Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

This novel describes many characters. Everybody is different from the others. Facing different situations yet experiencing similar emotions. 

About the book

The book Norwegian Wood was originally written in Japanese by the author Haruki Murakami in the year 1987. It's English translation appeared in 2000 done by Jay Rubin. The novel is set in the 1960s and 70s.

The back cover of the book reads, "When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marched into his life and he had to choose between the future and the past."

About the author

Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹, Murakami Haruki, born January 12, 1949) is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Gunzou Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, and the Jerusalem Prize, whose previous recipients include J.M. Coetzee, Milan Kundera, and V.S. Naipaul.

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Jay Rubin (born 1941) is an American academic and translator. He is one of the main translators of the works of the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami into English. He has also written a guide to Japanese, Making Sense of Japanese (originally titled Gone Fishin'), and a biographical literary analysis of Murakami.

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About the characters

The detailed description of the characters is already there in the book but this is how I understood them.

1. Toru Watanabe is someone who lacks clarity about life. Stuck on a single torned page, belonging to the book of life, mourning over the cut part.

2. Naomi represents that traumatized soul affected by what it sees.

3. Kizuki, he is a complete mystery.

4. Midori is someone who has built a tough wall as a result of continuous sufferings.

5. Storm Trooper, he is a desire driven weirdo.

6. Nagasawa, he is that proud, intelligent and arrogant personality which is actually fragile from inside. The tough behavior is just a shell to cover the inner weakness. The conditioning of the brain, maybe at a very young age, programs their actions.

7. Reiko, she is the only older person. The one who has first hand experience with potential trauma causing situations.

8. Hatsumi, she is a victim of being too good. (Most might relate with her) 

Reading Journey 

Novel reading is strange. When you start reading a story, it's as if you enter an unknown world along with some unknown people. And the best part is that without asking you get to know about each one of them at the most intimate level. Likewise this novel enriches your experience with the intimacy of thoughts and intimacy of emotions and even physical intimacy among it's characters, provided you have a great imagination.

The story continues through the perspective of Toru Watanabe. It's all about how he copes with a world that has lost all the charm for him, and frequent fluctuations from and towards his desire to be normal again. In the process he meets the other characters each with a significant story to tell. The narration is like Toru's personal diary. Wherein he writes about the happenings in the most possible raw form. 

This book narrates the stories of individuals dealing with their own traumas and healing processes. I felt it amazing how the narration allows the reader to enter into Toru's shoes and converse with all the other interesting characters. And to know how some of them succeed and some quit. And the effect that the dead cause on the lives of the survivors.

For me most of the time it so happens that as the story proceeds I lose track of the ages of its characters. Hence it decreases the joy partially. But in the case of this book the author keeps on updating about the time period and the then age of it's characters. It's just that knowing the age of the characters I can imagine them better.

It's a thought provoking novel. A bit controversial but provide feed for your brain to think about situations beyond that box.

There were no specific parts that held me. I liked the novel as a whole and enjoyed reading it.

For me the takeaway message was 

"When quitting feels easy, surviving is more difficult, but it's worth it."

Do give a shot to this story and if you have already read it, share your views about the book. And tell me what you feel about these different characters.