Norwegian woods by Haruki Murakami
I love this book. This is almost part of my life. I have never counted, but I believe I have read this more than 20 times in English.
The story starts when the main character Toru was on board in Germany airport. He listened the orchestra version of ‘Norwegian Woods’ by Beatles unexpectedly, which reminded him his story about lover and best friend who killed themselves. He started writing his story.
Toru had the best friend Kizuki in high school. Kizuki had the childhood sweetheart Naoko. Since Naoko and Kizuki are childhood sweethearts, they are close, so close, and too close. They grew together as if they complement each other. Toru was very important for them because he was only important point of contact with outside society.
Kizuki did suicide without suicide note when they are high school students. Since then, Naoko has no idea how she interacts with outside society without him.
Naoko and Toru enter different University, they lived in Tokyo without knowing each other. They met unexpectedly, and they started dating naturally. They became close slowly. One day, on her 20th birthday, Toru celebrated her birthday. Naoko was so talkative, kept talking and talking, so that he finally missed his last train to the dorm. On that day, they slept each other.
On that night, Naoko ejaculated so much, she desired for sexual sensation for him. But, the problem is this didn’t happened when Naoko was trying to sleep with Kizuki. Naoko and Kizuki loved each other but they could not sleep each other because she never ejaculated. Naoko did not love Toru at that time, but she sought sexual sensation for him. She was upset after having sex. She started confusing. After that night, she moved without notice to Toru.
She went to sanatorium for mental health, trying to rehabilitate. Toru visited several times to see her and talk. She could not recover. After Toru find girlfriend Midori, Naoko killed herself. She could not find the reason why she lives.
This is kind of sad story. What I learned from this book is if I love someone so much and devote all of me, sometime may remain unrequited. That is O.K. I will face with.
The other character is also important, fanny, and interesting.
Reiko is roommate of Naoko. She has cute wrinkle. Naoko talk everything to her. They are so close. She was excellent pianist when she was young but her finger became stop playing because of her mental problem. Her dream to be pianist was gone. He became a piano teacher and married her student. One day, her student who is junior high school student girl sought for sexual relationship to Reiko. Raiko rejected. But the girl was liar and lesbian by nature. After that neighbor’s rumor had spread Reiko was lesbian and force student to have sexual relationship. This made her crazy again.
Nagasawa is senior person at Dorm that Toru lived. He is student of University of Tokyo. He has legend. It was said that he had had sex more than 100 women. He swallowed 3 slugs. These legends were almost true. Toru and Nagasawa sometimes went to girl hunting to have sex. That was easy for them because Nagasawa is very rich, handsome, smart and great talker. And He has great girlfriend Hatumi. But he doesn’t care for her, sometimes cruel.
As for his personality, his self-discipline was stricter than any other person. I like his words the way I do.
1. “Don’t sorry for yourself, only assholes do that.”
2. ”Tell me Nagasawa” Toru: asked, “What is the standard of action in your life”』
Nagasawa : ”To be gentlemen”
Toru : “To be gentlemen? A gentlemen?”
Nagasawa: “You heard me”
Toru : “What does it mean to be a gentlemen? How do you define it?”
Nagasawa: “A gentlemen is someone who does not what wants to do but what he should do”
Hatumi is Nagasawa’s girlfriend, she is great girl. He believes Nagasawa becomes normal. She also killed herself.
Midori is Toru’s female friend and became his girlfriends. She is crazy girl.
Storm trooper is Toru’s roommate at dorm. He is serious person by nature. His dream is to make map at national institutions. Because of his seriousness, everyone in dorm tease him. His story is fanny, always amuse everyone.