My Love Affair with Norwegian Wood -Alana

        I read Norwegian Wood at seventeen years old. Considering the significance of that specific age in the novel seventeen could be considered the best or worst age to encounter this book. It was the first Murakami book I'd ever read and it would set me off on a long journey with him and his writing. At the time, it was just another book I'd picked up from Barnes and Noble on the way home from my shift at the bagel shop in town. 

     Ever since my first encounter with this novel I have referred to it as my favorite Murakami novel and one of my all-time favorite books. I still stand by this claim, but over the 5 years that have passed since my first reading of it my relationship to and understanding of this novel has changed. Rereading this novel with the rest of the class has been an interesting experience. Its not my first re-read of the book, but it is my first time looking at it from an academic standpoint or at least reading with a more critical eye. 

    I can't deny the book still charms me and the nostalgia I have for it certainly clouds my judgment, but even so I am beginning to see things that I hadn't really seen before. The book has faults, that is for sure. The attitude Toru has towards sex can be upsetting at times, especially when he describes the random woman he slept with as putting up a fight when he attempted to initiate sex. Murakami has always received lots of criticism about how he writes about sex and women, and this novel definitely has some questionable aspects when it comes to women and sex. 

   But, like any real love affair, just because I've begun to confront the issues with Norwegian Wood that doesn't mean my love for it has gone away. I don't say Norwegian Wood is my favorite Murakami because I think it is the most interesting or most well written, it is just my favorite because it is. I don't know if that makes a lot of sense but I don't really know how to explain the connection I have to this novel. Norwegian Wood will always have a very special place in my heart as a book that both introduced me to Murakami and introduced me to parts of myself that I hadn't met at seventeen. 

-Alana