Summary
While on an
airplane descending to Hamburg Airport, Toru Watanabe hears the Beatles song "Norwegian
Wood" played over the speakers and is overcome by painful memories of his past. He remembers a meadow
where he and Naoko, the girl he loved, walked 18 years
ago when he was still 19.
Toru grew up
in Kobe with Kizuki as his best and only friend. Along
with Naoko, who was Kizuki's girlfriend and childhood friend, Toru and Kizuki
formed an inseparable small group. However, their lives were torn apart in
their second year of high school when Kizuki inexplicably committed suicide.
Independent of each other, both Toru and Naoko decide to leave their hometown
for Tokyo to attend university, where they run into each other in 1968 in their
first year. The two end up going on dates every Sunday, simply walking
extensively throughout the city; meanwhile, Toru deals with his stuttering and
eccentrically neat roommate, nicknamed "Storm Trooper," and gets to know Nagasawa, a charismatic and egoistic
upperclassman in the dorm. Nagasawa begins to take him out some nights to find
random girls to sleep with.
On Naoko's 20th birthday, Toru comes
over to her apartment, and when she breaks down into tears he comforts her and
then has sex with her. The next day he tries to contact her again, but later
finds that she has moved. Concerned, he sends her a letter. Meanwhile, Toru meets Midori Kobayashi, an underclassman in his drama class
with a vibrant and quirky personality who seems to have taken an interest in
him. A few weeks later Midori invites him over to her house, and while watching
a house fire from her balcony they kiss.
Toru receives a letter from Naoko explaining that she
has gone to Ami Hostel, a special kind of sanatorium, to recover from
psychological problems she has been having. Toru visits her there and meets Reiko Ishida, a woman in her
late thirties who is Naoko's roommate. Reiko explains that at the sanatorium, located in the middle of a remote
forest, people do not try to cure but rather adapt to their individual
deformities. That night Toru sees Naoko in the moonlight by his bed, and mysteriously she reveals
her naked body to Toru, astounding him with its perfection.
During
Toru's stay, Reiko and Naoko separately tell him their life stories. Reiko was
an aspiring concert pianist until a nervous breakdown derailed her career; and
then her mental problems made it difficult for her to have a normal life until
a man married her and promised to take care of her. However, due to an incident
in which a young piano student of hers manipulated her, she had another nervous
breakdown, after which she came to the sanatorium. Naoko tells Toru about how she witnessed her older
sister's suicide.
Upon
returning to Tokyo, Toru feels
disoriented, as though he left part of himself in the quiet world of Ami
Hostel. However, Midori revitalizes him by taking him drinking. Later she takes
him to the hospital where her father is dying of brain cancer, and Toru bonds
with the man, who dies within a week. Around this time, Nagasawa invites Toru
to a dinner with his girlfriend Hatsumi; at the dinner, the couple falls out
over Nagasawa's inability to consider Hatsumi's feelings.
Toru makes
another visit to Ami Hostel to see Naoko and then moves from the dorm into a
house. Due to his ignoring her, Midori angrily refuses to speak with Toru, and
this combined with news from Reiko that Naoko's condition is worsening sends
Toru into a depression. However, he manages to pull himself out of it. He and
Midori come to realize that they love each other, but they agree to wait while
Toru tries to understand his relationship with Naoko.
Out of
nowhere, Toru receives news
that Naoko has killed herself; grief-stricken, he spends a month traveling
alone aimlessly away from Tokyo. However, he feels compelled to return
and restart his life. Reiko leaves the sanatorium to visit, and together the
two hold a small funeral for Naoko involving Reiko playing every song she knows
on the guitar. Afterwards, Reiko sleeps with Toru, and then the next day she
leaves for a new life in Hokkaido. Sometime later from some unknown place, Toru
calls Midori telling her that he needs her.
CHPT 1
-
Hears
the Beatles’ song Norwegian Wood as Toru’s plane arrives at Hamburg airport
-
1969
when he was 19 years old, he was walking through an empty meadow with Naoko (a
girl he loved) and she told him a story about a mysterious well hidden in the
grasses into which people have fallen and died in.
-
Naoko
asks two wishes of Toru: that he know how much she appreciates him coming to
visit her, and that he remembers her.
-
The
perspective of this 37-year-old Toru reveals to the reader that he is writing
the novel from his memories and in the sense that everything has already been
lost remains an important background, especially Naoko + Toru’s love.
-
The
project of writing is more an acceptance of fate than a rebellion against it
and he wishes to understand the tragic events of his past and his personality.
-
"Where
could we have disappeared to? How could such a thing have happened?"
-
"Someday,
I suppose, the shadows will be swallowed up in darkness. There is no way around
it”
-
"It
just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I
fully comprehend them"
CHPT 2
-
Toru’s
friend Kizuki committed suicide when he was 17 in order to escape trauma, so
Toru moved to Tokyo to university, after graduating.
-
Toru
meets Naoko again at University in Tokyo and they have a catch up after a year
apart.
CHPT 3
-
Toru
and Naoko meet for a long Sunday walk and talk only about the future, never the
past
-
He
feels that she desires something he cannot provide, but this become a weekly
thing
-
Toru
meets Nagasawa who is in the same dormitory and introduces him to the practice
of picking up girls at bars to sleep with.
-
Toru
brings a cake to Noako on her 20th birthday and he can tell something is wrong.
-
Naoko
breaks down into violent sobbing and he comforts her with sex, to find out that
she is still a virgin.
-
A
week later he visits her apartment to find out that she has moved, so he writes
her a letter and receives a letter a month later - she has moved to a
sanatorium.
-
A
firefly symbolically seems
lifeless at first, but then it flies into the night sky.
CHPT 4
-
Summer
1969 Toru return back to uni after travelling to North of Tokyo
-
Toru
becomes friends with Midori who is a spritely and quirky girl who shows
interest in Toru
-
They
spend a Sunday together at her family bookshop where she talks about her
painful family history
-
They
drink beer, Midori sings and then they kiss at the end
-
The
following day Toru notices Midori’s absence in class so goes out womanising
with Nagasawa but to no success
-
When
sat in a coffee shop, two girls approach and sit with him, one of them
discussing how she found her boyfriend in bed with another girl – Toru ends up
sleeping with that girl in a hotel but by the time he wakes, she is gone
-
He
returns to his dorm to find a letter from Naoko
-
Toru’s
attitudes towards the student protests tells us a lot about his personality and
view of the world, as this novel is set during one of the most politically
turbulent times in modern Japanese history and he continues to just live his
life
-
"I
like to think of myself as an honest man” Toru tells Midori
-
Both
women in Toru’s life are painfully incomplete who have suffered family
tragedies and struggle to find love
CHPT 5
-
After
the first few words of Naoko’s letter, Toru feels a rush of emotions and has to
calm himself before reading the rest
-
Naoko
has been at the Ami Hostel, sanatorium-like institution for almost 4 months and
apologises for potentially hurting Toru
-
She
explains that she has made sense of a world where people accept their
deformities and other’s deformities and do not hurt each other
-
Toru
is invited to go and meet her the following afternoon
CHPT 6
-
Toru
sets out for the outskirts of Kyoto where Ami hostel is located
-
In
the middle of the forest, self-secluded world where all is incredibly peaceful
and clean
-
The
sanatorium encourages honesty and the acceptance of one’s own problems
-
The
three go to sleep and in the middle of the night, Toru wakes up to see Naoko
sitting in the moonlight near the couch where he is lying – she removes her
nightgown to reveal her naked body to him
-
The
next morning when the two of them get some time alone she gives him a hand job
and tells him about the suicide of her sister
-
The
next morning, he takes a train back to Tokyo – feeling alienated and
disorientated by the disorderly rush of cars and crowds – opposite to the quiet
and peaceful life at Ami Hostel
-
All
the people at the sanatorium only have memories as their connections with the
outside world
-
Utopian
place where personal deformities are recognised instead of unhealthily
concealed
CHPT 7
-
Going
drinking with Midori is the only thing that reorients him back to the real
world after his dizzying feeling of alienation
-
Midori’s
father dies that next Friday and Toru writes a letter to Naoko saying that he
misses her
CHPT 8
-
He
goes to talk with Nagasawa, who invites him to dinner with him and his
girlfriend Hatsumi on Saturday
-
Hatsumi
killed herself not long after Nagasawa left for his job
-
Toru
writes Naoko a letter explaining what has been happening in his life and how
she is the only one who can understand his thoughts
CHPT 9
-
Toru
goes drinking with Midori and then goes to see a porno flick with her
-
Toru
goes to her dorm with her so she doesn’t have to fall asleep alone
-
Naoko
replies telling him about the times that she becomes lonely and depressed and
for his 20th birthday she sends him a sweater that she and Reiko
sewed together
-
Midori
once again bringing Toru back to life
-
Naoko
expresses that for her. Spoken or written intercourse is just like sexual
intercourse
CHPT 10
-
Over
the winter break Toru makes his second visit to Ami Hostel to see Naoko and she
gives him a hand and blowjob so that he can remember her better
-
He
asks her to soon move into an apartment with him
-
Having
not heard from Midori for a long time, he finally receives a letter and this
draws him back into life
-
Midori
remarks that he is too wrapped up in his own problems to allow others to help
him
-
Toru
decides that he is truly and deeply in love with Midori but is still ties up
with Naoko
-
He
realises that finding random girls to sleep with was a very self-destructive
habit, but at least it kept him bound to the rhythm of the city and the real
world
CHPT 11
-
Naoko
has committed suicide and Toru goes travelling for a month without money and
sleeping wherever he can
-
Reiko
leaves the sanatorium to see him and talk about Naoko
-
Reiko
and Toru have sex after the funeral
Interpretation
The
exploration of mental health and grief throughout the book highlights how
difficult it is to deal with these issues, especially when you can't quite
figure out what's wrong and feel lost. Throughout the book Toru and Naoka long
for a sense of understanding which they work towards through their letter
writing which becomes a key symbol of communication and comfort, as Naoka finds
comfort in explaining herself within these letters to Toru. Furthermore
intimacy is a key theme that Toru searches for through multiple patterns and
his inability to pick between Naoka and Midori.
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