Norwegian Wood Review

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami is, according to the translator's note at the end, a departure from his typical novel. It could be viewed as a semi-autobiographical love story, but he says it was simply a challenge for him, to see if he could write it. I think he did very well. Yes, it is a love story of sorts, but I found that in many ways it was far more real than most such stories. The interactions between the main characters, the conveying of the protagonists' feelings, the simple dialogue, all fill each of the 293 pages with a wonderful story. It is clear to me that this is a very talented writer, and I am definitely going to pencil in another of his novels for future 12 Books reading.
Update: I realized after writing this that I haven't really given any of my 12 Books reading a bad review. I want to emphasize that Norwegian Wood is easily my favorite book so far. I recommend picking up any of Haruki Murakami's books from your local library or bookstore.
Next up is a complete turnaround from Norwegian Wood, The Poo Bomb by Jeff Vogel.