Norwegian Wood

Norwegian Wood (1987) is a coming-of-age novel about loss, nostalgia, and potent sexuality. Written by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, the novel is one of his most famous and enduring, launching him into the Japanese national spotlight. It follows Toru Watanabe, a wandering loner at University who entangles himself in a love triangle with two women. Norwegian Wood gets its title from a Beatles song named the same, which also details a romantic affair.

Norwegian Wood: Haruki Murakami

Although Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1949, he mostly grew up in Kobe, the third-largest port city in Japan. Both his parents were Japanese literature teachers and encouraged Murakami to read. He expressed an interest in western literature at an early age.

Murakami spent his college years mostly patronizing jazz clubs and avoiding student organizations and group, much like the main character of Norwegian Wood.

Haruki Murakami loves to ponder. Wikimedia Commons

Norwegian Wood: Summary

Norwegian Wood opens with thirty seven-year-old Toru Watanabe. He's passing through an airport when he hears an instrumental version of the Beatles song "Norwegian Wood". It immediately triggers the reminiscing of his college days when he experienced a multitude of formative events in just a few years of his youth.

In high school, Toru, Kizuki and Naoko are inseparable. Unexpectedly, Kizuki commits suicide. This throws Toru and Naoko into depression and despair. They form a deeper, romantic bond over the loss and trauma of Kizuki's sudden death. They both decide to go to college in Tokyo to escape their troubled past.

They develop a regular habit of spending Sundays on long walks together. Naoko and Toru barely speak. On Naoko's 20th birthday she opens up and talks almost incessantly, but avoids key topics like Kizuki. They make love and Toru learns that Naoko is a virgin, realizing that she and Kizuki never had sex. Afterward, Naoko writes Toru a letter explaining that she's dropping out of college and admitting herself to a sanitorium, due to compounded and unprocessed grief behind her older sister's death on top of Kizuki's death.

Love triangles are more enjoyable in fiction than in real life. Wikimedia Commons

This all occurs while there are student protests at Waseda University. The students call for changes that Toru agrees with in terms of content, but criticizes in delivery, feeling they lack imagination and inspiration. One day two revolutionary students take over a classroom as Toru observes with bemusement. He also wryly watches his roommate he dubs "Stormtrooper" as he neurotically over-cleans their room. This mismatch pushes Toru to move out of the dormitory and get his own apartment.

Toru meets Midori in a drama class. Midori is outgoing and confident, the opposite of Naoko. She actively pursues Toru and they quickly develop a friendship. Toru feels they have a mutual understanding and they both verbalize their attraction to each other. He visits the shop that her grieving family tries to keep afloat despite their mother's death.

Toru regularly visits Naoko at the sanitorium. At first, she still seems detached and withdrawn. Gradually, both her and roommate Reiko reveal more of their past to Toru. Reiko was a professional musician who's mental illness disrupted her career and marriage. He seeks counsel from Reiko as she has become someone that Naoko trusts and confides in. Toru seeks her out for advice on his relationship with Naoko.

Later, in a couple of letter exchanges, Toru learns that Naoko has killed herself. Reiko comes to visit Toru and stays with him. Reiko and Toru have their own personal funeral celebration for Naoko and play songs on the guitar. They sleep together. With Reiko's help, Toru realizes that Midori is the most important person in his life and reaches out to her.

Norwegian Wood: Ending

The ending of Norwegian Wood is open-ended. In interviews, author Haruki Murakami states that he intentionally left it that way.

After a night of intense intimacy, Toru sees off Reiko to the train. She asks him to keep in touch. He promises to never forget her and write her letters. Sometime later, not explicitly stated, he calls Midori from a public phone. Only a paragraph break separates the last paragraph from the second.

Toru pours his heart out to Midori. She responds by asking "Where are you?" Toru isn't quite sure, and as a narrator to the reader, says he has no idea as he describes abstractly the images of pedestrians passing by outside the phone booth.

Norwegian Wood is so popular it has been released in many editions. Wikimedia Commons

Many readers have been puzzled about the ending, expecting specific closure about Toru and Midori. Some have even speculated that Toru made the phone call during the present day when Toru, the narrator, opened the story at age thirty-seven. Ultimately, it is up to the reader to decide whether Toru and Midori end up together or not. Murakami has insisted that Norwegian Wood's ending be taken at face value.¹

Norwegian Wood: Genre

Norwegian Wood is a coming-of-age fictional story about young love, the loss of innocence, and grieving over the unexpected deaths of loved ones. The novel borrows heavily in structure from the Japanese "I-novel." I-novels are told from the first person in a confessional manner, where the narrator is the main character parsing through events from their life while speaking directly to the reader.

Norwegian Wood: Book Analysis

The main idea and point behind Norwegian Wood is that one can work through difficult times if one just persists in living. Many characters experience the death of loved ones and experience a sadness that they can't quite shake off. Murakami shows this sadness becomes a part of the characters. Ultimately it's up to the characters to decide how to process this grief. Some continue to live, others decide to take their own lives. Depression and grief are prevalent throughout the novel.

Toru Watanabe is portrayed as an everyman, a sort of blank slate. Author Haruki Murakami intended him to be a detached observer. The last name Watanabe is very common in Japan. He spends a lot of time alone watching others while avoiding group or student organizations. There are some autobiographical elements from Murakami's college life, such as the hygiene-obsessed roommate and the student protests taking place in Tokyo in the 1960s. Much of what Toru espouses is the value of being independent, in contrast to traditional family culture in Japan.

Themes

There are three principal themes in Norwegian Wood.

Loss

The characters in Norwegian Wood experience loss at a very young age. Toru and Naoko bond over their loss of Kizuki. Yet they are wholly unprepared to handle the complexities of romantic love. Often they spend their time together in silence. When Toru meets Midori, he sees that there are other ways to grieve. While the death of her mother is painful to her, Midori chooses to focus on enjoying her life. Reiki also shows that it's possible to start again, no matter how much one has lost.

Love and Sex

Toru becomes intimate unexpectedly with many women throughout the novel. He never intended to sleep with Naoko. As they process their grief over Kizuki together, they seek comfort in each other's intimacy. Later with Reiki, Toru has a similar experience. Yet Reiki is older and more mature. In some ways she leads Toru to have sex with her, insisting that he relax and try to enjoy himself. At the same time, this is Reiki is trying to live on her own again and enjoy life.

Nostalgia

The story opens with present-day Toru. He is quickly transported back in time when he hears the title song. Nostalgia can be a source of pleasure but also of pain. Toru experiences his memory almost involuntarily at first, though he chooses to continue moving through it. This provides the basis of nearly the entire novel. By exploring his memories, he can process even further these pivotal events of his life from the perspective of a more mature adult. In a way, Reiki symbolizes this perspective. For her, his trials and tribulations are important but nothing to lose sleep over. She insists that Toru focuses on enjoying himself, and ultimately they enjoy each other.

Symbols

There are two symbols in Norwegian Wood. First, the forest and the woods represent adolescence and mental illness. Naoko retreats to the woods to treat her severe depression. When Toru visits her, his return to the woods means a return to his adolescence and its accompanying trauma. Second, the song and title itself. The song is a trigger for memories and nostalgia anytime Toru hears it, and it's forever tied to this period in his life.

Norwegian Wood: Quotes

The quotes below are helpful examples for understanding the recurring themes and motifs of Norwegian Wood.

The reader witnesses Toru Watanabe process his grief and loss throughout the novel. Often he is not quite sure what to do. He spends much of his time wandering Tokyo and observing others. He learns that everyone processes grief and sorrow differently. Some, like Naoko, go more inward and become withdrawn. Toru chose to be in the world, but still remains relatively aloof and not part of it. Midori tries to live her life to the fullest despite her mother's death. Reiki is somewhere in between Midori and Naoko spending some time in a sanitorium, but ultimately strikes out on her own again.

Toru's relationship with Reiki is arguably his most emotionally mature. Despite her struggle with mental illness, Reiki has been around nearly twice the lifetime of Toru, and is able to offer practical advice rooted in experience. Reiki feels that being vulnerable with others helps one grow. Toru is still learning to understand himself, and what it means to love someone else. On some level, he knows Reiki can offer wisdom and guidance. He seeks advice from Reiki in understanding Naoko and his feelings for her.

Nagasawa is an upperclassman that Toru respects. They connect on their shared interests in reading and like many of the same books. Nagasawa is smart but also very skeptical of others. He believes he is smarter and more special than most. His academic success and social aptitude confirm that for him. Despite Nagasawa's elitism, Toru and he share a core value of prioritizing independence. Many of author Haruki Murakami's main characters in his novels tend to be solitary wanderers.

1. Jay Rubin. Haruki Murakami and the music of words (2002).