Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman. A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.
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If you want to read about a bland, emotionally avoidant 20 year old man-child and the manic pixie dream girls that fawn over his poor conversation skills (he basically grunts and they squeal how mysterious and sophisticated he is) - I have the book for you.
Honorable mention to the scene where said manic pixie dream girl shows off her “c*nt” to her dead father’s picture so he can “see what he made” (presumably in the afterlife. For his sake, hope the soul dies with the body).
If I accidentally made this book seem entertaining or daring, don’t be fooled. I’ve seen this described as a daydream, and that kinda captures it - meandering, often pointless, probably forgettable.