What Makes a Great Book? — Sandra Rhee

Call me weird—When I heard Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami had stories of five suicides, it went to the top of my reading list. (It turned out to be three suicides).

I plowed through it.

As soon as I finished it I made this judgement: It's an imperfect book but it's a great book.

I wanted to understand why I felt this way. Here goes.

What makes Norwegian Wood a great book?

Great books have passages that tap into unsaid, intimate experiences I've had.

This is why they make my chest hurt. I've been there, I've felt that, and I didn't know that was happening, until the author captured it with words just so. Passages like:

• "Just as you take care of the birds and the fields every morning, every morning I wind my own spring." — Damn. I've had to wind my spring before to make it through.
• "After I had read it, I stayed on the porch and let my eyes wander out to the garden. I knew I should be doing some serious thinking, but I had no idea how to go about it." — I know exactly this feeling of dreading to sit down and process something important.

Great books teach me something valuable.

Imagine the opposite: You finish a book and its characters show you a good time, but there's nothing deep you take from it. I'm not just looking for a trampoline ride. I'm looking for a person to take me through life as they've seen it, including lessons they've learned. Norwegian Wood has passages like:

• "There just happen to be people.. blessed with this marvelous talent.. You think, "I could never do that in a million years.' But that's as far as it goes. They can't take it any further. And why not? Because they won't put in the effort. They haven't had the discipline pounded into them."— Ah, that's a good reminder about discipline winning talent.
• "If you feel some kind of pain with regard to Naoko's death, I would advise you to keep on feeling that pain for the rest of your life. And if there's something you can learn from it, you should do that, too. But quite aside from that, you should be happy..— Ah, I should respect but also move on from my friend's death too.

Great books have passages unique to the writer.

These make me stop and think, "Wow. That is an interesting way to put it." Often, they make me chuckle. Passages like:

• "I didn't know what else to do with the time. I would switch on a baseball game and pretend to watch it as I cut the empty space between me and the television set in two, then cut each half in two again, over and over, until I had fashioned a space small enough to hold in my hand." — Holy shit, that is a hilarious way to use your brain.
• "They didn't know that curtains could be washed. They believed, rather, that curtains were semi-permanent parts of the window." — Damn, I thought the same way about curtains. That's funny.

What makes Norwegian Wood an imperfect book?

The host of The History of Literature podcast asked a guest whether a quote was from a book by Murakami or John Green, a novelist known for his young adult tearjerkers. He couldn't tell who was who.

At times, it felt like the author treated me like a 14-year-old who needed an adult to explain life. Norwegian Wood has spoon-fed, sentimental morals in sentences like:

• "There are people who can open their hearts and people who can't."
• "If you're in pitch blackness, all you can do is sit tight until your eyes get used to the dark."
• "Mind if I give you one piece of advice?.. Don't feel sorry for yourself," he said. "Only arseholes do that."

I will come back to make my conclusion. I'm ending here for today, because I'm headed to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.

Written by Sandra Rhee. Originally published at sandrarhee.com/writing/what-makes-a-great-book. _