Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)

I find it difficult to write reviews of books I consider "literary". Translated works generally count as literary in my own strange classification system, and as Haruki Murakami is a much celebrated Japanese author, I read an English translation of Norwegian Wood. The version I read was published by Vintage International, and has a black and white photograph of woman's face on the cover. I was surprised to hear at book club that the book was in two parts, as the translator of the edition I had read had not divided the text. Oanh told me that the edition with the colourful cover has a much better translator - and retains the two halves of the novel. However, the library doesn't have any other editions other than the one I read. If I come across a different edition, I'll be sure to buy it.

Anyway. Back to the book. Hearing about the translator made me wonder what else I would have enjoyed in this book in a different edition. I found the writing style very spare, which is not my favourite style to read - I'm not sure whether this is the author, or the translator. (It's strange to think of it like this - reading translated works is really like reading a book with two collaborating authors.) It's somewhat of a coming-of-age story, but not so defined - a young man lives in college, writes to his girlfriend who is in a sanitorium, and connects with different men and women. I found it difficult to relate to the characters, who are all very alienated from the world, and other people. (However, some of the more introverted people in our book group - although I thought I was pretty introverted - identified much more with the characters). However, I did love lots of Murakami's very sensual description.

I found it a difficult book to viscerally enjoy, mostly because of my lack of connection to the characters and the journey they're taking. I would, however, like to read other Murakami, particularly his more magic realist works, and with a different translator to see if that alters my enjoyment.