Norway has no forest

Author: Fukuhara Aki
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: Due to the publication of this book, the story of Norwegian Wood finally came to a close. She calls Murakami Haruki her "mysterious lover." No one knows the love story between her and Murakami Haruki, but perhaps those who read this book will understand—it is a tragic love story in Japan. In Japan, the book was called "a publicly published love letter" by critics, as it was a love letter from Fukuhara Aki to the much older Murakami Haruki. She said, Norwegian Wood is her inner monologue and true experience. As early as 1999, this book had spread on Japanese networks and achieved a click rate of 3,000,000 at the time. Why such a frenzy? We believe it is partly due to the influence of Murakami Haruki's Norwegian Wood, which sold 4 million copies, and partly because this book continues the storyline of Murakami Haruki's Norwegian Wood, depicting light and casual daily life: sorrow, lingering, melancholy, confusion, fear, and bewilderment, like an ancient curse entwined. The book is narrated in a dialogue form, seemingly a monologue by Watanabe, but in reality, it is Watanabe reminiscing about his youth. Its arrangement and conciseness, its comfort and restraint, create a strange rambling that reveals calmness and ease. This inner monologue, completely guided by the flow of consciousness, does not push readers away but instead makes the rhythm gentle and steady, drawing their souls slowly downward and completely immersing them in Watanabe's emotions and story. A group of young people trapped in the forest see the dense, dark forest with thorns and vines entangled, misty and thick, sunlight faintly appearing above, now visible, now hidden. Watanabe wanders and walks in this life, haunted by the death of Naoko, while Riko disappears in a struggle with the sea, Koichi, the younger brother of Kishiko, commits suicide due to homosexuality, and Lingering reenters the mental hospital, making him see his own distant figure among them—strange yet familiar, lost and struggling.