Vintage, 2000
Norwegian Wood (Noruwei no Mori) stands out among Haruki Murakami's (The Wind Up Bird Chronicle) novels not only because it was the novel that launched Murakami into the literary stratosphere, but because it is a straightforward love-story / bildungsroman devoid of the elements of magical realism typical of a Haruki Murakami novel.
"These were strange days, now that I look back at them. In the midst of life, everything revolved around death."
37-year-old Toru Watanabe recalls his late teen years as a college student in Tokyo, a chaotic period in the narrator's life set against the chaotic backdrop of Japan's late sixties student movement. At the center of his recollection is Naoko, a childhood friend from Kobe with whom Watanabe shared a traumatic experience, the tragic suicide of Kizuki, Naoko's boyfriend and Watanabe's best friend.
Kizuki's death was transformative for both characters, leaving each somehow broken, disconnected from life – Naoko more so. "It's like I'm split in two and playing tag with myself," she tells Watanabe, on one of the Sunday walks the two begin to take when, by happenstance, they reconnect with each other in Tokyo. Just as it seems the pair might help each other rise from Kizuki's ashes, Naoko has herself committed to a remote sanitarium and cuts off any correspondence with Watanabe.
Norwegian Wood (Noruwei no Mori) stands out among Haruki Murakami's (The Wind Up Bird Chronicle) novels not only because it was the novel that launched Murakami into the literary stratosphere, but because it is a straightforward love-story / bildungsroman devoid of the elements of magical realism typical of a Haruki Murakami novel.
"These were strange days, now that I look back at them. In the midst of life, everything revolved around death."
37-year-old Toru Watanabe recalls his late teen years as a college student in Tokyo, a chaotic period in the narrator's life set against the chaotic backdrop of Japan's late sixties student movement. At the center of his recollection is Naoko, a childhood friend from Kobe with whom Watanabe shared a traumatic experience, the tragic suicide of Kizuki, Naoko's boyfriend and Watanabe's best friend.
Kizuki's death was transformative for both characters, leaving each somehow broken, disconnected from life – Naoko more so. "It's like I'm split in two and playing tag with myself," she tells Watanabe, on one of the Sunday walks the two begin to take when, by happenstance, they reconnect with each other in Tokyo. Just as it seems the pair might help each other rise from Kizuki's ashes, Naoko has herself committed to a remote sanitarium and cuts off any correspondence with Watanabe.
Meanwhile, Watanabe strikes up a friendship with Midori, a brash and vivacious classmate who is, if anything, the polar opposite of Naoko. Exuberant, "like a small animal that has popped into the world with the coming of spring," Midori pulls Watanabe's attention from the inwardly-facing spiral that is his devotion to the unattainable Naoko and the memory of his dead friend.
Like other Murakami novels, Norwegian Wood is suffused with symbolism. In the first chapter, Watanabe and Naoko walk through a field where Naoko describes a well, something that one could fall into at anytime and from which there is no escape; in another scene we find Watanabe grasping at the light of a firefly that stays just out of his reach.
Further layers of symbolism arise from the songs mentioned repeatedly in the novel - in addition to the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood," “Nowhere Man” is mentioned repeatedly with clear reference to Watanabe, existing as he does between Naoko and Midori, between life and death. Many characters in Norwegian Wood choose death over life. Which will Watanabe choose?
Norwegian Wood is not my favorite Haruki Murakami novel. Initially, I didn't believe I was going to like it at all. However, despite the absence of the fantastic elements I've grown to love in Murakami's stories and the seeming simplicity of the narrative, Norwegian Wood turns out to be a surprisingly affecting coming-of-age story.
Like other Murakami novels, Norwegian Wood is suffused with symbolism. In the first chapter, Watanabe and Naoko walk through a field where Naoko describes a well, something that one could fall into at anytime and from which there is no escape; in another scene we find Watanabe grasping at the light of a firefly that stays just out of his reach.
Further layers of symbolism arise from the songs mentioned repeatedly in the novel - in addition to the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood," “Nowhere Man” is mentioned repeatedly with clear reference to Watanabe, existing as he does between Naoko and Midori, between life and death. Many characters in Norwegian Wood choose death over life. Which will Watanabe choose?
Norwegian Wood is not my favorite Haruki Murakami novel. Initially, I didn't believe I was going to like it at all. However, despite the absence of the fantastic elements I've grown to love in Murakami's stories and the seeming simplicity of the narrative, Norwegian Wood turns out to be a surprisingly affecting coming-of-age story.
