This is one of the more magical and sensual books that
I've read this year. Toru Watanabe is a Tokyo student at the end of the
sixties. Western culture abounds (the novel is named after the Beatles'
tune). 'Norwegian Wood' is Naoko's favourite song, and one which she pays
her friend Reiko to play. It's a song which seems destined to torment her
for the rest of her life. In his own subtle way, Murakami suggests to us
the power of great art. This novel also belongs to that class. Once
you've started to read 'Norwegian Wood', you'll become addicted to it.
Murakami creates characters who reside in your mind as real beings.
They're people who you will come to love. His fiction also transcends
cultural barriers, in that 'Norwegian Wood' could have been set anywhere.
Its emotional centre is that of painful adolescence, so any casual reader will
have a great deal to identify with the main protagonists from the off.
Just as Toru is forced into the past by the merest note of 'Norwegian Wood',
this book will also compel you to confront your own past, the people that
you have loved and maybe lost. The sixties student rebellions seem to
have shook almost every part of the world, and Murakami's novel does feature
such a revolt. No doubt the fuel blockades currently afflicting Britain
and Europe will be similarly remembered in future years. In one revealing
scene, Murakami has Midori articulate that great truth that when higher
education chooses to debate the class struggle, it often does so in terms which
exclude the working class (note my indoctrinated and ironical use of
'articulate'). Of course, I read a translation (in the Harvill edition,
presented like a box of Cubans, "hand-rolled on the thighs of
maidens"), but the power of Murakami's prose shines through. Toru
extols the exquisite prose of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Murakami cannot have had
a better writing tutor, where every word is a wonder in itself.
Naoko and Reiko have decided to exile themselves
away from the mental torments of everyday life in a remote mountain community.
Toru comes to visit Naoko, his sometime lover. Together, they share the
memory of Kizuki, Noako's boyfriend, who inexplicably killed himself at the age
of 17. Naoko has far more difficulty expressing her feelings than Toru,
something which he finds both beguiling and painful. Under the loving
care of Reiko, Toru and Naoko try to explore their feelings for each
other. What was the truth behind their night of shared passion?
Reiko believes that Toru may be the best tonic for Naoko (such great irony),
but Naoko has her own reasons for pushing Toru away, despite knowing how much
she needs him. In one telling episode, Naoko reveals herself to Toru as
she sleepwalks, a troubled soul reaching out for help.
Denied physical contact with the one woman he
really cares about, Toru satisfies his bodily needs with a series of one night
stands, out on the town in the company of his twisted but content friend
Nagasawa. But even as his body is sated, Toru cannot help but feel
disgust. However, his torment is tempered by Midori, who pushes her way
into his life. She does not seem to mind that Toru is alienated, and far
from content to be the Norm. She loves the peculiar way Toru talks and
almost consults him as if he were a guru, demanding that he relate his carnal
fantasies to her. Midori has been to an all-girl school, and seems to
have an endless fascination for those pleasures which she has yet to
experience. However, she too has her pain and a peculiar kind of
madness. Inevitably, it seems, Toru is torn between his feelings for the
inaccessible Naoko, and Midori's passion for him... Will Toru be
forced down the path that has led so many of his friends to self-oblivion?
'Norwegian Wood' is a great, powerful novel.
The kind of art that stays with you for the rest of your life, the kind of
music which makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand tall, to force a
shiver of delight and pain through your body, to make your mouth starch
dry. There are excellent characters, from the lowly Storm Trooper, to the
warm and loving Reiko. There is also great subtlety, surprising in such
an emotional novel. This is, above all, a very sensual work of art,
with every feeling touched upon and plucked with the greatest of skill.
AuthorTrek Rating: 10/10.
Kevin Patrick Mahoney
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