Rating: 
Summary: Wow
Review: although i am an avid fan of murakami's work, this book moved me much more than his other books. very few books i have ever read affected my emotions as much. i read small chunks at a time in order to make the story last longer in my mind and prolong the inevitable ending.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful.....
Review: There is something magical about this book. From the way it entered my life, the events that coincided with the reading, and of course, the story itself. It is told with such magic and beauty you could call it dreamlike, but the characters and events feel increadibly real. At times I nearly cried, fell (more than) a little in love with Midori, and even threw the book across the room in frustration with the narrator's actions. But I would be impossible to stop reading. Really, I felt like a different person after reading this. Not many books can do that!
Rating:
Summary: Norwegian Wood
Review: I'm Japanese. I knew the work of the Haruki Murakami for the first time in this. Since this work is read, I have become the captive of the work of Haruki Murakami.After this book is read, I think that the way that one thought changed.I also think that the view which the world was presumed became broad.And, the book which was added and it let me think to vary this much was the first. Then, I was surprised that this book gave a person in the world impression more than what. Though the work of the Haruki Murakami is very famous in Japan,I didn't know that the work of Haruki Murakami was evaluated this much in the world. I am happy when it thinks that the writer whom one likes best is giving the person of the world impression, too.And it is read to the people of the various generations in the world from this as well.
Rating: 
Summary: You have not read Murakami's yet!
Review: As a Japanese national, since I moved to Cambridge for graduate study, I have been astonished by overwhelming excellent reviews by non-Japanese folks. It is because the set-up is very much Tokyo-ish. I could recognize most of the geographical parts that he refers in the novel. And, there is actually a famous private dorm for college students like Watanabe in the northwestern part of Tokyo, it is called Wakei-juku, which is close to a university Watanabe seemed to attend and was close to my old house. The novel well dipicts the atmosphere of Japanese university life around 1980s. I feel happy that many non-Japanese readers enjoyed this book years later. Murakami himself spent a few years at Princeton and Tufts as a guest writer years back. I have read virtually all the Murakami's books, and I can say "Norway" is good, but you have to go on to further appreciate the Murakami World.
Rating:
Summary: Would like to see the new translation
Review: Another reader remarked:
>Read the Birnbaum translation a few years back.,
>Reviewer: A reader from Portland, OR USA
>I don't know why people are using such esoteric language to
>refer to a book that was so simple and straightforward.
>Honesly, it really showed me that feelings of alienation or
>displacement aren't just an American phenomenon. Not everyone is
>happy and you just have to live with whatever comes your way.
I don't doubt it. I can describe the Birnbaum translation in two words: Aw Full. I originally read the novel in Japanese and enjoyed it very much. When I picked up the Birnbaum translation, I thought we had read completely different books. Where the original was subtle, poetic and sensitive, Birnbaum's translation was crude, vulgar and over-the-top. I hope Jay Rubin's translation is better, but I can't imagine it could be worse.
Rating:
Summary: Ahhhh...
Review: Writing a review of this book is more difficult than dealing with how it made me feel, so I'll stay away from spelling out the entire plot and just say this: after reading it, allow yourself to be immobile. I needed time to think, to stare, to just breathe afterwards because it was so striking. Murakami's words create perfect pictures without becoming too descriptive, and the thoughts he pulls out of the reader tend to suck the energy out for a little while. While the story is simple in its most basic form, it is complex in the range of emotions the characters experience. It's one of those books you need to have on your shelf to read and reread again and again, and it's so moving that you'll probably want to share it with all your friends.
Rating:
Summary: Read the Birnbaum translation a few years back.
Review: I don't know why people are using such esoteric language to refer to a book that was so simple and straightforward. Honesly, it really showed me that feelings of alienation or displacement aren't just an American phenomenon. Not everyone is happy and you just have to live with whatever comes your way. Maybe I would think it was brilliant if I wasn't an Asian male.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Wonderful
Review: This book was fantastic. I recommend it to everyone who loves great prose.
Rating:
Summary: Unpretentious, textured, and cool.
Review: Murakami's oevre is a constellation of brilliant superstars (Wind-Up Bird), and tiny, equally brilliant gems (South of the border). Norwegian Wood is a stunning addition to this multivariant galaxy. What a gorgeous book! All I can say is--Haruki Murakami is a wordsmith, a magician, and a counselor all wrapped up in one. Like the great haiku poets, Murakami finds the extraordinary in the most ordinary of lives, people, and events.
Rating:
Summary: a modern Magic Mountain
Review: I have to admit straight out that Murakami is one of my all time favorite authors. I've read all of his available books including the tightly wound "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle." Just about all his previous books are complex in terms of the almost supernatural events that seem to take place, switches in time periods, and other narrative oddities. In one sense, this is the most "normal" of Murakami's books in terms of narration, but it would be a mistake to think it's less complex. Yes, it's a lyrical and moving love story, but the writing is so exquisite and the characters so endearing (Reiko, Naoko and even Storm Trouper will stay in my mind for a long time) that when it ended, I went back and started reading again from the beginning. It's been a long time since a book compelled me to re-read right away. I don't think the parallel is unfounded with Magic Mountain -- Murakami's narrator just happens to be reading it while Naoko is trying to get through her emotional despair in a sanitorium of sorts. Like Hans C., no one seems to really get better and time seems to slow to a stop during the scenes in the home. Some of the most touching scenes take place during Toru's visits to Reiko and Naoko. Toru is such a gentle and human character -- we experience real sensuality through his interactions with other women. Maybe it's Murakami's perfectly controlled prose that makes this such a work of art. It is so beautiful that it will make you cry. These characters are so real, it can be frightening at times. This book is a good introduction to Murakami because of its surface simplicity, but anyone who enjoyed it should run out and buy his other books which are also terrific. Although I like Mishima too, I think Murakami is the greatest living Japanese writer. Don't miss this one.
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