Book Review: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
I borrowed Kristine's copy and promptly devoured it. :P
Norwegian Wood is the story of Toru Watanabe's college years during the end of the 60s in Tokyo. It is also the story of how he found and lost love, at least once and possibly more than twice. It is also the semi-autobiographical tale of a writer's formative, and possibly traumatic, transition to adulthood. But it is not "just a love story".
It's funny how I can relate to Watanabe's experiences of studying in an unstable environment where empty slogans and wannabes demand that the corrupt and broken system be replaced with yet another corrupt and broken system, with them in charge this time, of course. Totally different this time!
Watanabe, however, is a super passive character. He never does anything on his own. He is a rock, an island - he reacts rather than acts. He goes to college in Tokyo because his best friend Kizuki killed himself, and Watanabe needs distance. He starts hanging out with Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, because she needs him as a friend, a lover, and as a link to Kizuki. When Naoko flees him because of her inherent fucked-upness, he is content to wait for her to get better, even when all signs seem to indicate that her recovery may take, well, forever.
When he runs into a girl like Midori, she is something he is unprepared for. She is in ways the opposite of Naoko - she has none of Naoko's traumas, or hangups. She is fickle with her moods and her affections for Watanabe. She is impulsive, and random, and unpredictable. She toys with Watanabe, but is deeply hurt when she realizes he can't love her back - he's too hung-up on Naoko.
There is Nagasawa, Watanabe's older, cooler, and much more successful friend who is, in a way, a victim of his success and privelege. He has everything, and he can get anything he wants - money, love, sex, power, fame - what he doesn't have among those now, he'll get later. As a result, he has no hunger for anything - and this makes him incapable of empathy with anyone. He is one of the most fun characters around, and unlike a lot of them he is very sure of what he wants and where he's going - but he is also the most inhuman, the most heartless of all.
Finally, there is Reiko - Naoko's roommate and confidant at the sanatorium she retreats to after her breakdown. Despite her wisdom and great outlook on life, she personally feels incapable of living a normal life in the "real world". To tell more about her would spoil the ending of this book, but a chain of events finally rattles her out of the shell she's retreated into.
Ultimately, events force Watanabe to do the unthinkable - to make a choice - and his inability to do so causes suffering for a lot of people, especially himself. The ending leaves his fate open-ended - whether he finds happiness or not is unknown.
Of all the characters in the story, the one I relate to is Midori. Sure, she's a bit annoying, and her moodiness seems so immature, but she knows what she wants, is willing to fight for it, and I view her desire to always be noticed by Watanabe as an attempt to reach out to someone who spends way too much time inside himself.
Ultimately, I have no sympathy for Watanabe - his failure at decision making, his nostalgia for a past that's full of sadness, and his inability to recognize the good that he still has are everything I do not want to be.
While I liked this book, this is not one of my favorites. For one thing, I can't recommend it to everybody - there are certain people to whom Norwegian Wood is the worst thing they could possibly read now. But this is a beautiful book that captures something I can't describe right now. Oh well.
Also, I am optimistic about the movie adaptation of this.