Norwegian Wood

"You remind me of the girl from Murakami’s book.” This guy told me when we first met. Never heard of this author before, I asked, “Which book?” He replied, “Any book, those girls are pretty much the same. They share some trait.”

Certainly, I read the book. I picked the well-known one, Norwegian Wood. When I opened the first page and started reading the book, I couldn’t stop. All I wanted to do was to keep reading it. Sometimes I slowed my reading speed because I didn’t want it to end even though I wanted to know how it ended. I read the book when I was on the train, when I had lunch, and before I went to bed. That explains how much I like this book.

This book is such a page turner, developing story as you read along. Every character has strong personalities—deep, depressing and unhappy in a way. A good friend of mine said to me once, “You would want to kill yourself after you finished the book.” I found the advantage of reading translated manuscript which is you can learn a different culture, lifestyle and importantly the way of thinking which I found from this book very fascinating.

Here is the quote: “I hate waiting at home all day for a call. When I spend the day alone, I feel as if my flesh is rotting little by little—rotting and melting until there’s nothing left but a green puddle that gets sucked down into the earth. And all that stays behind are my clothes. That’s how it feels to me, waiting indoors all day.”

One time I was favorably reading this book on the train. The stranger sitting next to me asked, “Is this the author who wrote the vanishing elephant? I didn’t know the answer on top of my head; however, I said yes to her. When I got off the train, I looked at the title page. The book is called The Elephant Vanishes which I think it will be my next book to read.

To that dude: I can see myself share the common trait with these girls in the book. So do you! Anyway, wherever you are, thanks for introducing me to this great piece of work.