Jesse

It's been a long time since I last consumed a novel as voraciously as I did Norwegian Wood. One for the emotions rather than the intellect, but not in a negative sense.

Toru's final sexual encounter was possibly a little far-fetched in my eyes, but it helped reinforce the role that sex played in the novel more generally.

I took this book with me to the barber to read while I was waiting. My barber noticed it and asked me what I thought, but before I could respond he started to expound on what he thought were the “problems” with Solnit's first essay. I sat quietly as he listed, without realising it, all the reasons that this book, and feminism in general, threaten him and his perspective on the world (i.e. the best bits).

Five stars; minus one for having to find a new barber.

“The belly is a demon. It doesn't remember how well you treated it yesterday; it'll cry out for more tomorrow.”

“That knife's a breadwinner too. After all, you can be put in the cells for keeping it, and only a man without a conscience would say: lend us your knife, we're going to slice some sausage, and you can go fuck off.”

Being science fiction, I began this novel under the assumption that it would have more to offer in the way of ideas than its popular genre counterparts. I blame works of magnificent creativity like [b:Star Maker 525304 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328048540s/525304.jpg 1631492] for this misconception.I tried to allow myself to enjoy the predictable flow of the story, and mostly succeeded in doing so, but found that there were a few things standing in the way. For the most part the heavy-handed social commentary was to blame. It was painful to read and worked completely counter to what the simple and entertaining narrative achieved best. The small portions of direct address from the narrator had the same issue.I also couldn't help but be disappointed by the predictable conclusion, complete with painful HEA reunion of essentially discarded characters.