Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood 

By Haruki Murakami 

Rating : 3/5 

Genres : Romance, Mental illness, Japanese, Literary Fiction.

This happens to be one of the most read novels by Haruki Murakami. It literally lifted him from shadows of obscurity into international stardom.

 In this book, he creates a world in itself. He has interleaved elements of love, friendship,hope with those of selfishness, melancholy, depression and shock. This is my second book by him and I guess I will always have a bit of discomfort with his explicit sexual descriptions but he also makes them  very center stage to his stories that without them the depth of his narration will fall apart. Like all his other works i read, this one is gripping and gives a totally immersive reading experience.

The main figures in this book are teenagers who are coming to terms with loss/death of their dear ones and their ability to handle the pain without falling apart. The important lesson to take away from this book for me happens to be this. Death is to be accepted as a part of life and even when life is just settling down after one such devastating experience,it could happen just as well again. One has to be prepared for what life throws at us and move on with what is there rather than looking backward into a non-returning past. 

Khiziku and Naoko have been neighbors since forever and are inseparable. They are practically like one person and very naturally ease into physical intimacy when they reach the age. And they have a friend Toru who happens to be the narrator of this novel. Naoko and Toru both are devastated when Khiziku takes his life through suicide for no apparent reason. They drift apart for a while but come together to seek solace in each other's company. Naoko being very fragile and delicate couldn't handle the loss and her mental state starts disintegrating. Just as they are learning to fall in love with each other, she gets committed to a mental health hospital where they are healed naturally. For a few months, Toru sleeps around with other girls teaming with his friend Nagasawa but as he sees how Nagasawa is selfishly hurting his girlfriend through fooling around, he learns to abstain. He makes a couple of trips to the hospital and his memories of Naoko sustain him through his otherwise secluded/empty life. A girl in his drama class - Midori befriends him and drags him deep into her life becoming an intricate part of his own. He quickly understands through separation from her that he wants to be with her but couldn't give the commitment because of his obligation to Naoko. Naoko might never recover and even if she does, they might never have a stable future together. Luckily, fate shows him a way out of this quagmire and literally helps him make his choice for a happier/more content future. 

The character development is fantastic - even those characters which don't last for much part of the story are richly developed and make a impact. I thought that Toru is way more matured for his age and sensible, gentle,kind that all the girls and women who are part of his life share their most intimate secrets with him and readily throw themselves into his arms..haha lol.  Naoko is a sensitive,calm and vulnerable girl who losing both her caring sister and dearest lover gives up herself to mental instabiliy. Midiro on the other hand is too effusive and uninhibited in speech/actions that though I found her funny at the beginning of her interactions with Toru felt a bit overdone later on.