Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami - Analysis

I recently read Haruki Murakami's Norwegian wood and just couldn't take it away from my mind. If you haven't read the book or looking for a book review this is definitely not for you. First read the book and come for the character analysis. It isn’t a boasting post stating that I understood Murakami so I am here to explain his characters. I don't have any friends who have read this masterpiece and no one is there to discuss it with. If you feel that my understanding is wrong or I should see the particular character or scene with a different point of view or any comment or suggestion is welcome. Murakami has become a recent addiction or obsession. 

P.S : The quotes are added in a random order. 

After reading the book I went through the internet for the "Norwegian wood" Beatles, wow! I exactly remember in the cottage where Toru Watanabe, Reiko and Naoko would retire for the night and Reiko would play the particular song and Naoko would say that Reiko would play the song only when asked because it would make her so sad and depressed. Here are the lyrics. 

 I once had a girl

Or should I say she once had me

She showed me her room
isn’t it good Norwegian wood?

She asked me to stay
And she told me to sit anywhere
So I looked around
And I noticed there wasn't a chair

I sat on a rug biding my time
drinking her wine
we talked until two and then she said
"It's time for bed"

She told me she worked
In the morning and started to laugh
I told her I didn't
And crawled off to sleep in the bath

And when I awoke I was alone
This bird had flown
So I lit a fire
Isn't it good Norwegian wood?

Wow! This song played in a cottage in the dark night and chilly winds and a soulful voice carrying the pain within would make anyone weep. So there was no wonder in Naoko saying so. 

Let’s Go through the Characters: 

Toru Watanabe - A guy who moved away from his home town due to an identity crisis after his best friend's death. Who comes to Tokyo and who is put through some severe loneliness and solitude? The one day he accidentally meets Naoko(long-time girlfriend of his dead best friend)  on the way. Toru and Naoko were connected only through Kizuki (the guy who commits suicide). They don't have much in common as they just keep walking and walking and walking. Toru keeps up with Naoko just a phase behind her. They usually go to restaurants a lot of walking and talking. On Naoko's twentieth birthday, they make out and from the next day she is vanished. 

So what do we make of our Toru, the protagonist?  He is a confused young man who couldn't control his sexual urge at times and sleeps with five girls while still in love with Naoko. He is quiet not because he is an intellectual or something. Exactly the opposite. He thinks himself as an ordinary fellow who would see people as just people instead of adding their past or future. He understands that everyone is fighting a battle; he respects everyone and their principles. He later controls his emotions when Midori is taking him to the movie and insists that he hugs her and sleeps on her bed. He wouldn't force her to make love to him even though he knew; she would agree if he had taken the step.  So in the end when Reiko and he organise a wonderful funeral for Naoko he realizes that it has been Midori even before Naoko's death. 

His friendship with Nagasawa is as close to reality. Nagasawa is mean and self centred. He bothers only about himself and even though he has a steady girlfriend of his own, he sleeps with hell lot of girls and thinks that it is some sort of a game. But he works real hard to get into the ministry of external affairs. Those people succeed. People like Toru, who are nice and think they need to give back something to the world, would never be as professionally successful as Nagasawa. And it totally matter what you consider as success! 

Naoko – She is also fighting for her lost identity who is confused all the time. She is so natural. She breaks down so easily. Her needs are so less. She is kind of a self made girl. Then later we come to know that what kind of relationship she had with Kizuki, we have nothing but pity for her. When you think someone means the world to you but they end up just like being everyone else and you aren’t as special to them as you have imagined. When a relationship lacks trust and transparency the consequences are inevitable. Towards the end when she finds difficulty in writing to Toru that’s when we realize the severity of her illness. She is cool about her illness and she knows only once she can feel the sexual tension, on her twentieth birthday and it’s kind of she has always known yet she didn’t know. The most interesting part is that you expect a lot of nostalgic moments and sweet nothings when the two main characters have been on a parallel universe of a love triangle. Murakami keeps it so simple.

Midori – The closest to a normal and regular person. We all need her in our lives. She has a hell lot of problems. Her grandpa, grandma, mother and father all die of cancer. She and her sister are running errands to hospital and their father’s book shop and often in a constant fear about the future or to be precise, the fear of unknown. But how does she react to all those situations?

For example:

Her neighbourhood catches fire. What would you or I do? She takes a beer with her friend on their terrace wishing that the fire would consume her. You right away know something is wrong with her but you end up understanding that she is the most positive person in the world. She would talk about how she saved money to buy a knife by wearing a single bra for continuous three months, she makes Toru take her to a sex movie and listens to the sounds and makes funny comments about it and gets bored after a while, she could go relax in a park when her father was in his deathbed, she would say the funeral was a piece of cake.

So what makes her real? 

She is selfish. She would want to hug and sleep Toru even when she has a boyfriend and when Toru says that he has a girlfriend she says that she is real and she is made of flesh and blood and she needs an answer. She was so frank with Toru from the way she expresses her sexual desire and wanting to learn about how guys masturbate and requesting Toru to imagine her inside his head only once when he masturbates.

Now don’t think this some sort of a sex diary. This is a book that would blow your mind off.

The sensuality used in the book by Murakami is classy. Sometimes when you write an erotica, the success lies not exactly in what you say but what is left unsaid. Man he nails it.

Nostalgia is so wonderfully executed. In the pool table when Hatsumi and Toru are playing, the way he mentions his friend’s death and keep on playing. No tears, no sad moments, just the reader gets his air sucked out. Oh my God, you have to read it to believe it.  

Have you ever felt left out in a conversation, where you are being totally abused by someone whom you consider so close to heart? You would not hate them; you would end up hating yourself for letting them hurt you so much. Just read the dinner scene of Hatsumi, Nagasawa and Toru.

The Humour is extraordinary. You would feel the light moments make you smile and weep and catch your breath regarding the chapter you are going through. The general mood of this book is sadness and death and people letting go of others but that is just life, isn’t it? A very few good jokes do pass by.

The best part is that you can feel the seasons of the book go along with the plot. The music as a background character, the way life moves on is wonderfully portrayed. You will always be guessing while going through the book. You will love it.

A wonderful and must read!

With Love,

Arvi