I lit a fire. (Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami)

Member Name: renedescartes

Product:	Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami
Date:	26/05/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: So beautifully written, leaves you wanting more.

Disadvantages: Translated from Japanese, you can't help but feel you'd get even more if you were reading original.

The writing of Haruki Murakami is nothing short of spell-binding. Forget magic in Harry Potter, embrace the magical realism of this wonderful Japanese fiction author. Transport yourself into the world of Toru Watanabe, who encounters a situation uncannily similar to that found in 'Norwegian Wood', the Beatles song, experience the beauty on the page.

The book is concerned with the nature of love, whether beauty and love are transcendent and is set in an unreal world, characteristic of Murakami. However, it's not the story itself which leaves you wanting more, but simply the writing is beautifully expressed and is just marvellous, you'll want to read more and more of Murakami's dreamy prose.

"Of course life frightens me sometimes. I don't happen to take that as the premise for everything else though. I'm going to give it hundred percent and go as far as I can. I'll take what I want and leave what I don't want. That's how I intend to live my life, and it things go bad, I'll stop and reconsider at that point. If you think about it, an unfair society is a society that makes it possible for you to exploit your abilities to the limit."

There are messages within the novel that everyone can relate to, a tale of love, loss and coming to terms with it, as well as questioning the transcendence of such ideals. A must read.

Summary: Must-buy, you have to read this book.