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Faith Sullivan is a Minnesota writer and a guest at the Chippewa Valley Book Festival 2011, October 18-23 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

TOTALLY TRUE, VALUABLE INFORMATION NOBODY TELLS YOU BEFORE YOU GET PREGNANT.

Halfway through the book, I had these verbal thoughts that I might have started with the wrong Murakami book. Reading through to the end confirmed those little hints. For the kind of readers who mainly consumes books because of the hype, Norwegian Wood can easily win their esteem. The theme includes that of the usual coming-of-age issues such as love, sexual encounters/exploration, imprudent behavior, turbulent and volatile emotions. The aforementioned theme can, without much difficulty, overthrow the symbolisms used (e.g the firefly Storm Trooper gave Toru). Therefore, taken at face value, Norwegian Wood is just another love story... full of teenager crap. However, judging by how other readers venerate Murakami's surrealistic writing style, I will seem like a complete arse and do him injustice if I will make a final opinion of his literary skills based on this book, which Mr. Murakami himself considers ordinary. Although the narration is so-so at some point and the dialogue (some parts), immature and overly mawkish, I like the subtlety of its ending. It leaves the reader wondering.. and I always like such endings with a touch of guile.