Norwegian Wood [Hardcover]

 

 

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" '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.

It's my first time reading one of Murakami's book. It's not that I didn't like the story in it's whole, but reading the book from the beginning to it's end was a pain.... I din't like that every two pages, everything seemed to be about sex, the dialogues are somehow very childish and even if Watanabe was the main caracter, he was the most annoying person in this story. This story leaves me with an empty feeling like if I was reading an unfinished story.

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

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4.0 out of 5 stars Not the opposite, but a part of
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... Read more

Published on Nov 17 2007 by Craobh Rua

5.0 out of 5 stars Japanese existentialism at its best
Here are five good reason to take up this book:
A. The story offers a very pungent insight into the pressure-cooker environment of modern Japanese society, with all its... Read more

Published on Jun 26 2007 by Ian Gordon Malcomson

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm the Critic.
Norwegian Wood, written by Haruki Murakami, is a tremendous piece which involves many strives and hardships about love and relationship. Read more

Published on Jun 4 2007 by Sugar520

5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding
Wow! I was completely enchanted by this lyrical novel. The character development is outstanding and the mood really grabs you and gives the words a sense of depth and intense... Read more

Published on May 17 2004 by meggin8D

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bird Has Flown
Norwegian Wood tells the story of Toru, a 20-ish University student living in Tokyo. Toru is devoted to Naoko, the girlfriend of his deceased best friend. Read more

Published on April 15 2004 by M. Ansty

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bird Has Flown
Norwegian Wood tells the story of Toru, a 20-ish University student living in Tokyo. Toru is devoted to Naoko, the girlfriend of his deceased best friend. Read more

Published on April 15 2004 by M. Ansty

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical meditation on life and death masked as a love story
This is the first book by Haruki Murakami I've read, and on the strength of this, I would certainly attempt his other novels. Read more

Published on April 6 2004 by L. Rephann

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad and painful
What is it about these Japanese writers that are able to make prose sound like Poetry? I am a fan of Banana Yoshimoto, another Japanese writer, whose book "the Kitchen" is one of... Read more

Published on Feb 27 2004 by Tsila Sofer Elguez

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Anna Karenina
The best love story I have ever read. All of Murakami's works are excellent but this is his best. If you haven't read him then buy this book now - excellent - you will not put... Read more

Published on Feb 16 2004 by John I. Provan

5.0 out of 5 stars So much life.
What a book.

This is Murakami's love ballad, a story that builds to a moving climax. There is so much life here. Read more

Published on Feb 16 2004 by Daniel C. Wilcock

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