"Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin Vintage:2000
There is a fast food restaurant next to the book store all under the big roof of Home Plus in Daejeon, Korea where I go to see people when I want a break from my writing. I still write, but I do it by hand instead of the laptop in my apartment. In the summer, I came to sit in the yellow and orange chairs and tables to escape the oppressive humidity and heat and so did a large number of Koreans.
Before I buy by rice burger, I often make a run into the bookstore and go to the section on the back wall that has the sign, "ESL" and there are several books there in English and I search most of the time in vain. This time, I spotted this book by Haruki Murakami and grabbed it. He is one of my favorite authors and although I had this book sitting on a shelf at home, I had not read this particular book of his although I had read several of his others. I was very pleased to see it there and it was the only one there. I bought it.
When I read it, I was careful not to mark it or spill anything on it as I am going to donate it to the English Library of the University across the street. They do not have any of his books there. Most of the books that they do have are the books one can get for free off Google Books for they are public domain books with some exceptions. One of them are the Harry Potter books which the bookstore also has.
The author is a Japanese citizen born on January 12, 1945 and is a writer, translator, teacher, professor, former jazz club owner and marathon runner. He has lived in Japan and in the United States. Many of his books feature music including "Norwegian Wood". He got the idea to write his first novel when he was 29 years old while sitting at a baseball game and started it when he got home writing between working at the jazz club. He had no training in creative writing. He sent it to a contest and won first prize. His success with this novel, "Hear the Wind Sing", encouraged him to k
eep writing. He is now considered an important figure in postmodern literature.I have read several of his books but "Norwegian Wood" is not among my favorite. I am inclined to like such novels as "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "Kafka on Shore." I loved his autobiography, "What I talk about When I Talk about Running." I have not read all of his books he has written as of now but plan to keep finding other titles when I get back to the States. "Norwegian Woods" is a novel that is still well worth reading. It was a huge hit with the Japanese especially the youth when it came out in 1987.
"Norwegian Wood"'s title is from a Beatles song of the same name. The novel is a basic coming of age story of a young man, Toru Watanabe told from the perspective of the older Watanabe who is remembering his youth as an university student living in Tokyo in the late 1960's. There are many people in the novel that play a part in Watanabe's life but there are three main people who cast a shadow over the entire novel, one who was his best friend but commits suicide early in the novel. The other two are women who represent sexuality although they are not similar. One of them is his best friend's old girlfriend and the other is the new girlfriend with a complete different set of issues. All of the people Watanabe meets all have a hand in shaping the man he is to become at the end of the novel.
Joseph Campbell said boys need rituals to become men. Women have their first period and presto they are women. It is far more complicated for boys to achieve manhood. Maybe that is why there are so many coming of age stories and books for men than there is for women.
In "Norwegian Wood", the protagonist becomes a man with the help of women. Sometimes men need a male mentor but in this book Watanabe gets his help through women. Maybe this coming of age issue with men left me outside the bubble of understanding here as I am a woman. I don't know. There were so many people willing to help this young man grow into a self-sustaining and independent man. I could not help thinking that much of what was happening here was a little autobiographical. I never had this feeling with this author's books before.
Campbell is right. Girls just become women with our first menses when we become capable of bearing children. At that point, we spend much of our time convincing the young men we don't want to have children until we are ready. Men just want to have sex. Watanabe never spent much time worrying about getting any of the women he slept with pregnant. He just wanted to have sex. Then later when we have husbands or a permanent partner, we are too busy with children and husbands to wonder if we are women or girls. We are mothers and that takes most of our time. Of course, this is a gross generalization, but I think an appropriate one.
As I wrote earlier, this is a book well worth reading for other reasons other than the simple fact that it is a coming of age novel. There are other things here that are worth considering. Murakami is a writer, a great writer for many reasons and it shows in this book. There are levels of meaning that reach down into the reader, male or female that make it well worth the investment of time in reading this novel. For instance, there is a viewpoint that the student movement of that period of the 1960's was largely weak willed and hypocritical and that maybe most student movements are doomed to fall into this category. There is also a great deal about mental illness and about self-healing vs. the mental health field and how effective it really is.
A professor at the university said it was just a Japanese book. I was surprised that he would think that. It may have been popular in Japan, but it is far from being just a Japanese book. Murakami is far from being just a Japanese author. The book has implications that reach far beyond Japanese shores. Murakami has always expressed a fascination with American culture. His books show a worldliness that makes his books not only remarkable but a necessity for all readers to consider.
