I initially read it a couple of years after coming back from Japan, and this coloured my interpretation of the book, with my first few reads focused on the nostalgia. Let me be clear – it’s very hard for me to be totally objective about Norwegian Wood, one of my very first J-Lit encounters.
It’s a crossroads in his life, one where a false step will have serious consequences for the future. Meanwhile, Toru’s friendship with the outgoing Midori threatens to become something more, leaving the confused student wondering which path he should take. After their relationship intensifies, she suffers a breakdown, running away to a sanatorium outside Kyoto. We follow him to 1969, where young Toru is a university student, sitting out the student protests and walking the streets of Tokyo every Sunday with Naoko, an old friend from his high school days. As the song Norwegian Wood comes on over the plane’s music system, he feels a pang of nostalgia and is transported back to his youth… Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood (translated by Jay Rubin) begins with thirty-seven-year-old Toru Watanabe flying into Hamburg on business. It’s a great book and one which is very close to my heart – as you’ll find out… It’s time for the second January in Japan readalong, and our choice is a novel I’ve read several times, but not since I started blogging.
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