Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“I want you always to remember me. Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this?”- Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.

I've wanted to read something by Haruki Murakami since I first saw one of his books in a bookstore back in May. More specifically, I've wanted to read Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, because that's easily one of my favorite titles ever, but was a bit intimidated by both its size and subject matter and wasn't sure if I really wanted to dive into a world of heady magical realism, which has never really been my thing though I have always been intrigued by the Latin American magical realists, people like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and whoever it was that wrote Like Water for Chocolate. I decided to start with what appeared to his least experimental (and as a result, most popular and well-known) novel- Norwegian Wood.

Norwegian Wood goes down super easily. With the exception of some strange, probably directly translated turns of phrase the book is so very well translated (something I should explain, when I say a book is well translated I mean it doesn't feel obvious that it wasn't first written in English; a poorly translated novel usually has a lot of directly translated phrases or it just a general feeling of unintentional stiltedness), and surprisingly easy to read. I think my problem was that I was expecting something along the lines of a Russian novel, for some reason, with a dense narrative and millions of characters, each going by at least ten different names. But it was very easy to keep each character straight in my head, thankfully because there wasn't a lot of them to begin with and each new character that was introduced had not only a well-defined character but also a well-established place in the plot. There was no confusing Naoko with Midori, or Reiko with Hatsumi, because each was a radically different character. 

I did love the way it was written, too. It was simplistic, with some lovely sentences, and it just felt very put together. I especially like Murakami's dialogue, mostly Toru and Midori's interactions, since it felt fresh and often had me actually laughing out loud. I really grew to love them as a pair and Midori is easily one of my favorite literary female characters- of all the characters (except maybe Toru) she struck me the most as someone who I might know in real life. Another element of the book that deserves a special mention is the letters. In most books, letters are usually over the top poetic and the place where writers pull out their finest writing chops. In this case, the letters are a great touch because, while they do have some nice moments, I can believe that two people who aren't trained, professional writers would have written them. It seems like what it is- causal correspondence.

I should also mention that the subplots are done almost superbly. They never take away from the story, but instead show us that these supposed side characters have their own inner lives and other things going on and they don't just exist in relation to Toru. I think my favorite subplot was Nagawawa and Hatsumi's, especially since it felt like a real situation, and the end to that actually made me feel sad. 

From what it seems, this is the hardcore Murakami's fan's least favorite book, as it is the one with none of his signature magical realism elements and was perhaps a bad pick for my first Murakami novel. But I will definitely read more by him, maybe not the monster 1Q84, but probably the aforementioned Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I won't get my hopes up like I did for Carlos Ruiz Zafon, but I do look forward to reading that book.

9 out of 10