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Norwegian Wood
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- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,377
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,162
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With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Love it!
- By bleadof on 10-04-16
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4 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful book, flawed narration.
- By REBECCA on 02-08-14
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
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Across two parallel narratives, Murakami draws listeners into a mind-bending universe in which Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect. What emerges is a novel that is at once hilariously funny and a deeply serious meditation on the nature and uses of the mind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly recommend
- By Amazon Customer on 07-23-18
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1Q84
- By: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (translator), Philip Gabriel (translator)
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett
- Length: 46 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 7,849
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,021
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Story4 out of 5 stars 6,997
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - "Q" is for "question mark". A world that bears a question....
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5 out of 5 stars
-
I've never read a book quite like this one
- By Joey on 04-23-12
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Killing Commendatore
- A Novel
- By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator, Ted Goossen - translator
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 28 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 900
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 846
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 838
In Killing Commendatore, a 30-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious 13-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Masterpiece and A Good Novel To Start
- By Elif Kaya on 10-18-18
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Sputnik Sweetheart
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 250
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 231
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Story4 out of 5 stars 232
K is madly in love with his best friend, Sumire, but her devotion to a writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments. At least, that is, until she meets an older woman to whom she finds herself irresistibly drawn. When Sumire disappears from an island off the coast of Greece, K is solicited to join the search party - and finds himself drawn back into her world and beset by ominous visions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Lonely?
- By Bulent Basaran on 11-10-16
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Kafka on the Shore
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett, Oliver Le Sueur
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,377
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,162
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,155
With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love it!
- By bleadof on 10-04-16
-
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- A Novel
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Rupert Degas
- Length: 26 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,024
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,769
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,770
In a Tokyo suburb, a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat - and then for his wife as well - in a netherworld beneath the city’s placid surface. As these searches intersect, he encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful book, flawed narration.
- By REBECCA on 02-08-14
-
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 217
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
Across two parallel narratives, Murakami draws listeners into a mind-bending universe in which Lauren Bacall, Bob Dylan, a split-brained data processor, a deranged scientist, his shockingly undemure granddaughter, and various thugs, librarians, and subterranean monsters collide to dazzling effect. What emerges is a novel that is at once hilariously funny and a deeply serious meditation on the nature and uses of the mind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly recommend
- By Amazon Customer on 07-23-18
-
1Q84
- By: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin (translator), Philip Gabriel (translator)
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett
- Length: 46 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 7,849
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,021
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 6,997
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - "Q" is for "question mark". A world that bears a question....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I've never read a book quite like this one
- By Joey on 04-23-12
-
Killing Commendatore
- A Novel
- By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator, Ted Goossen - translator
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 28 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 900
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 846
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 838
In Killing Commendatore, a 30-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious 13-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Masterpiece and A Good Novel To Start
- By Elif Kaya on 10-18-18
-
Sputnik Sweetheart
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 250
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 231
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 232
K is madly in love with his best friend, Sumire, but her devotion to a writerly life precludes her from any personal commitments. At least, that is, until she meets an older woman to whom she finds herself irresistibly drawn. When Sumire disappears from an island off the coast of Greece, K is solicited to join the search party - and finds himself drawn back into her world and beset by ominous visions.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Lonely?
- By Bulent Basaran on 11-10-16
-
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage
- A novel
- By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel (translator)
- Narrated by: Bruce Locke
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,089
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 979
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Story4 out of 5 stars 981
The new novel - a book that sold more than a million copies the first week it went on sale in Japan - from the internationally acclaimed author, his first since IQ84. Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very unfortunate narration...
- By Nicholas Szasz on 03-30-15
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South of the Border, West of the Sun
- A Novel
- By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel (translator)
- Narrated by: Eric Loren
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 401
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 352
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Story4 out of 5 stars 355
Born in 1951 in an affluent Tokyo suburb, Hajime - beginning in Japanese - has arrived at middle age wanting for almost nothing. The postwar years have brought him a fine marriage, two daughters, and an enviable career as the proprietor of two jazz clubs. Yet a nagging sense of inauthenticity about his success threatens Hajime's happiness. And a boyhood memory of a wise, lonely girl named Shimamoto clouds his heart.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A River of Unmindfulness
- By Darwin8u on 10-12-13
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Men Without Women
- Stories
- By: Haruki Murakami, Philip Gabriel - translator, Ted Goossen - translator
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 483
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 439
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Story4 out of 5 stars 439
Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all. Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Murakami Being Murakami
- By Jay Quintana on 05-10-17
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After Dark
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 323
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 228
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Story4 out of 5 stars 230
Here is a short, sleek novel of encounters, set in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami's masterworks The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore. At its center are two sisters: Eri, a fashion model slumbering her way into oblivion, and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny's toward people whose lives are radically different from her own.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Intriguing book, Poor Narration
- By Ellen Clary on 07-27-08
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The Elephant Vanishes
- Stories
- By: Haruki Murakami, Alfred Birnbaum (translator), Jay Rubin (translator)
- Narrated by: Teresa Gallagher, John Chancer, Walter Lewis, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 84
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Story4 out of 5 stars 85
With the same deadpan mania and genius for dislocation that he brought to his internationally acclaimed novels A Wild Sheep Chase and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami makes this collection of stories a determined assault on the normal. A man sees his favorite elephant vanish into thin air; a newlywed couple suffers attacks of hunger that drive them to hold up a McDonald's in the middle of the night; and a young woman discovers that she has become irresistible to a little green monster who burrows up through her backyard.
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1 out of 5 stars
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dull
- By michelle-lee rodgers on 01-06-19
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Love Is a Mix Tape
- Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
- By: Rob Sheffield
- Narrated by: Rob Sheffield
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 215
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 141
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Story4 out of 5 stars 142
In the 1990s, a shy music geek named Rob Sheffield met a hell-raising punk-rock girl named Renee, who was way too cool for him but fell in love with him anyway. They had nothing in common, except that they both loved music. Music brought them together and kept them together. And it was music that would help Rob through a sudden, unfathomable loss. In Love is a Mix Tape, Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs on 15 mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Renee.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A sad story in a happy wrapper.
- By Natalia on 04-08-10
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What I Talk about When I Talk about Running
- A Memoir
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,071
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,635
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,638
From the best-selling author of Kafka on the Shore comes this rich and revelatory memoir about writing and running and the integral impact both have made on his life. Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers Murakami's four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon. Settings range from Tokyo, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston, among young women who outpace him.
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5 out of 5 stars
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It is what it says it is
- By Rick on 03-10-09
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Underground
- The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Ian Anthony Dale, Janet Song
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 143
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 143
On a clear spring day in 1995, five members of a religious cult unleashed poison gas on the Tokyo subway system. In attempt to discover why, Haruki Murakmi talks to the people who lived through the catastrophe, and in so doing lays bare the Japanese psyche. As he discerns the fundamental issues that led to the attack, Murakami paints a clear vision of an event that could occur anytime, anywhere.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Just as you breathe, you dream your story
- By Darwin8u on 08-26-15
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Kokoro
- By: Natsume Soseki
- Narrated by: Matt Shea
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 157
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 146
The subject of Kokoro, which can be translated as 'the heart of things' or as 'feeling,' is the delicate matter of the contrast between the meanings the various parties of a relationship attach to it. In the course of this exploration, Soseki brilliantly describes different levels of friendship, family relationships, and the devices by which men attempt to escape from their fundamental loneliness. The novel sustains throughout its length something approaching poetry, and it is rich in understanding and insight.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Heart Of Things, Relationships & Feelings
- By Sara on 04-27-15
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The Strange Library
- By: Haruki Murakami, Ted Goossen (translator)
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 1 hr and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 118
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4 out of 5 stars 103
From internationally acclaimed author Haruki Murakami - a fantastical short novel about a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library. A lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plot their escape from the nightmarish library of internationally acclaimed, best-selling Haruki Murakami's wild imagination.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wicked Fairy Tale
- By Tim on 12-24-15
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The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea
- By: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 140
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 125
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Story4 out of 5 stars 125
A band of savage 13-year-old boys reject the adult world as illusory, hypocritical, and sentimental, and train themselves in a brutal callousness they call 'objectivity'. When the mother of one of them begins an affair with a ship's officer, he and his friends idealise the man at first; but it is not long before they conclude that he is in fact soft and romantic. They regard this disallusionment as an act of betrayal on his part - and the retribution is deliberate and horrifying.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Unsettling writing, flawed reading
- By Erez on 11-22-12
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No Longer Human
- By: Osamu Dazai
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life, even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. Oba Yozo's attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Reassuring in its bare-boned humanity
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 07-19-17
Publisher's Summary
Stunning and elegiac, Norwegian Wood first propelled Haruki Murakami into the forefront of the literary scene.
Toru, a serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. As Naoko retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.
A magnificent coming-of-age story steeped in nostalgia, Norwegian Wood blends the music, the mood, and the ethos that were the '60s with a young man’s hopeless and heroic first love.
Critic Reviews
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Average Customer Ratings
Overall
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4 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars418
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4 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars445
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4 Stars227
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3 Stars104
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2 Stars38
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1 Stars24
Story
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4 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars378
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4 Stars237
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3 Stars155
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2 Stars49
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1 Stars23
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Douglas
- 02-18-16
A Beautiful, Wistful...
tale of love and strained devotions not nearly as popular as it should be. Quiet, lyrical, subdued, this novel draws you into the world of the agonies and joys of loving. Simply a great read.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kelly McCarty
- 10-30-15
Sorry, but I didn't like the narrator.
The narrator's female voice was annoying. Also, he missed the correct inflection at times. I wish I would've read this book instead of listen. With Murakami's books, I will read instead, I'll listen to more mainstream authors on Audible.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- ZiggyZ
- 07-12-15
Narrator: no clue how to pronounce Japanese names
I have enjoyed every other Murakami novel I've read. I'm not quite sure where this one was going, but basically I couldn't stand the narration. It was so wrong, including the fact that he had no clue whatsoever how to pronounce the Japanese names and that was so distracting.
Pronouncing Japanese words is really not difficult, and surely he could have learned or else they could have used a different narrator.
This one is going back, unfortunately.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Coffee Anon
- 10-30-16
great book, and great reading
this is very dfferent from other murakami novels, there's not so much imagination and absurdness to it but the concreteness of it is nice. still I feel it compliments murakamis other work quite well. would recommend to anyone interested in his work.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- A. Bowler
- 06-20-16
Good and compelling in places but slow.
I liked it but didn't love it. A great audio performance and an interesting story. But despite some moving parts the story is slow and a tad dull.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Greg Burtchard
- 11-11-15
Not up to usually high Murakami standards
Poorly read. Improper pronunciation of Japanese names. Inappropriate inflection. Glacially slowly developed plot. I expected much more of Murakami. I'm quite disappointed.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Leigh
- 04-04-15
To others readers out there
To truly understand and enjoy this book knowing about the post war writings of Japan, existentialism, and Sartre would help. The writing is beautiful but the plot can be confusing at times because it focuses on the philosophy and post war styling. Still it's a good read.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- William Magoolaghan
- 04-06-16
Just Awful, and I'm a huge Murakami fan
What disappointed you about Norwegian Wood?
If this was the first Murakami novel I had ever read, I would never have read anything else he had written. This was clearly written before Murakami figured out his writing style, because this lacks both the amazing storytelling and wonderful prose in his later work.
What was most disappointing about Haruki Murakami’s story?
Whereas Kafka on the Shore & the Windup Bird Chronicle sucked you in and played with your soul, this novel was droll at best. I think I spent the entire novel waiting for a sparkling line of prose or one interesting thing done by any of the characters. Didn't happen.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of John Chancer?
Someone who was sounded 19. Having someone who sounds as old as ... me ... reading a book about teenage angst (is that was it was about?) ... is just ... inappropriate.
What character would you cut from Norwegian Wood?
All of them. Sorry. It was awful.
Any additional comments?
If anyone understands the ending, please write to explain it. Thanks.
9 of 12 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Darwin8u
- Mesa, AZ, United States
- 10-13-18
This Bird Has Flown
I'm a little conflicted about 'Norwegian Wood.' I love Murakami and I think I get what Murakami was trying to say (at least partially) in this novel. I was just a little too bored and too disinterested to find myself caring about the novel. I finished it, just to have finished it, and kinda felt that Murakami might have felt the same way after writing it. By the end, I was almost begging for some Japanese 'Deus ex Machina' to suddenly appear and rescue me from the plastic bag-like suffocation of the life and death narrative. Ugh.
That all said, perhaps it really is me and not you with this one Murakami.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-07-18
eh
Not at all what I was expecting of Murakami's writing, trying not to let it deter me from other books, as this was my first of his. I have since read up on this piece since finishing it and discovered even the author was not as delighted as audiences have raved on this novel.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful