Norwegian Wood

Watanabe’s memories return to 20 years previous, when he was arriving in Tokyo as an “unworldly” 18-year-old. As it was his first time living away from home, his parent secured a room in a dorm that offered meals and other amenities. The building is rumored to be run by a “fishy foundation” with right-wing tendencies, but this makes little difference to Watanabe. Filled with young men, the dorm is filthy, except for Watanabe’s room. His “clean crazy” roommate, nicknamed Storm Trooper for his rigid commitment to routine, keeps the space “sanitary as a morgue” (14). Storm Trooper is a geography major with a passion for maps, and Watanabe, who is studying drama with no real enthusiasm, is surprised by the other man’s zeal. 

One Sunday in mid-May, Watanabe is on the train and runs into Naoko, a woman he has known since childhood. It has been over a year since he’s seen her, and he notices that she is much thinner than he remembers. As neither has pressing plans, they leave the train at the next station and spend the day walking together. Even though the two have little to talk about, they enjoy spending the day together, and Naoko asks Watanabe if they can see one another again. She tells him that she sometimes has trouble finding the words to express herself, a feeling he can relate to. 

As he leaves, Watanabe thinks about his childhood in Kobe and how he knew Naoko. In high school, Naoko was the girlfriend of Kizuki, Watanabe’s best and only friend. Kizuki and Naoko were neighbors; they grew up together and had been boyfriend and girlfriend for years. Sometimes, Naoko would bring a friend for Watanabe, and the four would go on double dates; however, it was always more comfortable when it was just the three of them. Kizuki had a unique talent for conversation, making chatter effortless within their little triangle.

Watanabe worries that Naoko is angry with him because he was the last person to see Kizuki alive. When they were 17, Kizuki suggested they cut class to play pool. Throughout the games, he was unusually serious, but when Watanabe asked, Kizuki insisted he was just focused on winning. After their game, Kizuki went into his garage, taped a hose to the exhaust pipe of his car, and killed himself, leaving behind no note.

After the death of his best friend, Watanabe struggled to “find a place for [him]self in the world” (24). He started a relationship with a girl from school but never developed strong feelings for her. He applied to a university in Tokyo, desperate to get as far away from Kobe and his past as possible. Starting his new life, Watanabe was determined to forget everything he left behind, but it remained inside him like “a vague knot-of-air kind of thing” (25). He started to understand life and death not as separate but as intertwined in complex ways, as if “death took [him] as well” when it took Kizuki (25). 

Naoko and Watanabe begin meeting up every Sunday afternoon. They walk and enjoy one another’s company, but their conversation remains stilted, and they never talk about the past. As they grow closer, Watanabe realizes how much Naoko has changed since high school and understands she has come to Tokyo to escape her past and start over, just like him. The more time they spend together, the more Watanabe feels “almost guilty” for being himself; he knows that Naoko is longing for “the warmth of someone else” (28).

Time passes, and Watanabe turns 19. In the dormitory, he spends most of his time reading alone. He finally makes a friend in the dorm, a student two years older than him called Nagasawa. They bond over The Great Gatsby, Watanabe’s favorite book, when Nagasawa sees him reading it in the dining hall one day. Nagasawa is a legend in the dorm, known for eating slugs on a dare and sleeping with more than 100 women. Watanabe doesn’t know why Nagasawa has chosen him as his “special friend,” but the position allows Watanabe certain privileges. The other boys treat him with more respect, and the usually difficult-to-obtain overnight passes are freely given to him. 

Even though they are friends, Watanabe is cautious around Nagasawa and resists opening up completely. He starts accompanying Nagasawa on his evening outings to meet women. They get drunk, find a pair of women, and take them back to a hotel. It is a ritual that Watanabe feels ambivalent about, and he often returns home “filled with self-loathing and disillusionment” (34).

As the winter holidays begin, neither Watanabe nor Naoko have any desire to go home. He begins working at a record store, and the two exchange Christmas gifts and share dinner on New Year’s Eve. The year 1969 dawns and January and February pass quickly. When March rolls around, Watanabe’s grades are “mediocre,” but he isn’t bothered, and the end of the term marks his first full year in Tokyo.

In April, Naoko celebrates her 20th birthday. Watanabe feels something isn’t right about her aging; they are leaving Kizuki behind. However, he insists on a celebration and brings a cake to her house on the appointed day. They eat the cake and a small dinner, spending the evening listening to records and drinking wine while it rains outside. Watanabe tells his usual stories about Storm Trooper, but Naoko is “unusually talkative.” She tells Watanabe story after story about her past in “painstaking detail,” but he notices “something strange, even warped” about her memories (38). Eventually, he realizes that she is focusing intently on superficial details to avoid the painful parts of her past.

Watanabe has never heard Naoko speak so much, so he doesn’t interrupt. However, he begins to worry about missing his curfew and tells Naoko he has to leave. At first, she doesn’t seem to hear him and goes on speaking. Abruptly, her words trail off, and she begins to cry with alarming force. As he tries to comfort her, he feels she “[makes] it clear” that she wants to have sex with him. Watanabe kisses and slowly undresses her but is surprised to discover that Naoko hasn’t had sex before. They continue having sex, and after finishing, he asks her why she never slept with Kizuki. The question sends Naoko back into tears, and defeated, Watanabe tucks her into bed and watches her sleep. 

The following morning, Watanabe leaves Naoko a note telling her he wants to talk when she’s ready. He waits for Naoko’s call, but it never arrives. After a week, he goes to her apartment but finds it empty; her landlord explains that she has moved. Watanabe decides to send a letter back to Naoko’s home in Kobe. He tells her that there are many things he is still trying to understand and that he hopes he has not hurt her in any way. He reflects that he hasn’t been able to share his feelings with anyone since Kizuki died. He tells Naoko he “probably” shouldn’t have had sex with her but felt it was “all [he] could do” (39).

Naoko never responds. Watanabe can find nothing to fill the “cavern” of her absence. He attends his classes compulsively but without interest. He drinks, smokes, and sometimes looks for women with Nagasawa. When a student strike shuts down the university, he begins working at a trucking company, a job that is hard on his body but pays well. He tries writing Naoko another letter, and finally, in July, she responds. She tells him she has been in no state to write. She took a leave of absence from the university and returned to her family’s house, where she began seeing a doctor. The doctor recommended she stay in “a sanatorium kind of thing” (44). She tells Watanabe that he didn’t hurt her, but she isn’t “prepared” to see him. She promises to write again when she is better.

Watanabe is listless after reading the letter. He sits in the dorm’s lobby every Saturday night, pretending to watch TV, waiting for a call he knows isn’t coming. 

As Storm Trooper prepares to leave for the summer holiday, he gifts Watanabe a firefly in a jar. Watanabe doubts that the nondescript back bug is a firefly, but Storm Trooper insists, and that night, Watanabe takes it up to the roof and sees its feeble glow. He worries that the firefly is dying, so he releases it. After a long time, the insect finally flies away, but Watanabe continues to feel its “faint glow” inside him.