Norwegian Woods by Haruki Murakami

The novel is set against the backdrop of the student’s revolution that arose throughout the world in the 1960’s. It depicts Tokyo during this period which was also known for bringing in a fresh wave of new ideas in the earlier traditional society. Freedom of expression, western influence and sexual freedom are all parts of this revolution that Murakami employs to weave a tale around Toru Watanabe, the three women in his life and the impact they left on him.

Mahasweta Devi’s Mother of 1084 is set against the same background. However there is a major difference in the narrative of both the novels. The template of both the tales may be the same but in Mother of 1084, the politics or the students’ upheaval plays a more important role. This story is about a mother in pursuit of finding out the reasons behind her son’s death. While Sujata, the mother learns more and more about the conditions in which her son was killed, the nature of the revolution is unfolded for us as the son died for the cause of the revolution. Thus the revolution plays a central theme in the plot unlike in Norwegian Wood which deals more with the mind of the people living in a city which at that time was at the threshold of a new wave as stated earlier.

In the beginning we see a thirty seven year old Toru Watanabe who through his memories is taken back into his late teens when he had just shifted to Tokyo. This he does when an orchestral cover version of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood” plays in the flight where he is sitting. He tries to recall the face of his first love, something he’s unable to do initially but when it starts coming back to him he’s surprised at the clarity of the details with which he remembers everything. This makes him realize that though he thought he had left his past way behind he couldn’t detach himself from them as much as he would have liked to as what happened then greatly influenced the way he perceived things, brought about a change in his personality consequently shaping the way his life turned out to be.

We see the misery of the youth in Japan unfolding through the eyes of Toru who has lost people close to him due to the havoc created in the young minds with the coming in of the new age. The first loss is that of Kizuki who was Toru’s best friend. Toru had no clue about the conflict in Kizuki’s mind as Kizuki had always appeared to be confident about himself and what he wanted from his life but it was only later that he learnt from Naoko who was Kizuki’s girlfriend that he had been obsessed with trying to improve himself. He put great effort in trying to hide his weakness from people except Naoko. He failed to see that he was fine and beautiful in himself but unable to be wanted he wanted to be drove him into taking his own life leaving behind a sense of incompleteness in two people who greatly loved him. Kizuki is the only true friend Toru had ever had. He does develop friendships with others, for example, Nagasawa but Toru could even after trying never agree with the way Nagasawa lived his life and therefore their friendship was that of pure convenience.

This novel is known for being dark as death is one of the recurring themes. It began with Kizuki and later on we learn about another death through Naoko the added impact of which leaves her damaged. Naoko and Toru met in Tokyo a couple of years after Kizuki’s death. Their meeting was accidental but they were glad that they met because they knew that they could lament the loss of the one they were closest to only in the presence of each other thus becoming each other’s comforter- an arrangement through which they managed to develop the first true relationship after Kizuki’s death. As their relationship deepens Toru learns that Naoko’s sister too had committed suicide, the reason of which we are not told. However we do find out how shattered it left Naoko, who was the one who found her body hanging from the ceiling. Her sister was 17 then. Kizuki too died at the age of 17. Having lost two people she loved in the same manner had a terrible impact on her. In a fit of deep compassion and tenderness Toru happens to spend a night at her place and ends up sleeping with her following which Naoko leaves the city.

The novel so far is shadowed by a mist of gloom till Midori enters who with her spark lights up Toru’s life. She is quirky, happy all the time, shockingly blatant and speaks anything that comes into her head. Toru found her attractive but was not attracted to her initially but loved her company. Sometimes her actions were appalling but one cannot help but laugh at her forthrightness. For instance, she once asked Toru to think about her and masturbate and tell her how it was. Another time when Toru told her that her skirt was too short she told him that that is precisely the reason why she’d worn a nice and frilly panty. Toru himself felt that her behaviour was inappropriate but all the same admired and respected her for being happy all the time in spite of living a hard life. He knew that she was constantly trying to keep herself happy but needed to vent her unhappiness sometimes which is why at the hospital he offered to stay with her dying father while she could go out and spend some time alone. She is so absurd that one doesn’t know what to expect from her. When she lost her father she called up Toru to inform him of the same and asked him to take her to the movies to watch porn like he had promised before.

In the meantime he learnt that Naoko had enrolled herself at a place that took care and helped in the healing of people who are broken. It is when he went to meet her that he met Reiko who was Naoko’s close friend and roommate. Although she was older to them in age they could connect with her very well. Here, Toru and Naoko again have many sexual encounters never ending in fulfillment. Toru, Naoko and Reiko form a small family unit- something which they have not experienced in a while owing to the modern culture that has hit Japan at this time because of which families have lost their cohesiveness leading to individuals being left to their own devices with no support system to hold on to.

Throughout the novel we do not see Toru feeling strongly about anything. Even if he did, he failed to put it across effectively. He seems to be a mere spectator of his own life which is why although the narrative is interspersed with unpleasant events, the reader is not moved into feeling as bad as s/he should. Although the two women of his life are as different as women can get he is never judgmental about them, especially about Midori who we see is glad about this nature of his and would rather spend time with him than her boyfriend because she feels free to tell him anything or do anything in his presence.

Naoko unable to cope with the depression of having lost two important people in her life gave up and took her own life. Hatsumi, who was Nagasawa’s girlfriend, also took her life. Hatsumi had all along known that her boyfriend was cheating on her but her steadfast love for him made her unable to leave him. The end of their relationship was inevitable. Hatsumi did try to move on by getting married to someone else with whom she had a child too but unable to cope with her personal loss which we can only assume is having not being able to be with Nagasawa she ended her life.

Toru too got into a frenzy after the death of Naoko but Reiko helped him come out of it. She encouraged him to pursue a relationship with Midori as he had already started developing feelings for her before Naoko’s death, back when he was supposed to make a choice between the life-negating Naoko and the life-affirming Midori. That day Reiko and Toru had sex four times. In many cultures in East Asia the number four is often associated with death. Murakami may have meant that this was the death or end of Toru’s connection with the past paving way for a life with no more troubles; he could have meant that this was the end of the camaraderie between Reiko and Toru as it is not indicated that they ever meet again.

In this novel we see a young generation trying to make sense of its neurosis and pluralities in life in a culture that is commoditized where everything is in excess which is why they cannot feel deeply and therefore nothing seeps in beyond the surface. It is a culture that witnessed the gradual fading away of tradition and the coming in of new values. The chaos it thus created in the mind of the youth is beautifully depicted in this novel and gives us an insight of Tokyo in the 60’s.