4 REASONS WHY “NORWEGIAN WOOD” IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE BOOKS

Hi guys! Today I want talk about a fantastic book, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, one of the most famous Japanese writers. 

It is the story of a teenager (Tōru Watanabe) traumatized by his best friend’s suicide,  which happened some years before the narration begins. He meets a lot of characters, teenagers and adults, who bring him from the carelessness and the liabilities of teenage, to maturity and to the personal acceptance of adulthood.

It is one of my favorite books, as well as the coming-of-age story par excellence, and I’m ready to point out why.

WARNING! HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD

1)      THE NARRATION

No  incongruities or plot holes (very frequent in stories with many characters), the narration is clear and simple. Within a linear intertwining (which is a long flash-back), we find a protagonist who embodies perfectly characteristics of  the coming-of-age  hero, two co-protagonists (Naoko and Midori) who contribute to Tōru’s growth and, at the same time, represent two alternative versions of a possible reaction to trauma. Two characters who, at different times, act as wingman to the protagonist and pilot the narration in a masterly way: the first is Nagasawa, and the second is Reiko, who in reality, alternatively, and in particular at the ending, plays the role of co-protagonist. Furthermore, along the story we find secondary characters such as Sturmtruppen (Tōru's roommate at the beginning of the novel), Midori's father or Nagasawa’s girlfriend added to prepare the reader to the assimilation of a specific concept. Therefore, nothing is left to chance.

2)      THE THEMES

 This novel deals with important themes:

a) Death

It's one of main themes, constantly present. This story teaches us what psychological consequences can mourning bring, both for  a sudden loss, as in the case of  a suicide,  and for an expected loss, as a death after a long disease. Moreover, it shows us some ways to overcome it, and how to exorcise the fear of death.

b) The importance of life

 On the other side, it explains to us the importance of life: until we are alive, we can change things, we can solve problems, we can overcome them, we can still win! Instead, if we kill ourselves, if we stop trying, we have already lost. This concept hits me deeply, and I think it’s an important life teaching.

c) Depression and psychological issues

In a part of the story, Toru stays for a couple of weeks in a mental asylum that is as a small micro-society, inhabited by people with psychological issues, psychologists, psychiatrists and ex-patients who still live there, the same place where Naoko is treated for his depression. In this part of the novel, Murakami addresses two more themes. The first one is mental issues, such as depression and nervous breakdown. They are explained both from  a medical point of view and from a  human point of view. I like Reiko’s tale, particularly, how she went from her perfect life to the beginning of her mental problem, because she perfectly explains the moment everything changed, the turning point.

d)  Out of this world

Among the themes we find smooth criticism toward society. As I said in my previous point, Naoko lives in a micro-society. There, the patients have enough tranquility to work on themselves and to heal  without the pressure of the external society.

Therefore, the writer describes a situation  which is better than society.

However, at the same time, lots of patients can’t go out of this center. Even if they are healed, often they aren’t ready, and they could never be ready, or they could never feel ready, which is a problem too.

So the writer criticizes the external society, because it damages human beings,  obliged to escape from it, but he also shows the flaws of that  micro-society (which can be a metaphor of some different realities), which imprisoned lots of patients.

It’s a paradox, never solved in the book, but everyone can find his own personal answer.

Mine is that we are imperfect machines, because we can’t adapt to  society, and the search of a different reality sometimes is a legitimate reaction, but we can’t escape for too long, otherwise we can’t go back. This story, among other things, taught me that.

3)      THE CHARACTERS

 I have already mentioned some of characters, but now I’d like to analyze the main ones:

a)      Tōru

 Tōru, the protagonist of this story, is initially a shy, apathetic, inept boy, due to the trauma suffered for the death of his best friend, Kizuki; that death marked the protagonist enough to push him to establish a relationship with Naoko, initially based on the memory of the deceased boy  that they mutually represented to each other (the relationship crystallized, as in a display case, by the implicit agreement not to talk about him). This immediately highlights how Watanabe gets carried away by events. Another thing that highlights his ineptitude is the ease with which he indulges in lewd attitudes with many different girls, influenced by his college mate Nagasawa.

The first change arrives with the departure of Naoko after an intense relationship with him, which destabilizes him. This first turning point leads to the birth of a strong feeling, not yet defined, towards the girl, which pushes him to seek her insistently, until she is hospitalized in mental asylum. In this first period of personal growth, Tōru is at the mercy of many new emotions, such as friendship, love and the pleasure of pleasures ambiguously opposed and related to it.

The second major change in Tōru occurs with the beginning of his love affair with Midori, a strange girl,  carried on in parallel to that with Naoko, which puts the protagonist in an enormous internal conflict, from which a personal rebirth arises. This is  also thanks to Reiko, Naoko’s roommate in the hygiene center, in whom Tōru confides several times.  Reiko helps Tōru to stop being inept, to understand what he wants from life (he rents an apartment for him and Naoko) and aware of the power he hassto change life for himself , without letting himself be carried away by events or entrusting his choices to others.

b)   Naoko

   

   Another very important character , interesting to analyze, is Naoko, who shares her bereavement with the protagonist, and is an extremely fragile person. She is, in contrast with the character of Tōru, soemone who cannot  react and recover from the pain her loss has provoked. She becomes apathetic, her pain crystallizes and she buries it under dead serenity.

That false pretence breaks down on her twentieth birthday spent with Tōru, which leads her to seek for help and break her contacts with the outside world. In the hygiene center where she is treated,   she meets Reiko, her roommate then best friend, who will contribute, similarly to what she will do later with Tōru, to the healing of the girl.

Over time, Naoko recovers, overcoming the trauma and many of her blockages, such as the compulsive fear of having contacts of any kind with the outside. When everything seemed past, and she and Tōru are about to live together, Naoko has a rapid relapse that leads her to suicide. From this, it is clear that what seemed solved in her, if it was,  lasted only for some time. Trust and optimism could not have been rebuilt, or at least, she was not strong enough to do it.

4)    A LINK BETWEEN EASTERN AND WESTERN LITERATURE

 According to many literary critics, Norwegian Wood represents the perfect link between eastern and western literature. There is no doubt about the differences between these two cultures, from customs to ideals, and these differences very often make  it difficult for one to appreciate the other. However, in this novel, probably because of its intimacy, there aren’t specific culture influences.  Anyone can relate to Toru’s story, which is the universal story  of any human being  going through loss and bereavement and  finding a way out. It is  the perfect coming-of-age story, where death and sorrow sign the passage from childhood to adulthood.

That’s it.  I hope I managed to persuade you to read this marvelous book. If, instead, you have already done it, share your opinion in the comments.  Till next time!

JACO

P.S. Norwegian Wood was made into a film in 2011. Here's the trailer.