Review : Norwegian Wood

 Norwegian Wood

- Haruki Murakami

Beatles have composed and presented Norwegian Wood in 1965 , and although being a Beatles fan, I could not get myself to like that song. I always thought it to be a great deal temperamental than it ought to be , with all its unconventional utilization of the Sitar which gave it a bizarre appearance!

However , Murakami has managed to deliver his narrative with a keen peculiarity conforming to the Beatles song.

Perhaps Naoko fancied the song for that very reason for which I don’t like it, while wandering in the woods with Toru Watanabe , suppressing her pain and imagining a deep cold well from whose belly nobody can be revived! It could be that she loved that deep cold and unfriendly space where all sorrows perish with you ,apparently crawling with insects and co-habited by skeletons of those who were lost in it.

Toru Watanabe is the laid-back , smart , unpretentious ,and headstrong student protagonist in Murakami's Novel "Norwegian Wood" . The novel has been written as a first-person perspective account of the life of Toru Watanabe occurring in 1969 , while he's turning 20. Watanabe is a victim to a life altering catastrophe where his outgoing and cheerful best (and only) 17 year old friend Kizuki ,commits suicide , leaving behind another lost soul in his girlfriend Naoko.

Murakami reveals the other Japan which somehow I hadn't imagined or knew existed. It had its own fair share of right winged activists , student protests and fomenting revolutions ,and poverty (somewhat) . At one point , I started to believe that these occurrences will play a dominant part in his narrative , which however turned out false , and fundamentally ,the story turned out to be another love story. Murakami has of course managed , brilliantly to create these occurrences as appetizers or like background dancers in a Hindi movie song.

His writing style is straightforward, radiant and abruptly inflicts devastating blows to the readers mind while you begin to soak it within you and instead come out drenched and disturbed.

The story takes you from dense Tokyo to far-off snowclad mountains near Kyoto where Watanabe meets Reiko , whom you could call Naokos mentor in her struggle against her mental illness , who herself had a psychological disorder due to an incident and you immediately empathize with her and feel her pain.

Then there's Midori who is the women's lib Japanese prototype , unrestrained and colourful!

She tries going to activists' clubs where the male counterparts loved using big words with complicated sentences and quote authors like Marx and at the same time poke fun at those who fail to understand those words or that concept. She is ridiculed when she asks fundamental questions and instead is demanded that she cook food with the other females! She quits going to these clubs even though they would proffer better prospects. She wears really short provocative skirts and is never afraid to explore her sexuality.

She has a dying father, a failing business and a sister but she is quite adept at arranging all of the people and their respective complications in their respective compartments and this is how I started loving this character!

She has a boyfriend who is dominating and influences all her decisions , so imagine her joy at befriending Watanabe who is the exact opposite of what her boyfriend is. He is not judgmental nor has aversion to when she shares girl problems like periods ,tampons , sex or porn! She is the unshackled version of Naoko , and thus its hard for Watanabe not to start noticing her and eventually getting involved.

Watanabe has another friend from an affluent class ,Nagasawa , a fairly methodized and smart cookie. He is quite promiscuous and every Saturday ,takes Watanabe on his escapades where they pick girls to have sex.

His quotes are extremely fascinating , one being " Don't ever feel sorry for yourself, Only assholes do that!"

Surprisingly though , his girlfriend is homely and madly in love with him , sadly without reciprocation.

The storyline is densely populated by characters with mental illnesses and issues pertaining to depression and eventual suicides.

We have plenty of experience with pain and helplessness either second hand or first hand.

How does one fight depression? One has to follow the light , follow the warriors of light. Murakami also talks about creating a favourable surrounding without administering actual medication or treatment in such institutions. I shuddered at the idea of life there and started imagining myself there and was promptly engulfed by thoughts leading to sharp anxiety and torment. How I wished I could hug Reiko and never get out of it! How I wished life was easy and people did not fall in love or we all were machines ! 7 of 9 !

Apparently that makes us strong. Despite the fact that these independent events may or may not help when the next catastrophe strikes.

Watanabe is drawn to such people , perhaps he is the beacon of light which all of them say, the sufferers should follow and hold on to. He never expects him to be ordained to Naoko or his friend Kizuki or Nagasawa's girlfriend Hatsumi , all of whom he wants to beckon from the deep dark and damp well of no return but never accomplishes it.

Nearing the end , Murakami establishes the void in Watanabe and perceives that he is not the beacon of light after all and needs to call out and reach out lest he falls next!

All hail Murakami and his Norwegian Wood!!