BOOK REVIEW "NORWEGIAN WOOD" BY HARUKI MURAKAMI

Norwegian Wood is one of the books by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami which was published in 1987 in Japan, while the English version was published in 2000. This literary work has a romance fiction genre that takes the story of a male teenager and the complexity of his life. The ‘Norwegian Wood’ was taken from one of the songs of The Beatles which was on the plane carrying the main character, Toru Watanabe, on his way to Germany. Murakami's Norwegian Wood tells about Watanabe who is remembering Naoko, his first love, and his life during his college days at one of the Private Universities in Tokyo 20 years ago.

Norwegian Wood tells the story about a man named Toru Watanabe who acts as the narrator and the main character in this book. Watanabe is described as an ordinary person who comes from a mediocre family, but he has a special appeal as a quiet book lover. Watanabe is a person who likes to be alone and arguably doesn't have many friends. He only has 2 close friends; Naoko and Kizuki, who are lovers.

The story of Toru Watanabe began when he accidentally heard a song from The Beatles, Norwegian Wood, on the plane to Germany. Instantly his memory slid freely on the incident 20 years ago about his life as an 18-year-old teenager and the people around him. Watanabe's life complexity began when one of his bestfriends, Kizuki, committed suicide without leaving any message and clear reasons. The incident made Watanabe devastated and decided to go to one of the universities in Tokyo to open a new chapter of his life with people he did not know at all. But apparently not only Watanabe, Naoko also experienced the same thing. Naoko felt devastated because she had to lose her boyfriend and her brother.

Naoko and Watanabe who were separated, were finally reunited in Tokyo. Because Naoko and Watanabe often do many things together, gradually, Watanabe likes Naoko who is now part of Watanabe's life. But one day, after having sex for the first time, Naoko disappeared without any reason. Watanabe became anxious, he released the emptiness he felt by sleeping with many women at the invitation of his friend Nagasawa. Until one day, at the new university he met Midori, a rather eccentric easy going woman. Naoko and Midori are like two very different poles. If Naoko was calm and full of secrets, Midori would love to talk about everything even her sex imagination was discussed with Watanabe. Watanabe was unconsciously trapped between the living Midori and Naoko who was waiting for him. From here, Watanabe was urged to choose the gentle Naoko or Midori who was as cheerful as the morning sun.

There are several things that makes this novel very interested ands make its readers enjoy every storyline which is delivered. One of them is that we don't need to guess what happened next, because in this novel there are no puzzles to solve. Readers only need to enjoy and follow the storyline provided. Most of the stories written by Murakami did not seem to have a clear purpose, the plot seemed to flow just following the characters of the story. However, precisely this flowing storyline makes the reader drift away with the story of Watanabe, as if we were witnesses to various events that happened to him. In addition, although with a slow tempo, Murakami is able to compose a flowing storyline so that readers will continue to follow Watanabe's journey without being able to guess the end of the story. And he also assembled a very good story telling, packing it with details that reinforced the description of the setting, character and atmosphere of the story. Yes, although not infrequently readers will be confused with stories that are not clear where and where to go or with a hanging end.

In my opinion, Haruki Murakami writing style is very unique, it looks simple but complex, because in the Norwegian Wood novel the story is very realistic. This novel presents conflicts that are closely related to our daily lives. It starts from love, death, depression, sexual disorders, all cases related to psychology in general. In this novel, Haruki Murakami seems to want to illustrate to the reader what it feels like to be lonely, what it feels like when the dream and hope that have soared are thrown back to the bottom.

Norwegian Wood also presents unusual narratives, and is wrapped in adult scenes involving Toru with several other women, although not so vulgar. While other novels present their writing with a full of metaphors so as not to seem too vulgar, on the contrary, Haruki Murakami is not afraid to mention vital organs clearly and does not seem to exaggerate. This novel may be a bit sensitive for some people who don't like the description of sex scenes that are too obvious. This novel is also not allowed to be read by children without adult supervision, because it is feared that it can lead to misinterpretation between what is meant in the novel and children's imagination. However, everythings back to each individual, it takes the reader's wisdom to read this novel.