Norwegian Wood [Paperback]

" 'Norwegian Wood' is still the one Murakami book that 'everyone' in Japan has read," says Jay Rubin in his Translator's Note of this simple, straightforward, semi-autobiographical story. Toru Watanabe as narrator of this 1960s period piece reminds me of Nick Carraway in Fitzgerald's "Gatsby"; Watanabe seems one step removed from the action even while he is part of it, and his commentary shapes a critique of contemporary Japanese society. So "Norwegian Wood" is a love story set against a larger theme of questioning the Establishment. Another theme is the characters' insouciance about lovemaking. Letterwriting and love letters are part of Murakami's (Watanabe's) narrative strategy, which lend this novel a heightened sense of intimacy. Near the end, Watanabe says, "Letters are just pieces of paper . . . Burn them, and what stays in your heart will stay; keep them and what vanishes will vanish." Haruki Murakami's "Norwegian Wood" stays in the heart; it is his enchanting letter from the '60s, with love.

When I reached the last page of "Norwegian Wood," after reading the novel's pitch-perfect last line, due to an utter unwillingness, a near inability, to leave the beautiful world Murakami had created, I proceeded to immediately flip back to the first page and start all over again. That was a few years back now. I've read it again since. More than once.

Because the book hit a place in my soul, a mate to my soul, a heart to my heart.

The Beatles song Murakami's 1987 novel is named after is on surface listen a pretty two minute ditty. A pretty, but sad, thing. The tone of Murakami's novel has something similar gently pulling the reader through. It is also equally deceptive to the song in how simple it seems, how easy it reads. Yet, beneath a book that reads like almost pure autobiography, and a song that listens like effortless melody, lie layered artful structure, and things thematically heavier than meet the eye.

The Beatles' song that is so melodically sweet ends with a man taking revenge on a girl who would not sleep with him, by burning down the furniture in her room.

Murakami's narrator does no such thing. But his book too juxtaposes a gentle tone with themes of longing, of loss and of what can and will never be.

To be somewhat vague and very brief "Norwegian Wood," set in the Tokyo of the 1960s, is a love story. Basically it is a sad story. Most all the love in the book is of the unrequited variety, and there is more than one suicide. The book has much to lend itself to feeling blue, like Miles Davis on his muted trumpet. But for every lonely moment, you get a scene with a character like Reiko, a friend like Reiko, a woman who should be tragic considering her history but who, by the time we meet her in a sort of sanatorium for sad or screwed up people, turns out to be that rock solid salt of the earth type who seems like the mentally healthiest person on earth. Better still, though no longer the piano virtuoso she once was, she plays a mean guitar, Beatles song included.

The magic of Murakami's "Norwegian Wood," is that a book so focused on sad subject manner manages to have what all books need to be great - a sense of adventure. Not, of course, in the children's literature sense of the word, but in the 'you've gone off to another place' sense.

"... the bus plunged into a chilling cedar forest. The trees might have been old growth the way they towered over the road, blocking out the sun and covering everything in gloomy shadows. The breeze flowing into the bus's open windows turned suddenly cold, its dampness sharp against the skin. The valley road hugged the river bank, continuing so long through the trees it began to seem as if the whole world had been buried for ever in cedar forest - at which point the forest ended, and we came to an open basin surrounded by mountain peaks. Broad, green farmland spread out in all directions, and the river by the road looked bright and clear. A single thread of white smoke rose in the distance..."

Best of all is the poetry is in the book's balance, as alongside depression and suicide, you also get a character like Midori - one of my favourite in all modern literature.

"At 5:30 Midori said she had to go home and make dinner. I said I would take a bus back to my dorm, and saw her as far as the station.
'Know what I want to do now?' Midori asked me as she was leaving.
'I have absolutely no idea what you could be thinking,' I said.
'I want you and me to be captured by pirates. Then they strip us and press us together face to face all naked and wind these ropes around us.'
'Why would they do a thing like that?'
'Perverted pirates,' she said.
'You're the perverted one,' I said."

And really, what else do you need to help you cope with death, and the kind of love that will never be, but perverted pirates?

-Probably Because I Have To

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto in 1949 but spent most of his youth in Kobe. "Norwegian Wood" was first published in Japan in 1987, and first translated into English in 2000.

Toru Watanabe tells the story, looking back on his days as university student living in Tokyo. His circle of friends was very small, and he appears to have always been a fairly solitary type. Originally from Kobe, Toru only had one real friend at school - Kizuki, who committed suicide at seventeen. He went on to university in Tokyo, where he largely appeared to keep to himself. There, he did - briefly - have a roommate at his dormitary - though the pair had very little in common. (Toru's roommate is known only as "Storm Trooper" in the book, a nickname gained through his obsession with sanitation). Nagasawa, a diplomacy student at the university, was more an acquaintance than a real friend. He was very intelligent, and came from an influential family - he took Toru under his wing after the pair discovered a common love of "The Great Gatsby". (No-one else in the dorm had any interest had any interest in the classics). Nevertheless, they did little together other than drink and chase women.

Toru's two key relationships, however, were both with women. One was Naoko - a Beatles fan and the very delicate one-time girlfriend of Kizuki.The pair meet up again in Tokyo, roughly a year after Kizuki's death and start spending more and more time together. Eventually, Toru falls for Naoko and, on the evening of Naoko's twentieth birthday, things get intimate. Unfortunately, the evening proves a little difficult for Naoko to deal with and she takes off - booking herself into a sanitorium in an attempt to deal with her difficulties. The pair keep in touch write to each other, though, and Toru is keen to see her again.

In Naoko's absence, however, the arrival of Midori Kobayashi complicates things. Like Toru, she studies drama at the university - but she's very different sort of person to Naoko. Lively and outgoing, she combines her studies with helping her father in his bookshop. Gradually, she and Toru spend more and more times together - and it leaves Toru a little unsure which direction to travel in.

A little frustratingly, the book left me with a couple of questions about some of the characters. Despite only being a minor character, I couldn't help wondering what happened to Storm Trooper...Similarly, I found myself feeling concerned for Reika, Naoko's closest friend at the sanitorium - and hoping that things worked out for her. Most of all, there's no indication of how Toru's life progressed, between the book's final page and the flight to Germany that sparked his memories. However, it's an excellent book overall, and well worth reading.