Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

I had my stab at Murakami a few years ago when I read (did I finish?) "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle." I was reading it voraciously on the plane to Paris when one of the flight attendants interrupted me to ask "Did I love it?" I answered in the affirmative, but if he had asked me a few hundred pages further into the book, would I have answered the same? I am not sure.
It seems like Murakami has a following, a cult, like Harry Potter or Stephen King fans, albeit of very different genre! Look at the popularity of his new novel right now. It's a staggering 900+ pages. That is an immediate turn off for me, but people are gobbling it up.
So, when the movie version of "Norwegian Wood" came out and I ran into this short paperback in Barnes and Noble, I picked it up. And I finished it. And I enjoyed reading it, even if it was rather depressing. But at the heart, there was the hint that the main character, Watanabe, might find happiness with Midori.
The female characters in Murakami's books are disturbing. They prey on and tortue the male protagonist in a very subtle way; you never know if they are victims or predators.
Needless to say, Murakami is an interesting writer: thoughtful, mysterious and spiritual. But I am not sure when I will try another one of his books. Probably not while I am still working. Need more reading time to delve into his newest, "1Q84."