books based on my enjoyment and I didn’t enjoy myself.
I don’t get the hype.
*It made it to my worst books of 2022:
Pros: The writing and storytelling are good.
Cons: Every time I started to enjoy this book, the author made sure I didn’t.
1. The way the female characters would be compare to babies or kids during sexual scenes was a dealbreaker for me.
She had the breast of a little girl.(p.290)
Yeah that’ll do it.
2. I, once again, have to point that this is another book where the author seems obsessed with the wrinkles of a ~40yo woman. It’s now a personal pet peeve of mine. We literally get a whole paragraph about them when we first meet her. It’s a recurrent discussion throughout the book and I can already hear the excuses that it’s often for the POV of the 18yo or that maybe she’s insecure about it. Sure. Maybe. But ever since I started noticing how common this is, especially from male authors, I can’t unseen it and it annoys me.
3. The sex scenes, let’s talk about the sex scenes.
I wanted to explain to her, "I am having intercourse with you now. I am inside you. But really this is nothing. It doesn't matter. It is nothing but the joining of two bodies. All we are doing is telling each other things that can only be told by the rubbing together of two imperfect lumps of flesh."
I’d rather go back to reading fairy porn by Sarah J Maas.
4. My most serious complaint� the female characters didn’t ring true to me at all. Why are they all acting and saying these things around the MC?! The most flagrant one is when Reiko tells him about her SA. Why do male authors seem incapable of talking about SA without fetishizing it?
(view spoiler)
But this one is probably my favorite:
(view spoiler)
Could some of it be cultural differences? Because it’s set in 1968?
Maybe but I rate my books based on my enjoyment and I didn’t enjoy myself.
I don’t get the hype.
*It made it to my worst books of 2022:
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Reading Progress
June 10, 2022
–
Started Reading
June 10, 2022
– Shelved
June 14, 2022
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 95 (95 new)
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Robyn
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Jun 10, 2022 11:54AM
Don’t say that! I need hope. I own Kafka on the Shore
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This is the most straightforward novel of his, a perfect introduction.
It was my first Murakami too!
I LOVE kafka on the shore. haven't read this one, but i own the book. i might find myself reading this soon!
GOOD LUCK, you are definitely going to need it... personally I can't stand how murakami writes women
I read this way to young and I hated it, haha. After Dark made him one of my favorite authors
i really enjoyed after dark but haven’t read this one yet!
I hate this book with a passion
This was my 4th Murakami and I love the first three but had to DNF this one.
lol.. pls vlog this :P
People who actually like this book and even call it their favorite book concern me. The man literally victimizes a pedophile in this book (and no, he does not do it to make a statement) and probably hates women seeing how he writes them. Actually bad,
I wish you luck, I absolutely hated it when I read it, too many wrong things with it
I have to say� I think you’re going to hate it
In Norwegian wood, you won’t find the “usual� Murakami. This means it can be hate or love, depending on your taste. I personally prefer by far the rest of Murakami. Good luck!
So excited to see your review!
Judging from you other reviews you probably will DNF this book within the first 20%
Ting Ruan wrote: "Judging from you other reviews you probably will DNF this book within the first 20%"I'm 50% in and just got to "that part" and... the male gaze is heavy 🙄
My first Murakami’s book. I like it very much.
I’m reading 1Q84 at the moment and it’s very similar vibes 😢 Bit creepy
You pretty much voiced most reasons why I detested this. Got real close to throwing the book out the window. Don’t get me started about the episode with the 13 y old girl that added nothing to the plot. The exploitation of suicide also tired me and made it too banal. I didn’t care anymore at some point since it seemed it happened all the time. Just EEK.
I just read this and had the exact same issues! I was so disappointed... But also angry.
I read it years ago but remember literally nothing of it... maybe i've totally blocked it out of my mind. now i'm debating if I should read it again :/
I loved this in highschool but after seeing your review im like wow I would despise this now if I were to reread it lol
I have found that many Japanese and Chinese authors I've read tend to fetishize the youth of a woman. I've also found this to be true in many films. I don't think it's that dissimilar to what Western cultures do, it's just that it's so blatantly phrased, it's cringey to us. While that first quote made me laugh out loud at its extremeness, I think I give things like this a pass for cultural sensitivity's sake and the effects of translation. All that said, I do agree with you about the whole sexualizing trauma thing� it's overdone and often unnecessary.
ٳá wrote: "You pretty much voiced most reasons why I detested this. Got real close to throwing the book out the window. Don’t get me started about the episode with the 13 y old girl that added nothing to the ..."Yeah that's the SA scene I'm referring to (I was trying to keep it spoiler free lol). That scene was heavy on the male gaze.
Jackson wrote: "I have found that many Japanese and Chinese authors I've read tend to fetishize the youth of a woman. I've also found this to be true in many films. I don't think it's that dissimilar to what Weste..."Yeah I put my complaints from most mild to most intense. It's annoying (how many times did the author described small nipples lol) but I get that it's part of the cultural differences. Still not okay but yeah.
Oh wow. Thank you for this review, sure don't need another author being sexist and glorifying pedophilia.
I had the exact same issues as you, and I was so disappointed since I thought I would love it. The fact that the MC was so unlikeable made it worse. I totally get that not every carachter has to be likeable, but I mean come on, this asshole?? I couldn’t stand him haha god this book makes me so angry
I really have never understood why people praise Murakami so much, for the exact reasons of this review. His prose is pretty good and all, but his female characters are abhorrent.
It took this review for me to look into Murakami and found threads upon threads discussing how misogyny and sexualisation of minors are prevalent throughout his works. Murakami has been hyped up to me for years. Why has this never been brought up? Luckily I only own one book by him but I am now WORRIED!
I feel safe knowing there are people like you calling these things out. Never stop 💜
Yes I agree with Jackson this is very common in Asian lits especially Older Japanese novels. I read this when I was in high school I didn’t feel like it was anything, but I read the Chinese translated version, maybe it toned down a bit. I will need to re read the English version
As a Japanese woman, I can tell you that I don't appreciate how that old Japanese man writes/writes about/describes/etc. Japanese women. Nor do I think he knows a thing about women in general. I dnf'd this book less than 100 pages in.
I will not be reading this ever. Thanks Emily for warning me, I know you get a lot of backlash for pointing out this crap but please keep doing so. We need to know where not to spend our time and money
I can't remember if you've read Kafka on the shore by the same author, but in that one male mc rapes his sister in a dream and also sleeps with his mother (who left when he was tiny but he knows that it is his mother).
I love seeing other people hating this book as much as me 💙
I won't be reading anymore Murakami after reading your review. I read Kafta on the Shore earlier this year and it sounds similar. The story wasn't good, and the authors writing regarding sexuality were similarly awful. I wouldnt recommend reading him again, sounds like that's just a staple of his novels.
I have heard similarly from a lot of other people about Murakami's writing style towards women. My first of his books was After Dark and I genuinely thought he was a woman based on the way he wrote the women in that story, but I haven't read this one yet.
Thank goodness I'm not the only one. I've read 3 of Murakami's books and they are all the same. All the storytelling revolves around kinky sex between horny dudes and submissive, mentally ill women (can we talk about the pivotal rape scene in The Wind-up Bird Chronickle? Or better yet, no) or older horny women having sex with minors. Unnecessary and disgusting. I'm not convinced by the explanation of my friends who religiously read Murakami's books that "hehe, he's just like that".
One of the reasons that I stopped enjoying Murakami books (used to be a big fan) was because all his female characters are like this. And I hate it. It reeks of misogyny to me. I understand there are still things to enjoy in the books too, but I can't personally do it anymore
I completely agree that somehow all the female characters are described as needy and dysfunctional and ofcourse the sex scenes are quite cringey but i did find the book interesting. Why are we only concentrating about those parts, i think this book is much more than that. Although this is my first murakami and maybe its not the best one to start. I still would like to read more by him!
Man, I saw this book hyped for so long and not one person mentioned the cringe, make gaze aspect.
Just finished the book and could not agree more with you
Murakami is creepy af :\\\\
