Norwegian Wood
by Haruki Murakami
Brief Summary:
Norwegian Wood is a novel that recounts the observations and memories of Toru Watanabe, specifically during his high-school and university years.
Its subjects are love, grief, death, and loneliness.
Characters:
Toru Watanabe – Protagonist, university student
Naoko – Toru’s main love interest
Kizuki – Toru and Naoko’s best friend
Reiko Ishida – Naoko’s middle-aged roommate at the sanitorium
Midori Kobayashi – Toru’s secondary love interest
Nagasawa – Toru’s university friend, smooth and womanizer
Hatsumi – Nagasawa’s girlfriend (a perfect girl)
Storm Trooper – Toru’s roommate at university
Plot Summary:
In the novel, Toru lives in an all-male university dorm. Here, the cultural milieu of 1970s Japan provides the backdrop for the story. Students protest, Toru lives with a comical ‘fascist’ like roommate, and the dormitory/university is curiously rigid and unreflective. It feels as if there is no place for feeling and introspection. Toru keeps his feelings and relationship with Naoko to himself.
Naoko, Toru’s girlfriend, lives in a sanitorium in the countryside. She is trying to recover from grief at the suicide of Kizuki, her high-school boyfriend and Toru’s best friend.
Toru takes multiple trips to visit Naoko, who seems to be recovering from her dark feelings. There, he meets Reiko Ishida, Naoko’s middle-aged roommate. Reiko is a talented musician with her own curious history.
Reiko offers frank jokes about sex and love and teases the two lovers. She seems so well adapted to life that Toru questions why she stays at the sanitorium.
At university, Toru meets a young woman, Midori. She is spunky and fun despite her family’s difficulties. She deals with grief and loss in a way that allows her to continue functioning in society. Midori becomes Toru’s secondary love interest. She offers a sharp contrast with Naoko.
Toru’s other relationships are with Nagasawa, a ladies’ man and star student destined for Japan’s diplomatic elite. And with Nagasawa’s girlfriend Hatsumi, a reserved and ideal young woman.
Notes on Reading:
Norwegian Wood was first published in 1987 and still feels new. Maybe that’s my own projection because Murakami is still new to me. Its ambiguous relationships and indirect treatment of the books’ subjects allow much to think about.
It is a meaty novel to revisit later.
Worth noting:
There are a lot of sex scenes – though they are as unsexual as I’ve ever read. And Toru has quite a few sex partners. Perhaps some people would take issue with this.
Also, a lot of the characters commit suicide. I see the suicides as literary tools, but others may be more sensitive to them.
Who Would Profit:
Fiction lovers and literature aficionados would profit from reading this book. Feminists will have a lot to pick apart and criticize.
Did you read Norwegian Wood? What did you think? Are you a fan of Murakami?