Books Beyond Stories- Book Reviews

Norwegian Woods by Haruki Murakami

Every Murakami fan knows the importance of Norwegian Woods; it was the book that made Haruki Murakami a worldwide sensation. Also, this book stands out amongst his other works, as it is more realistic rather than his usually surrealistic books. Written with the backdrop of the hippie movement and the cultural change that it brought in Japan, this book revolves around Toru Watanabe and his journey of dealing with the new ideas brought along with it- a culture of liberal ideas, casual sex, smoking, alcohol and uprisings. Plot wise this story offers nothing new, it is the same old coming of age of a boy who learns to deal with loss, make decisions, fall in love, make mistakes and eventually grow up. It has the dreaded love triangle; an element teen fiction cannot seem to get enough of. However that doesn't mean that the book was a cliché. Things generally are deeper (and I daresay more complex) than they appear to be is something a Murakami book teaches you. While reading the summary this story appears to be a typical one, but when one starts exploring into the depths they see the intricacies with which this story has been crafted. Murakami drifts from his usual genre but he remains true to his quintessential style that his readers simply adore.

Norwegian Woods was published around 1980s and the strange part is that it is more accurate in the present, in 2017 than any of our currently published teen fictions are. The story revolves around Toru Watanabe who falls in love with Naoko, the girlfriend of his dead best friend Kizuki. Naoko is unable to deal with the guilt after  Kizuki's death because of this, she is  unable to love Toru. While she goes away to deal with her depression, another girl enters Toru's life. Midori Kobayashi is a chatty and quirky woman; she is odd, confident and very honest about everything. She is almost the opposite of the frail and secretive Naoko. Now, Toru has to decide between his past Naoko and his present Midori.

The characters even the relatively minor ones are very lifelike with their own flaws. I personally loved Storm Trooper and I feel that Toru should have been nicer to him. Nagasawa despite being associated with negative traits was a relatable character as well; people who've read this book might swear that they know one Nagasawa in real life. Hatsumi was another character who I loved, she was my favorite after Midori.

As for Naoko and Reiko, I didn't have any strong opinions on them. The only character I disliked in the whole book was Toru. After reading when I searched about it on the internet I came across many theories about the book which prompted to make one of my own. I believe that the source of all chaos was Toru and his aloofness; he was a self-centered guy who got so wrapped up in his own problem that he forgot about the people around him. Toru would almost always shut down any attempts made by Storm Trooper to befriend him. He found Nagasawa but refrained to confide in him as well. Rather than helping Naoko and empathising with her, he withdrew in his own shell and slept around with strange women to deal with his unrequited feelings for her. Toru on many occasions took Midori for granted when she was the only true friend he had. He criticised Nagasawa for his behaviour towards Hatsumi but Toru acted almost in the same manner with Midori. In a way, it was true when Nagasawa said that he and Toru weren't that different. Toru would delay taking decisions . In the end Toru felt lonely; he wouldn't have felt that way had he not pushed everyone away. I believe that he needed to learn a lot from Midori and her straightforward ways. Toru was a flawed but  nice guy who just tried to do the best thing he could do in his situation. It is hard to hate him but I feel things would've been less complicated had he been a little more receptive and empathetic.

The book has many themes and symbolisms; the biggest for me are Nagasawa and Hatsumi. Nagasawa stands for the modern liberal values brought by the hippie movement; his womanizing ways, his constant drinking, his hunger for power and his want for more were typical western ideas. Hatsumi on the other hand stood for family values, simplicity, unconditional love, devotion and forgiveness the ideas, which are typically a part of traditional Asian values. Eventually, their fate proves the triumph of the new ideas over the older ones. Midori and Naoko too stood for an ideology. Naoko stood for the feminine, with her feminine hair, her beauty, her mysterious nature, her sensitivity and guilt. Midori was the masculine counterpart because of her brashness, independence, earthly nature, straightforward nature, sexual aggression and her short hair.

The themes of the book are something remarkable. This book had a lot of depiction of mental disorders, way before they were spoken about openly. Naoko shows symptoms of schizophrenia and PTSD. Strom Trooper is the textbook example of OCD, a type of anxiety disorder. Toru constantly struggles with dysthymia, a type of depression. Reiko I believe has some identity disorder (since she tries to take Naoko's place and often feels confused about her own identity. She also often questions who she is and questions her own sexuality in the book.) All across the world, it is saddening to see that suicide has become so common amongst young people. There are many instances of suicide in this book and this story tries to depict what happens to the loved ones of those who were left behind. Naoko's unresolved guilt combined with her loss made eventually made her unable to live. Toru too spent most of his life trying to cope up with Kizuki's death. Suicide is never a solution; it not only kills an individual but also kills their loved ones. Haruki Murakami deals with touchy subjects with the kind of seriousness they demand without getting overly dramatic.

I learnt from this story that you need not understand something to love it. I still cannot figure Norwegian Woods or its ending. Yet, I loved reading it. I realised that one doesn't love things because they understand it; one loves it simply for no other reason. Murakami's writing feels like home and there's nothing which can describe it.  Figuring everything out takes away the mystery and without any mystery things become boring. A good work of art is something that lingers in your mind. Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Woods has that lingering essence; it makes you think about your own future and the way our loved ones are drifting apart from each other.

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Quotes:

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."

"What happens when people open their hearts?"
"They get better."

"Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that."

"I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it -- to be fed so much love I couldn't take any more. Just once. "

"I don't care what you do to me, but I don't want you to hurt me. I've had enough hurt already in my life. More than enough. Now I want to be happy."

"She's letting out her feelings. The scary thing is not being able to do that. When your feelings build up and harden and die inside, then you're in big trouble."

"Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them."

"Life doesn't require ideals. It requires standards of action."

"When you fall in love, the natural thing to do is give yourself to it. That's what I think. It's just a form of sincerity."

"This is one more piece of advice I have for you: don't get impatient. Even if things are so tangled up you can't do anything, don't get desperate or blow a fuse and start yanking on one particular thread before it's ready to come undone. You have to realize it's going to be a long process and that you'll work on things slowly, one at a time."

"Why?" she screamed. "Are you crazy? You know the English subjunctive, you understand trigonometry, you can read Marx, and you don't know the answer to something as simple as that? Why do you even have to ask? Why do you have to make a girl SAY something like this? I like you more than I like him, that's all. I wish I had fallen in love with somebody a little more handsome, of course. But I didn't. I fell in love with you!"

"Waiting for your answer is one of the most painful things I have ever been through. At
least let me know whether or not I hurt you."

"I'm not totally mad at you. I'm just sad. You're all locked up in that little world of yours, and when I try knocking on the door, you just sort of look up for a second and go right back inside."

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Favourite Character:

Midori. She was very relatable and sometimes reminded me of Phoebe Buffay. We all need a Midori in our lives to teach us that it is okay to be quirky. Also, someone like her makes everything simpler with her honesty.

Special Note:

Midori is awesome; she's different from his other female characters. Read it for Midori.

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