A few thoughts:
I really love the frequent inclusion of letters in Norwegian Wood; how they're written out in full and the exigent role they assume in the narrative progression. It's not something unique to Murakami by any means but it is always refreshing when it appears on the page. Letter writing is an art lost to modernity, so tangibly intimate that its falling away from spaces now-carved out for digital age habits and rituals is mournful to me. I always feel more connected to a piece of literature when it includes these exchanges, especially because I write letters myself quite consistently. Murakami renders the vulnerability of letters — their ebbs and flows of trepidation and soul-bearing confession in mildly poetic streams of consciousness — so beautifully in this novel. My affection for Naoko has grown through this especially.
Parts of this book remind me of When the Sun Hits by Slowdive (see pg. 72-74, when Toru and Midori watch the fire from atop the laundry deck. Why is it that there's something amorous about watching something burn together? Not quite sure. Murakami captures this quite nicely though. In a very understated way, too, as if pyromania is a casual part of romance). This association is probably distorted by my love of shoegaze and I am fine to admit that bias. I am not sure that the two cohere outside of my brain. It did, however, prompt me to look into Murakami's musical preferences. There's no concrete indication that he has been influenced by this genre (though it was approaching its height around the time of this book's publication). I might not be as alone in my opinion as expected, though:
https://www.dbrl.org/adults/shoegaze-literature
http://www.kentuckyseven.se/blogg/tag/shoegaze/
https://www.reddit.com/r/shoegaze/comments/ppyvst/whats_the_literary_equivalent_of_shoegaze/
- Gabriella
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