Norwegian Wood

Author: Haruki Murakami

Norwegian Wood, the title of a famous Beatles song, immediately evokes the harsh climate of Northern Europe and hints at the novel's theme, which the author avoids revealing. Naoko, one of the novel's characters, says, "This song makes me overwhelmingly sad. I don't know. It feels like I'm wandering in a deep forest. And I'm alone in the cold darkness; no one comes to save me. That's why Reiko never plays it unless I ask her to." Haruki Murakami arrived late, a "prodigal son" not only in Japan, as an outlier among Japanese literary figures, but also in other languages into which his works have been translated, reaching 38 languages, including Arabic. Perhaps his novel "Norwegian Wood" stands as the clearest expression of the deviance he chose as a defining characteristic of his literature. His novels are generally filled with characters who are addicted to a marginal life, within a daily routine that is a blend of surreal magic and crude realism, pushing the paradox to the point of absurdity and exploring major questions about identity, but without directness. This gives his literature a detective-like touch in presenting the plot, without a police officer, lawyer, or criminal in the scene. In "Norwegian Wood," Murakami presents Japan in a way that makes everything simple, from music to friendship, love, and death, so much so that every situation and every word in the novel seems strikingly clear, which makes writing about the novel challenging due to this observation.