I started reading Norwegian Wood after having already enjoyed other (2) books from Haruki Murakami so I thought I knew what to expect. I was expecting some strange surreal and intriguing story with mild references to The Beetles because of the book's title. I was only right about it being intriguing and having Beetles references, because Norwegian Wood is the only realistic book by Murakami. There are no talking cats or strangely marked sheep, and the character's behaviour is potentially plausible in real life.

If one had to broadly categorise the story he might say it's a love story set in the late 60's. The narrator and main protagonist is a Japanese university student called Toru Watanabe. The main storyline explores the relationship between Toru and Naoko, the girlfriend of his dead friend Kizuki, who committed suicide at the age of 17. The relationship is challenged by the pains of love, death and mental health which are the three main themes of the book.

Murakami makes art of the ordinary life of an average university student and writes to explore the psychological feelings of his characters. There are only a handful of characters in the book, yet as usual the author delves deeply into each character and makes each one very distinctive. Murakami's characters are always searching for something. This time it's a search for love, personal identity, and purpose of life of Toru and his friends, who are at the critical stage of stepping in adulthood.

There is no thrilling plot or weird story to hook you to the book yet I still finished the book in two days. From the translator's notes at the back of the book, I learned that this is the book that brought success to Murakami and gained him popularity out of Japan. After you read the book this fact wouldn't surprise you in the least. 4/5.