Note | Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami & Jay Rubin, Vintage Books, 2003 (Originally Published in 1987) in progress

Information of the Book

Haruki Murakami's 5th long novel was originally published in 1987 by Japanese. His first romance novel, but this novel is an unusual romance novel.

Original Japanese edition of this novel is cosist of 2 volumes. And, the book covers designed by Murakami himself. Volume one, the ground is painted by red and the title is wrote by green characters (the Christmas colours). On the contrary volume two is green ground and red characters. This design may mean Murakami’s two world theory (the world of live and loss of life), or from Kizuki through Naoko to Midori (red is Kizuki’s colour, paper’s white is Naoko’s colour and the Japanese word Midori means green).

Form, Style & Structure

11 chapters long novel. The description is a reminiscence of a man, Toru Watanabe from 20 years later, and it is not chronicle.

Background of the Work & Author

This novel is based on Murakami’s short novel Firefly published in 1983. The chapter 2 and 3 of Norwegian Wood is the almost same to it.

I think this novel is the background and alternative story of Hear the Wind Sing and the Trilogy of the Rat. The two novels describes the same era and might be written by Murakami’s same experience. The world of Nowegian Wood is the dark side of the era in a fierce and brutal capital city, Tokyo. It of Hear the Wind Sing is the bright side in a harbour town, Kobe. But the narrater is not same character, and the worlds of the two novels are parallel worlds.

This novel describes the era of the late 60’s student activism movement, but it published in 1987, (the rise or peak of) the Japanese asset price bubble era.

Characters

Toru Watanabe – Narrator of this novel. A student of a private university in Tokyo studied drama (just read scripts and do research), is from Kobe, Hyogo.

Naoko – A student of a girls’ college on the rural western edge of Tokyo, studied English and a girlfriend of Toru. (She must be a student of Tsudajuku University, Kodaira.) An 10,000 runner at high school. Lived in a tiny flat in Kokubunji. And she was Kizuki’s girlfriend, and Toru first met Naoko at the second grade year of a high school. (It seems the same character of the third girl in Hear the Wind Sing and Naoko in Pinball, 1973.)

Midori Kobayashi – Toru’s classmate of the private university and daughter of a small bookshop, Kobayashi Bookshop in Toshima, had an extremely short hair or a pixie cut and always wore dark sunglasses suits her. During summer holidays she had her hair permed, but it looked like a “seaweed stuck”. So she had her hair cut extremely short. Against for her name, she don’t suit green clothes (Midori in Japanese means the colour green, and the Nature and plants). Toru felt a fresh and physical life force and an independent organism from her. She always wore a dark sunglasses because very short hair is defenceless and naked. (4 -)

Kizuki – The best and only friend of Toru, and the boyfriend of Naoko. Kizuki and Naoko had been together and had close family relationship from their childhood. At May, 1967, after cut the afternoon classes and played billiards with Toru, at the night he suddenly passed away by using gas of his car, at 17 years-old. (2)

Reiko-san (Doctor Ishida) – A music teacher or a music therapist also a patient of Ami Hospital and the room-mate of Naoko. A not only nice woman 38 years old. She had been there for seven years, she had no family, friends and home to come back. (6 -)

Nagasawa-san – A resident of the private dormitory, a son of a wealthy family run a big hospital in Nagoya and a student of the prestigious Tokyo University studies law, aimed become a diplomat. And he was a national top class fast track runner. A playboy went girl-haunting many times and slept with more than 70 girls. (3 -)

Hatsumi-san – Nagasawa’s steady girlfriend was a student of the absolute top girls’ college in the country. Toru thought she is quiet, intelligent and caring but so ordinary girl for Nagasawa. (3 -)

Storm Trooper – A room-mate of Toru in a private dormitory, two years older than Toru. A too serious and punctual and a student studied geography at a national university, wanted to work for the Geographical Survey Institute and make maps. In September 1970, he didn’t return to the dormitory from summer holidays and moved. (2 – 3)

Sir Nakano – A superintendent of the private dormitory. A right winger, there is a rumour that he was graduated the war time Nakano spy school. (2)

Uniform – A typical right-wing student always wore students’ uniform, was next to Sir Nakano everyday when he did the routine ceremony raised the Rising Sun flag with the Japanese anthem. (2)

German stewardess (1)

Momoko – A sister of Midori, suits pink clothes. Momo in Japanese means peach and pink colour. (4)

Two student activists (4)

Greek tragedy professor (4)

Midori’s mother – She dead two years ago by cancer. (4)

Midori’s father – He went off to Uruguay to help a farm of his old army buddy. (4)

Two girls Toru met in Shinjuku – Two girl were well dressed and made don’t match the midnight in Shinjuku, shared a table with Toru in an all-night café. (4)

Reiko’s pupil girl (6)

Reiko’s ex-husband – An engineer of an aeroplane manufacturing company and was pupil of Reiko’s piano lesson. (6)

Girl of a café (6)

Reiko’s piano lesson pupil girl (6)

Midori’s Father (7)

Owner of the house (10)

Kamome (10 – 11)

Ito – A co-worker of the Italian restaurant and an art collage student. (10)

Locations

Hamburg (1)

Yotsuya (2, 4) – Toru Naoko came across at the Chuo commuter line and got off at Yotsuya. Midori led Toru to a fancy boxed-lunch speciality shop in Yotsuya.

Tokyo – The capital and the largest city of Japan places Kanto (eastern area) region.

Kobe – The home town of Toru, Naoko and Kizuki. A harbour city of Kansai (western area) region, next to Osaka and Kyoto.

Kokubunji – A western suburb town of Tokyo.

Shibuya – A large cultural, commercial and business district and a main transfer station in Tokyo, is equal to Shinjuku and Ikebukuro. It developed rapidly in 1980’s.

Shinjuku – The largest cultural, commercial and business district in Tokyo, especially between 1960’s to 70’s. A symbol of Nagasawa and his practicalism and greed.

Kyoto – An ancient capital of Japan, a cultural and academic center of Kansai region, and places next to Kobe and Osaka.

Toshima – A north-west suburb of Tokyo, in which Ikebukuro, one of main transfer stations, and the third cultural, commercial and business district in Tokyo places. Toshima and Ikebukuro were a main transfer and commercial district also an old residential area, so they are a symbol of Midori.

Kichijoji (10 – 11)

Ueno (7, 11)

Places

Hamburg Airport (1)

Private dormitory (Central Tokyo) – A private’s dormitory run by right wingers, in which Toru, Nagasawa and Storm Trooper lived.

Ami Hospital (Kyoto) – A psychiatry sanatorium or hospital is in the hills outside Kyoto, Naoko entered. There is not a profit-making enterprise, a community like commune, performs the natural and voluntary therapy with spending a quiet and sufficient life helps patiences to naturally recover from mental illnesse. (3 -)

Kobayashi Bookshop (Toshima, Tokyo) – A small and old bookshop of Midori’s family places in Kita-Otsuka, Toshima near Otsuka station. (4)

Café on a mountain (6)

DUG – A famous jazz café in Shinjuku. (7, 9)

An elegant restaurant in Azabu (8)

An apartment in Myogadani (10 -)

A house in the outskirts of Kichijoji (10 – 11)

Casual Italian restaurant (10 -)

Key Elements

Beatles’ song Norwegian Wood – Naoko’s favorite song. She requested the song for Reiko, the Reiko took a porcelain beckoning cat coin bank and Naoko put a JPY 100 coin to the bank, it’s a rule between them. But Naoko said the song make her feel so sad and alone in the dark, and she thought nobody comes to save her. (6) Toru remenbered the memories of 20 years ago by a sweet orchestral cover version of this song. (1) The title of this song implies Ami Hospital is in a deep forest, Naoko’s mind is very depressed and she would die in a forest. And the lyrics of the song expresses and implies lack of communication between men and women, and clumsy love. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) is a song by the Beatles, composed by John Lennon, the second track from the album Rubber Soul released in 1965.

Map & Drama (2) – Map is a symbol of practical and useful things. Drama is a symbol of useless and boring things. But both of them, almost ordinary people are not interested in. Midori wrote

Walking (2, 3) – The most favourite thing and a pastime of Naoko. Naoko and Toru dated and walked many times and long distances all over Tokyo. Also, walking means Naoko’s mind has no destination and her unstable heart.

Billiards (2, 8)

Long Distance Runner (2) & Fast Track (3) – The two elements symbolize and compare the characteristic of Naoko with it of Nagasawa. Long distance runner means the mild and nervous characteristic of Naoko. Fast track athlete symbolizes the greedy and practical characteristic of Nagasawa.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (3) – Toru’s most favorite novel and the trigger to get to know Nagasawa. And it means Nagasawa is a kind of brilliant and greedy person like Jay Gatsby, and Toru is an onlooker to the world like Nick Carraway.

Straight Black Hair (2) & Extremely Short Hair or Pixie Cut (4) – A straight black hair is the symbol of Naoko, and her beauty, tenderness and nervousness. An extremely short hair is the symbol of Midori, and her cheerfulness, boyish characteristic and life force.

Firefly (3) – It may be a symbol of Naoko’s gloomy mind and her transient life, and the omen of the vanishment of Storm Trooper.

Cooking & cuisine – Present or exchange of love or friendship. To cook together or to have dinner together is turning points in this novel.

Hairslide

Music – Music in this novel is trigger, storage or media of memories including bad memories. Also, music is story which is equal to a novel. Music is a thing reflects and expresses mind.

Playing music – Playing music in this novel is a practical rehabilitation or a treatment to face with the real world, equal to write a novel. But who is in emotional pain can’t play music, so Naoko can’t play music and pay a JPY 100 penny for Reiko.

Greek tragedy – The symbol of view to the world of Toru. The real world is a drama or tragedy, but is not saved by gods like “Deus ex-machina”. We must live in the real tragic world without gods, but it also is a drama or story made by a society or a person. (4, 7)

Germany & the North

German & French languages – In this novel German is a symbol of reality and pragmatism. French is a symbol nervousness. To study foreign languages is to gain a rule. Nagasawa can use English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.

Language study – A symbol of Wittgenstein’s language game. Language game is all human activities, and each of them is a game has a rule. By Nagasawa’s view to live is a game, and gains, follows and makes use of rules. French is a principle of nervousness, and German is a principle of practice. Nagasawa is splendid person has knowledge of many rules, so he mastered English, German, French and Italian, then he began to learn Spanish.

Cucumber (7)

Cultural Things on This Novel

Truman Capote, John Updike, F. Scott Fitzgerald & Raymond Chandler – Toru’s favorite American novelists.

Kazumi Takahashi, Kenzaburo Oe, Yukio Mishima & contemporary French novelists – Political, artistic and existentialist authors to which students of the 1960’s preferred. But Toru’s favorite is weak and sissy (regaerded by other students) American novelists.

Great Gatsby – The trigger to Toru came across Nagasawa.

The Magic Mountain – A metaphor of Ami Hospital, a sanatorium in Kyoto, to which Naoko went.

Timeline

Naoko and Kizuki were childhood friends from thier infancy.

(Perhaps,) In 1966 – I met Naoko first time in the second grade of high school.

A nice afternoon in May 1967 (third grade of high school) – Toru and Kizuki cut afternoon classes and played pinball games. That night Kizuki passed away by himself. (2)

Spring of 1968 (Toru, age 18) – Toru entered a private university and a right-wing private dormitory. (2)

Sunday afternoon in the middle of May 1968 – Toru had a date with Naoko at Yotsuya. (2)

September 1968 – Naoko invited Toru to her flat first time.

October 1968 – Toru got to know Nagasawa trough Fitzgerald’s novel Great Gatsby. (3)

The middle of April 1969 – Toru went to Naoko’s flat to celebrate her birthday. And he slept with her first time. (3)

Three days before next Sunday – Naoko had moved out from her flat suddenly. (3)

End of May 1969 – Lectures of the University suspended, Toru started working at a delivery company.

June 1969 – Toru went out to sleep with girls twice with Nagasawa. (3)

Middle of September 1969 – Midori Kobayashi, a classmate of the university, called out to Toru at a small restaurant and they chatted. After a while, she invited him to her home, Kobayashi Bookshop, and she cooked the lunch for Toru. (4)

Autum 1969 – Toru visited Ami Hospital in Kyoto. (6)

Middle of December 1969 – Toru visited Ami Hospital again. (10)

Spring 1970 – Toru left the dormitory and moved to an apartment in the suburb of Kichijoji. (10)

Age 37 (1)

Outlines

(Toru remembered the memory of 20 years ago by the Beatles’ song Norwegian Wood.) (1)

Naoko’s family and Kizuki’s family were neighbourhood, and they went around. Naoko and Kizuki were childhood friends. (2)

At 12 years old, Toru first met with Naoko. (2)

Toru, Naoko and Kizuki are class mates of a high school and dated by the three. (2)

Suddenly, Kizuki passed away by himself after cut afternoon classes and played billiard games with Toru in a nice afternoon in May 1967. (2)

Next April (1968), Toru entered a private university in Tokyo. And he lived in a right-wing private dormitory. (2)

Next year (1969), Toru happened to meet Naoko on the Chuo commuter line. They dated and walked from Yotsuya to Komagome. (2)

In the spring, Toru and Naoko would dated almost every weeks. And Naoko invited Toru up to her flat and cook for him. (3)

In October, Toru got to know Nagasawa. (3)

Toru and Nagasawa went to Shibuya or Shinjuku, picked up girls, and slept with them three or four times. (3)

Toru met Nagasawa’s steady girlfriend Hatsumi. (3)

In the winter, Toru started a part-time job in a little record shop in Shinjuku. (3)

April 1970, Toru went to Naoko’s flat and they celebrated her 20th birthday. That night, Toru slept with Naoko first time. (3)

Next Sunday, Toru visited Naoko’s flat, but Naoko had moved out from there at three days earlier. (3)

In end of May, Lectures of the University suspended, Toru started working at a delivery company. (3)

In June, Toru went out to sleep with girls twice with Nagasawa. (3)

Middle of September 1970 – Midori Kobayashi, a classmate of the university, called out to Toru at a small restaurant and they chatted. (4)

On a Sunday, Midori invited Toru to the Kobayashi Bookshop, and she entertain Toru to a lunch of delicate Kyoto style meals. (4)

Horu got a letter from Naoko, and she invited him a psychiatrist sanatorium, Ami Hospital she entered. (5)

Toru visited Ami Hospital in Kyoto, met Naoko and Reiko and stayed three days. (6)

Plots & Episodes

A. Toru’s life (in a private dormitory or a flat in Kichijoji)

B. The past story among Toru, Naoko and Kizuki (2)

C. Strange and awkward love story between Toru and Naoko (main episode)

Toru first met Naoko, Kizuki’s girlfriend when the second grade of high school, and they dated by the three many times. (2)

Suddenly, Kizuki passed away by himself after cut afternoon classes and played billiard games with Toru in a nice afternoon in May. (2)

(Next April (1968), Toru entered a private university in Tokyo. Naoko may enter a girls’ college in Tokyo, too.) (2)

Next year (1969), Toru happened to meet Naoko on the Chuo commuter line. They dated and walked from Yotsuya to Komagome. (2)

In the spring, Toru and Naoko would dated almost every weeks. And Naoko invited Toru up to her flat and cook for him. (3)

Halfway through April 1969, Toru went to Naoko’s flat and they celebrated her 20th birthday. That night, Toru slept with Naoko first time. (3)

Three days before next Sunday, Naoko had moved out from her flat. (3)

D. Toru, Nagasawa and Hatsumi

In October 1969, Toru got to know Nagasawa by Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatzby. (3)

Toru and Nagasawa went to Shibuya or Shinjuku to pick up girls, and slept with them three or four times. (3)

Toru met Nagasawa’s steady girlfriend Hatsumi. (3)

(Naoko moved out suddenly.)

In June 1970, Toru went out to sleep with girls twice with Nagasawa. (3)

E. Toru and Midori Kobayashi

At a Monday of the middle of September, a classmate of the university, Midori Kobayashi called out to Toru at a small restaurant near the university, then they chatted during a certain amount of time. She borrowed Toru’s lecture note. (4)

At the promised time to return the note, she didn’t appear. (4)

Next week, she appeared the lecture of Greek Tragedy. Two student activist had entered the lecture room, and when they began political agitations, Midori took Toru out to lunch. Then, they went to a fancy boxed-lunch speciality shop in Yotsuya.(4)

On a Sunday, Midori invited Toru to the Kobayashi Bookshop, and she entertain Toru to a lunch of delicate Kyoto style meals. After the lunch, Midori talked about her dead mother and her father had went to Uruguay. (4)

F. Toru, Naoko and Reiko

On a Monday of Fall 1969, Toru went to Kyoto by bullet-train, and visited Ami Hospital by local bus. He met Naoko and her room mate and a music teacher of the hospital Reiko, and stayed three days. (6)

In the middle of December 1969, Toru visited and stayed Ami Hospital again. (10)

G. Toru, Naoko and Midori

The main plot of this novel, but Naoko and Midori didn’t see directly. Toru’s dilemma between Naoko and Midori is an important matter of this story.

Impressive Scenes

Naoko’s walking date with Toru from Yotsuya to Komagome (2 – 3)

Kizuki’s sudden passing away (2)

Toru and Midori watched a neighbouring fire on the veranda of Midori’s house (4)

Toru, Naoko and Reiko chatted in a room of the sanatorium, Reiko played guitar (6)

Summaries, Keywords & Comments of Each Chapters

Chapter 1

A cold November, Toru Watanabe was remembered the memories of Autumn 1969, 20 years ago by a sweet orchestral cover version of the Beatles’ Norwegian Wood on an huge 747 went to Hamburg.

747 ; Hamburg ; Beatles ; Norwegian Wood ; Billy Joel ; the North Sea

Chapter 2

Toru’s life in a dormitory.

the war time Nakano spy school ; May Our Lord’s Reign ; NHK’s radio callisthenics ;

Toru dated with Naoko in Yotsuya at a Sunday afternoon in the middle of May. He met Naoko by chance in the Chuo commuter line. They left the train at Yotsuya and Naoko started to walk and strolled to Komagome. (It’s very long distance to walk ! 8.4 km distance and it spents 110 minutes by walk.)

Chuo commuter line ; bookshops in Kanda ; walking ; stroll ; Iidabashi ; Jinbocho ; Ochanomizu ; Hongo ; Komagome ; long distance runner ; 10,000 metres ; mountain climbing ; wrong words ; opposite words ; Yamanote Line ; Chuo Live ; Shinjuku ; Kokubunji

Toru first met Naoko at 12. And Kizuki is a childhood friend and the boyfriend of Naoko and the best friend of Toru. They and one another girls double-dated any-number of times. But Kizuki gave up it, then the three would do things together.

zoo ; pool ; cinema ; dentist ; Kuzuki’s funeral

Naoko had been angry with Toru, he was the last person to see Kizuki. A nice a nice afternoon in May (third grade of high school), Toru and Kizuki cut afternoon classes and played billiards four games. Kizuki was lost the games. That night, suddenly, somehow, Kizuki gassed himself to pass away used by his Honda N-360. After 10 months, Toru applied and entered a private university of Tokyo, and he left his hometown Kobe.

nice afternoon in May ; pool (billiards) ; N-360 ; flower ; Tokyo ; 500 miles from here ; Kobe ; bullet train

Chapter 3

Naoko and Toru dated almost every weeks and many times, they said nothing (about the past) and only kept on walking in Tokyo. She would invited him up to her flat and cook for him. Toru realized Naoko had wanted to begin a new life far from anyone she knew. Little by little they grew accustomed.

girls’ collage on the rural western edge of Tokyo ; English ; new life far from anyone

In September, a new term started. They dated and walked together all over Tokyo, but Toru felt painful and her long and frequently walkings means she has no destination in mind.

a new term ; no destination in mind ; religious ritual ; heal our wounded spirit ; zelkova leaves ; pullover ; suede shoes ; Amsterdam canal ; the Golden Gate Bridge

When autumn ended, they still dated and walked. They walked arm in arm, but Toru felt his warmth was not what she needed.

duffel coat ; rubber-soled shoes ; sycamore leaves ; tranparent clarity of Naoko’s eyes ; searching for words in space

The deep winter came, they would dated still, but Toru can’t told his feeling, worry and distress to Naoko.

18 to 19 ; my dead friend’s girl ; Claudel ; Racine ; her word-searching sickness

Toru’s favorite is American literature, especially Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald. But, guys in the dorm reads Kazumi Takahashi, Kenzaburo Oe, Yukio Mishima and French novelists. In October, Toru got to know Nagasawa when Toru read Great Gatsby in a hall of the dorm. Nagasawa read the book three times. He is brilliant, but he has both loftiness and irredeemable nature.

Truman Capote ; John Updike ; F. Scott Fitzgerald ; Raymond Chandler ; Kazumi Takahashi ; Kenzaburo Oe ; Yukio Mishima ; contemporary French novelists ; Great Gatsby ; a rule never to touch a book by any author who had not been dead at least 30 years. ; Balzac ; Dante ; Joseph Conrad ; Dickens ; Civil Servant Exam ; the Foreign Ministry ; hospital in Nagoya

Nagasawa was a playboy, and was rumoured he slept with more than 100 girls. Toru and Nagasawa picked up a pair of girls in Shibuya and Shinjuku, and played around with them three or four times.

more than 100 girls ; 75 ; 70; Shibuya ; Shinjuku ; dencent human being ; Dostoevsky ; gambling

In the winter, Toru started a part-time job in a little record shop in Shinjuku. Toru bought a Henry Mancini album to Naoko for a Christmas gift. She gave him a pair of handmade knit gloves.

Henry Mancini ; Dear Heart ; Christmas ; a pair of woollen gloves

In late January and February of 1969.

raging fever ; Brahms’ Fourth Symphony

Halfway through April 1969, Naoko turned 20. (Toru’s birthday is in November.) Toru bought a cake and they celebrated her birthday in her flat. But Toru and Naoko felt strange and stupid she became 20. Naoko talked to Toru various things. But Toru felt strange her storied separated A from B, B from C, like a cycle of records. Then Toru told he want to go back, Naoko suddenly cried and was upset. Then Toru slept with Naoko first time (Naoko slept with a man first time).

(age) 20 ; between 18 and 19 ; 17 ; Roman Colosseum ; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band ; Bill Evans’ Waltz for Debbie ; own internal logic ; story A, B, C ; endless April rain

  • Each tale of Naoko’s talkings had its own logic, also "the link from one to the next was odd”, and turned into A to B, B to C like cycles of record that may imply Naoko’s emotional unstable state and an sign of her mental illness.

Next, Naoko said nothing. On Naoko’s calendar, there were no memos or marks for future schedules written.

French verb chart ; calender

On next Sunday, Toru visited Naoko’s flat, but the manager of the flat told she had moved out three days earlier. Toru wrote a long letter to Naoko dressed to her home in Kobe. In May, lectures of Toru’s university was suspended by student strikes, Toru started hard labour work at a delivery company to forget the disappearance of Naoko. In June, Toru went out to sleep with girls twice with Nagasawa. The second girl asked various personal questions to Toru such as “Where was I (Toru) from ?” and “Which university did I go to ?”.

stopped smoking ; student strike ; whisky and books ; personal questions

The beginning of July, Toru received a short letter from Naoko. She told she was in a painful condition and needed rest, and she was considering to enter a psychiatry sanatorium in Kyoko.

writing is a painful process ; a quiet place cut off from the world

The end of July, Storm Trooper gave me a firefly and he went home during summer holidays. But, Toru decided he went home in Kobe and did a practical training session (part-time jobs) in Tokyo.

firefly ; summer holidays ; a practical training session ; Shinjuku ; Ikebukuro

  • Is a firefly symbol of Naoko’s mind and her transient life ?

Chapter 4

During summer holidays, the university called the riot police and they evicted and arrested students. In September, lectures of the university started, and students who had resisted the university calmly attended the lectures. Toru had a distrust of both (words of) students and the university. Toru managed to isolate from the other students.

barricades ; massive amount capital ; balance of power within the university structure ; joke ; technique for dealing with boredom

Till the second week of September Storm Trooper didn’t return, and he left the dormitory. Toru enjoyed living alone. A noon of Monday, When toru went to a little restaurant to take a lunch, a class-mate girl of the university, with extremely short hair and dark sunglasses, Midori Kobayashi approached Toru and called to him, then sat down next to him. They chatted, Midori borrowed Toru’s lecture note of History of Drama and appointed meet again at the restaurant on Wednesday.

Jim Morrison ; Miles Davis ; small stereo ; Euripides ; History of Drama ; omelette ; salad ; extremely short hair ; dark sunglasses ; white cotton mini-dress ; macaroni and cheese ; Electra ; perm ; corpse on the beach with seaweed ; pixie cut ; girls with long hair ; fresh and physical life force ; defenceless ; naked ; Humphrey Bogart ; hiking ; rucksack ; sleeping bag ; Kanazawa ; Noto Peninsula ; Niigata ; green polo shirt ; Momoko: “Peach girl”

  • Naoko and Storm Trooper have vanished, and, so Midori who cut her hair very short, appears on this story. (Long black hair is the symbol of Naoko.)

Midori didn’t appear the appointed time to give back Toru’s lecture note.

beer ; German lecture ; Toshima ; Kobayashi Bookshop ; huge bureaucratic system ; sounds like a game ; Zen saint ; Dickens

The following week, in the middle of lecture, Midori walked in the lecture room and gave back to Toru his lecture note. Then two student activists entered the room and forced the professor to pass on the lecture. The professor said “The world is full of problems far more urgent and relevant than Greek tragedy.” But he admitted the demand and two students started a political agitation, then Toru and Midori got out the room.

dark blue sports shirt ; cream-coloured cotton trousers ; her usual sunglasses ; Greek stage ; political agitation handbills ; State Power ; Lack of Imagination ; counter-revolutionaries ; telephone toles

  • This scene signifies the student movement is a meaningless play (drama), and the importance of imagination, thinking and private life.

During classes, Midori took Toru to a fancy boxed-lunch speciality shop in Yotsuya, and they talked.

sleepier ; narrow silver bracelet ; like a monkey in the rain

Passing the Yotsuya station, Toru remembered Naoko. Toru and Midori sat on a bench in a park near the Yotsuya station. They saw the smokes of burning towels and tampons wipe away and dry menstruation from the girls junior-high and high school Midori had graduated. And, Midori talked about her private life and her families bookshop with full of complaints. Then Midori invited Toru to the Kobayashi Bookshop on Sunday.

endless walking ; ivy ; pigeons ; gables ; smoke ; sanitary towels ; incinerator ; 180 girls ; absolutely ordinary State school ; fancy place ; French dictionary ; German ; Mercedes Benz ; the Green Hornet ; Kita-Otsuka ; Kinokuniya ; ordinary working people ; typical house with a little garden ; Toyota Corolla ; hard up ; being rich ; ordinary people ; map

  • Burning sanitary towels is a metaphor for the loss of life of Naoko’s mind, and Midori hated French and selected German that implies she is the replacement for Naoko.
  • To hate rich people is a frequent motif or expression of Murakami’s novels. Rich people are greedy and haven’t fineness, they are opposed by poor people.

The Sunday morning, I went to the Kobayashi Bookshop by tram. When I reached the shop, Midori made a lunch.

daffodil ; Otsuka Station ; a few stubborn people who clung to old family properties ; reminiscent of old Polish film ; beer ; Apple Records logo ; to treat guests well

Midori cooked delicate Kyoto style nice meals because she was concerned with Toru is from Kansai. During the meal she talked about why she cooks well and mother’s loss of life. After she cleared the table, she said she had began to smoke unwillingly since one month ago, to forget her pain and to control her. During Midori and Toru was washing the dishes, Midori talked about his father went off Uruguay in June one years ago, to help a farm of his old army buddy.

big Kinokuniya in Shinjuku ; biggest, handsomest cookbook ; Marlboro ; Uruguay

  • Cooking in Murakami’s novels is a present of love or a exchange of love.

A fire broke near the Midori’s house. They watched the fire, drinking beer and singing folks songs, then talking about love on the porch.

folk songs ; Lemon Tree ; Puff (The Magic Dragon) ; Five Hundred Miles ; Where Have All the Folowers Gone? ; Michael, Row the Boat Ashore ; cold-hearted ; real sadness ; love me unconditionally ; perfect love ; perfect selfishness ; play-acting

  • This scene expresses detachments among people and the divide between persons around Toru and ordinary people. People think more important their private things and love than a serious incident occurs nearby.

Next Saturday night, Toru and Nagasawa went to Shinjuku to pick up girls. But girl pickings hadn’t gone well, and Nagasawa went to Hatsumi’s house and Toru watched The Graduate in an old rep house two times. Toru went to an all-night café to wait the first train. Toru shared a table with two girls well dressed and made up. At 5:20, They asked Toru to introduce a nice bar near here because they must drink for some reasons. So Toru bought sake and snacks from a vending machine, then they (including Toru) drunk at an empty car park. The big girl returned to Nagano, then Toru and the small girl went to a hotel and slept together.

gimlet ; margarita ; mysterious energy created by mixture of sex and alcohol ; cheeseburger ; The Graduate ; old rep house ; Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain ; Marvin Gaye ; the Bee Gees ; Nagano

Chapter 5

Toru got a long letter from Naoko. Naoko apologised and told her life and condition in Ami Hospital, and the free and voluntary therapy of there. And she suggested that Toru should visit there and see her.

pigeon, colours of the real world ; fair ; honest ; universally true ; circles ; self-justification ; therapy ; over-analytical ; simplify the world or complicate it ; patients ; accustom ; deformities ; idiosyncrasies ; growing vegetables ; Mahler symphonies ; the Beatles ; “outside people ; normal people in the normal world ; The Magic Mountain

Chapter 6

A Monday, Toru went to Kyoto by bullet-train. He arrived at Ami Hospital in deep mountains by local bus and walk around the noon.

Hikari express ; quiet place ; deep in the mountains

  • Ami Hospital is in very deep mountains and a rural area of Kyoto. This scene implies the depth of Naoko’s depression and darkness.

Toru met Reiko, a music teacher or therapist also a patient and the room-mate of Naoko. Eating lunch, Reiko told about the particularity of Ami Hospital.

strong impression of cleanliness ; what an incredibly quiet place! ; play an instrument ; no ‘ordinary’ hospital ; ‘convalescence’ ; everybody helps everybody else ; everyone here is equal ; First you decide that you want to help and that you need to be helped by the other person. ; group session ; German exam ; self-sufficient ; Walt Disney ; Munch painting ; Yamaha 125cc

When Toru was lying a bed, Naoko came in the room and talked with Toru.

simple schoolgirl style (hair) ; hairslide ; butterfly

Evening of the next day, Toru, Naoko and Reiko ate dinner together and had a conversation. But Toru are suspicious of Ami Hospital and its perticular treatment. After taking the bath, the three drunk white wine and talked. Then Reiko took a guitar and played Bach pieces. When Reiko ended Bach, Naoko requested Beatles’ song Michelle, so Reiko played the song and Nowhere Man, Julia. Naoko requested Naoko’s favorite Norwegian Wood, Reiko took a porcelain beckoning cat and coin bank and Naoko put a JPY 100 coin to the bank, it’s a rule between them. Reiko played the song twice with real feeling without becoming sentimental, and Toru took put a JPY 100 coin too. But Naoko said the song make her so sad and alone.

Then Toru talked about Nagasawa, his behaviour and philosophy, and he was stoic to Naoko. And she said she thought he is a lot sicker in the head. Toru told he had already slept with eight or nine girls, so Reiko and Naoko were shocked. And Naoko talked about conditions when she slept with Toru and the special relationship with Kizuki, then she suddenly burst into tears.

unnaturally quiet room ; atmosphere of a specialised-machine-tool trade fair ; strong interest in a specialist field ; Bill Evans album ; moonlight ; large, white candle ; white wine ; guitar ; Michelle ; Nowhere Man ; Julia ; Norwegian Wood ; porcelain beckoning cat ; coin bank ; boss novas

stoic ; normal ; ordinary ; truly special relationship

Toru took a walking with Reiko. He talked he like to do things alone like hiking, swimming and reading, and he could never excited about games he play with others. Reiko told they (the doctors and the patients) had to wait for Naoko would recover herself a very long time. Reiko took a picture of her daughter and show it to Toru. And she said she had been wanted to be a concert pianist, but gave up it because her left hand stopped moving by a pre-competition stress. Then she talked about her marriage, husband, and childbirth.

hiking ; swimming ; reading ; do things alone ; waiting to recover yourself ; Izu ; total darkness ; jewel of energy ; Beyer ; sonatines

They returned to Naoko and Reiko’s room. Naoko became calm, and Toru and Naoko talked about memories of Kizuki. They went to bed. (Toru slept on a sofa in the living room.) Toru had a dream of willows and metal birds. In the midnight, Toru woke up and realized Naoko was sitting beside him and looking. Then Naoko slipped her nightdress and Toru felt her body was perfect flesh was stood out by moonlight and darkness.

moonlight ; willows ; metal birds ; silhouette ; perfect flesh ; reborn

The next day, after breakfast, they went to care of birds. In the morning, Naoko and Reiko went to the farm of the sanatorium, Toru stayed and studied German for a test at the kitchen table in the Naoko and Reiko’s room.

and a perfect girl of her piano lesson ideal pupil ; German ; all the forms in a grammar chart ; irregular German verb forms

In the afternoon, they went on a hike to nearby mountain.

village ; dead silent houses ; Pepé ; FM station

To be continued…

Remarks

  • At first, Naoko is bright and energetic girl. But, as she spent time with Toru, she remembered the trauma of loss of life of Kizuki, then she got sick mentally.
  • This novel is a story of two love triangles or many triangles. Such as Toru – Naoko – Kizuki, Toru – Midori – Naoko (the main plot of this novel, but Naoko didn’t meet with Midori), Toru – Nagasawa – Hatsumi, Toru – Naoko – Reiko, Toru – Midori – Midori’s boyfriend and so on. On the structure of narrative, according to Naoko spent time with Toru and she remember the trauma of Kizuki then she felt hurt got sick mentally. So Toru fall in love with Midori much more, then Naoko felt hurt much more.
  • The association between Toru and Naoko in Tokyo continued only about one year. And she entered a sanatorium in Kyoto, on chapter 3, page 56.
  • Midori Kobayashi is a mediator to Toru or nervous people around Toru with ordinary working people or the ordinary world.
  • This novel is a love story, but I think it’s also the peak of Murakami’s thought of detachment and dis-communication.

Details of the Book

Nowegian Wood
Haruki Murakami
Vintage Publishing, London, United Kingdom, 04 Jul 2003
400 pages, £8.99
ISBN: 9780099448222

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Note | Abandoning a Cat, When I Talk About My Father by Haruki Murakami, Bungeishunju

Summary

A day of the early age of showa 30’s (1955 – 1965), Murakami and his father went to abandon a big female cat at the beach of Koroen. But she went home ahead somehow, and continued to live together. For Murakami, why he agreed with abandoning, why the cat went home ahead are remain as a mystery. (pp. 9-15)

Murakami’s father, Chiaki Murakami every morning prayed to a statue of bodhisattva in a small grass case for dead people by the war. (pp. 15-17)

Chiaki Murakami was born in Kyoto, on 1917, as the second son of a buddhist temple family. And he was in the misfortune age involved in the WW II. When grand father died, he was expected to take over the temple, but he denied, his older brother Shimei took over the temple. (pp.17-30)

His father served in the war from 1938, by a working-level mistake of a document. He fought fiercely against the China army, as a logistics officer. And he told that he watched, at the battlefield, the unit he belonged was forced to kill Chinese prisoners. (pp. 37-52)

Chiaki Murakami was an intelligent person, so, after the conscription, he entered the Kyoto Imperial University from a buddhist professional school. (pp. 56-58)

In September 1941, he be recruited again. But in 30 November, 8 days before the opening of the Pacific War, some show he was exempt from military service. The 16th division, he was supposed to belong, fought in fought a severe battle in the Southeast and pacific especially Bataan, and destroyed at the Battle of Layte. (pp. 64-76)

Murakami’s father became a teacher of Japanese for a means of living. He was a excellence teacher and adored by many students. (pp. 76-81)

Sometimes, Murakami felt strange if his father wasn’t exempt from military service,,, fiance of mother wasn’t died at the war,,, he doesn’t exist in the world. He thinks an activity to live as a novelist is an unreal transient fantasy. (pp. 90-91)

(…)

Characters

Haruki Murakami

Chiaki Murakami – Murakami’s father was born in Kyoto, on 1917, as the second son of a buddhist temple family. A teacher of Japanese at a junior high school and a high school. He died in August 2008 at the age 90.

A big female tabby cat – Murakami and his father went to abandon at the beach of Koroen, Nishinomiya. But she went home ahead, and continued to live together.

Benshiki Murakami – Murakami’s grand father. The abbot of a big Jodo-shu temple Anyouji.

Shimei Murakami – Murakami’s uncle, the oldest son, resigned from a tax office and took over the buddhist temple.

Murakami’s mother – Was a teacher of Japanese too. A daughter of a wealthy merchant family of Osaka.

A cute small white kitten – At an evening, a cat Murakami’s family keeps, climbed up to the upper part of at a pine tree in the yard, and can’t come down.

Keywords & Key Elements

a statue of bodhisattva in a small grass case

haiku

trauma

history

taking over

Hanshin-kan (between Osaka-Kobe)

cinema

mysterious common experience

story

Details of the Book

Abandoning a Cat, When I Talk About My Father
Haruki Murakami
Bungeishunju, Tokyo, Japan, 23 April 2020
104 pages, JPY 1320
ISBN 978-4163911939
Contents

  • Abandoning a Cat
  • Afterword: A Fragment of History

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Note | Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami & Ted Goossen, Vintage Books

Information of the Book

Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami is the second novel by Haruki Murakami, and the second volume of the ‘Trilogy of the Rat’. The narrator and some characters are also appeared ‘Hear the Wind Sing’, ‘Wild Sheep Chase’ and ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’.

Outline and Style

This novel is composed of fragments of descriptions . This fragments are composed of 25 chapters and consisted of 3 separated main episodes. (The current time of this novel, ‘I’ didn’t meet the Rat. Factually ‘I’ don’t know the real situation of the Rat of 1973.)

  1. ‘My’ life of 1973
    • ‘My’ daily life with the twins wear the sweartshirts with numbers 208 and 209. They went for a stroll in the golf course near ‘my’ apartment.
    • Running a translation office with a friend and a University of Foreign Languages student girl.
    • Searching for the pinball machine.
  2. Descriptions of the Rat’s devastating life of 1973
  3. Memories of 1969 to 1970 with Naoko, the Rat and the Spaceship pinball machine
    • ‘My’ college life with Naoko.
    • Encounter to the pinball machine with the Rat at J’s Bar.
    • ‘My’ absorbing in the Spaceship pinball machine in a game arcade in Shinjuku.

This novel is written by ‘I’ (narrator of this novel), and begins in September 1973.

Characters

‘I’

: The narrator and the writer of this novel. A freelance translator runs a small translation company with a friend. 23 years old.

The Rat

: A rich university dropout made the daily commute to J’s Bar. He spent ruined idle life in his home town.

The Twin Sisters Wear the Sweatshirts with the Numbers 208 and 209

: Unnamed twin Sisters live ‘my’ apartment. They are perfect copies, have same faces, voices and hairstyle.

Friend

: A friend of ‘I’, runs a small translation company together with ‘I’. ‘My’ classmate at the University.

Young Woman

: A part-time worker of the small translation company ‘I’ and the friend run. And a student of the University of Foreign Languages. She always ‘Penny Lane’

J

: A Chinese bartender and owner of J’s Bar.

Naoko

: The same person to ‘the third girl I slept with’ in Hear the Wind Sing.

Pinball Enthusiast Spanish Lecturer

Girlfriend of the Rat

Repairman of the Phone Company

Serviceman of the pinball company

Places

‘My’ apartment

The golf course

: In the autumn, like everyday, ‘I’ and twins strolled the golf course near ‘my’ apartment.

The small translation company

J’s Bar

: The Rat still daily commuted to J’s Bar.

All-night doughnut shop

: Doughnut is the important sign or metaphor of Murakami’s works. According to him, ring of doughnut is the entrance to the different-dimension world.

Coffee shop, Game arcade in Shinjuku

Key Elements and Keywords

The three-flipper Spaceship pinball machine

: a symbol of women, Naoko or (memory of) the Rat. The machine should be a woman.

navy-blue sweatshirt with the numbers of 208 and 209

:

old switch panel

: A day of 1973, a repairman of the phone company visit ‘my’ apartment and replaced it with new one. It would be a symbol of mother or woman and ‘my’ past.

prologue

a good ten years ago, great enthusiasm, rumour, stones, dry well, tongue-in-check, off-the-wall, cardboard box, monkeys, laborious task, box of kitchen matches, Saturn, Venus, ideology, water cooler, telephone, hot-water heater, music room, two thousand records, Altec A5 speaker, bicycle racetrack toilet, paradise, long-distance phone call, classical music aficionados, Vivaldi, perfect cloudless November day, Haydn’s Piano Sonata, tottering pile, science labs, lukewarm beer, gravity, planets, bear, hibernation, rhythms, bright sunlight, student lounge, student lounge, bright sunlight, red plastic table, paper cup, cigarette butts, Rubens painting, new shoes, new course catalogs, real town, a railroad track and a station, pathetic two-bit station, cigarette smoke, bus stop, Alice in Wonderland, May 1973, new pair of cordovan shoes, déjà vu, twins, could less Sunday morning, T-shirts, jeans, coffee, toast, butter, golf course, stereo broadcast, headache, names, mailboxes, vacuum cleaners, zoos, salt shakers, mousetraps, peppermint gum, London’s duty-free shops, dark green thicket of trees, blue sky, cuckoo’s sharp cry, giant sleeping cat, Ricky Nelson, Hello Mary Lou, peaceful green valley, crayfish, farmhouses, garish painted advertisement, toilet paper, soap, Western-style two-story house, the Korean War, oil painter, Bobby Vee, Rubber Ball, Fuji snow water, seventeen, policemen, French literary scholar, fallen angels, dissolute priests, bohemian, camera lens, cultured eccentrics, Siberian penal camps, imperial Russia, biography of Leon Trotsky, cockroaches, reindeer, Moscow, wildly idiosyncratic homes, the Tokyo Olympics, urban development, monotonous townscape, commuter trains, dogs, winding river, fisherman, Venus, Venusians, sadness, my apartment

On the Birth of Pinball

Raymond Moloney, first pinball machine, the Atlantic Ocean, Adolf Hitler, the Weimar Republic, Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, smacks of ingratitude, the Ballyhoo, numbers and decimals, Bonus Light, metaphysial concept of ‘sequence’, numerical substitution, act of consumption, Proust, True Grit, nowhere, replay, eternity, existence, self-transformation, ego expansion

1

birthmark, perfect copies

modest apartment, Shibuya, Nampeidai, a small translation company, telephone, three steel desks, the dictionaries, half a dozen bottle of bourbon, metallic signboard engraved with company name, air conditioner, refrigerator, home set bar, Student Office, the University of Foreign Languages, young woman, long legs, sharp mind, melody of Penny Lane, harmonious workplace, eat-in kitchen, Tokyo, bourbon on the rocks, traps for the cockroaches, American Science, ball bearings’ resistance to pressure, All-American Book of Cocktails, William Styron, manual on the proper use and maintenance of safety razors, a finger (well, a thumb, actually) of whiskey, coin, disco, J&B, Santana cover band, money, Steve McQueen, Edward G. Robinson, The Cincinnati Kid, Volkswagen Beetle, days as peaceful, pool of afternoon sunlight, Shibuya Station, the Critique of Pure Reason, Kenneth Tynan, Roman Polanski, Esquire

navy-blue sweatshirt, numbers, 208, 209, nipple, serial numbers, supermarket, stroll, promising place, coffee cream cookies, coffee, golf course, newspaper, Burma, Australia, Vietnam, Nixon, Hanoi, 1.2 million conflicting ideas, Dostoevsky

2

the autumn of 1973, winds of early September, old T-shirt, cutoff jeans, sandals, over chilled beer, cigarettes, watch, autumn gloom, meadows, rivers, new season, message, another season dead and gone, chill of winter, real downer, summer light, autumn sandy soil, warm summer dreams, bucket of potatoes, butterfat, toaster, unfiltered cigarette, Rat’s sense of time, explanation, unbelievable pace, flood of emotion, meaningless old dreams, melon, vegetable, three comfortable rooms, air conditioner, phone, seventeen-inch color television set, bath, shower, Mercedes Triumph, fancy balcony, sunbathing, panoramic view of town and ocean,chirping of birds, fragrance of trees, tranquil afternoon, rattan chair, quiet calm

3

newspaper subscription, gray workman’s uniform, the phone company, backgammon, black notebook, old switch panel, old model, central computer, matching up hardware and software, nuisance, doll cases, monster pianos, repairman, a machine to control the circuits, handkerchief, giggling, jeans, coffee, Danish, breakfast, poor guy, boiled egg, mother dog, puppies, ectoplasm, quiet afternoon light, deserted course, twilight, Mildred Bailey, It’s So Peaceful in the Country, golf ball, handicap golfer

4

unmanned beacon, meandering pier, harbour, fisherman, fishing boats, beautiful sunset, cloak of mist, darkness, supreme, child, flagstones, sky, dark blue, vivid, smell of ocean, his own world, white beach, green pines, cranes, floating docks, boxlike warehouses, freighters, tall buildings

vague memories, childhood, dry sound, fishermen’s huts, reddish brown seawater, South American canna, neat little apartment, Venetian blinds

5

phone, eraser, pink pay phone, caretaker’s office, elephant, late-night, telegrams, motorbike, around four in the morning, loud footstep, Grim Reaper, boom, jungle path, beginning of autumn, end of winter, lonely season, some mysterious internal force, Sunday morning in early March, bright winter sunlight, cabbage field, last snow, final cold snap, cardigan, pajamas, ceiling, bulky white sweater, lifeboat, virtual stranger, political group, construction boots, proper kettle, saucepan, tea bags, green tea, cookies, granulated sugar, two Snoopy glasses, Robinson Crusoe, silence, winter sunlight

cold rain, taxi driver, raincoat, glass had a picture of Snoopy and Woodstock, autumn moonlight, thousands of insects, moonlit golf course, devoid of value, meaning or direction,

6

bathroom, sound of shower, cigarette, match, rattan chairs, tailored mustard-colored dress, tiny watch, mountain side perch, signs of human activity, golfer, top of a downhill course

September, trace of summer radiance, electric typewriter, playpens, linguaphones, tricycles, half a dozen typewriter ribbons, cocktails, local indoor pool, tangible reality of their relationship, kind of perfection in her small world, architecture, architect’s office, Mozart

7

cold, sandpaper, coffee, two rolls, Seven Stars, deadline, red felt pen, photograph of a cat, plaster of Paris, Swiss Army knife, six HB pencils, cassette tape, old Stan Getz album, Al Haig, Jimmy Raney, Teddy Kotick, Tiny Kahn, Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid, lunch of fried fish, orange juice, hamburger stand, pet shop, Abyssinian cat, green tea, autumn bird, drone of the city, Charlie Parker, Just Friends, When Do Migrating Bird Sleep?, umbrella, evening paper, supermarket, black German shepherd, lifeless shells

Handel’s recorder sonatas, my girlfriend, Valentine’s Day, Hans-Martin Linde,  Rubber Soul , the Beatles, the Critique of Pure Reason

8

cemetery, azalea, grazing sheep, mercury lamps, children, carp, music box, Old Black Joe, total silence, make love, 250cc motorbike, broken soda bottle

9

carbon copy, bookmark, smell of autumn, professor, my graduation thesis, object of my search, bottle opener, old letter, receipt, earpick, Kant, neophytes, tennis shoes, chain-link, coffee cream cookies, footprints, backgammon, pampas grass, sunset, switch panel

beer, trout, burst, dust

10

glass of ice water, flashing beacon, endless repetition, can of beer, several distinct layers, Chinese bartender, Chinese national, China, high school soccer team, jukebox, Wayne Newton, MacArthur, “Poor thing.”, cat, strawberry jam, vise, pancake, soul ballad, falsetto, own philosophy, fragrance of cold autumn air, ocean, seaside road, radio, disc jockey’s chatter

11

morning paper, funeral, fine rain, sky-blue Volkswagen Beetle, milk chocolate, bloodstain, roasted corn, Balzac’s story, Buddhist priest, cotton trousers, mountain road, coffee, cookies, buttercream, coffee cream, maple, a Claude Lelouch film, prayer, Kant

12

first sweater of the fall, thick cotton pants, pair of scuffed desert boots, shoe cabinet, six pencils, pet shop, Abyssinian cats, fur, finest cashmere, Auschwitz, twin-seater torpedo planes, a Jan and Dean song, miniskirt, hot tea, three cookies, Hokkaido, annual office trip, bears, hibernating, great lobster restaurant

strange star, lemon soufflé

13

any old thing, rosebud, lost cap, favorite sweater, old Gene Pitney record, miscellany of trivia, darkness

Spaceship, three flippers, peaceful era, solid-state technology, true fanatic, heartwarming snapshot, Kodak pocket camera, Second World War flying ace, 92,500, blood brothers, like a dream, technique, 150,000, 200,000, pride of the ace pilot, pointless dreams of six-digit scores

14

tinkle of ice against glass, laughter, Jackson 5 on the jukebox, clouds of white smoke, comic-strip balloons, catnaps, dentist’s waiting room, whiskey, six empty bottles, thousands of beers, thousands of orders of French fries, thousands of records on the jukebox, twenty-five, cotton pants, eyeliner, morose

15

occult world of pinball, bottom of dark hole, game arcade, bucket of coins, six zeros, cold and rainy early-winter evening, 105,220, my brief love affair, techniques, heavy duffle coat

February, all-night doughnut shop, girls in gingham uniforms, dry doughnuts, high school kids, motorbikes, night cabbies, die-hard hippies, bar girls, tasteless coffee, hideous concoction, cinnamon doughnut

16

balcony window, windbreaker, T-shirt, black pavement, white fog, hilly residential district, river road to the ocean, orange tablecloth, pots of leafy plants, orange juice, newspaper, stainless steel teapot, three ceramic beer mugs, pencils, rulers, drafting pens, erasers, paperweight, ink remover, old receipts, adhesive tape, paper clips of many colors, pencil sharpener, postage stamps, well-used drawing board, desk lamp with a very long neck, small Scandinavian model made of unpainted wood, milky darkness, bookcase, portable stereo, records,chest, two prints by Ben Shahn, travel books, guidebooks, travelogues, maps, a few best-selling novels, biography of Mozart, sheet music, several dictionaries, French dictionary with an inscription of some kind written inside the front cover, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, relics from her girlhood, Pat Boone, Bobby Darin, the Platters, dark sea, beacon’s orange light

17

voice, pinball enthusiast, catalog junkie

quiet coffee shop, NHK’s seven o’clock news, crying baby, a planet and a spaceship on the back cabinet, Chicago company, Gilbert and Sands, university lecturer fresh out of graduate school, machine of misfortune

business cards, university lecturer, Spanish, sprinkling water in the desert, the Secpnd World War, the Korean War, bomb-delivery systems, peace industry, bingo machines, slot machines, jukeboxes, popcorn vending machines, 1952, Billboard magazine, Soviet Women’s Corp, Mexico, other Central American nations, the United States, the Big Four, Gottlieb, Bally, Chicago Coin, Williams, oligopoly, Chrysler automobiles, Vancouver, Waikiki, the Big Wave, Orient Express, Sky Pilot, TransAmerica, extremely orthodox and simple, enigma, misfortune, true beauty, phantom masterpiece, a small game arcade in Shinjuku, Shibuya, Maltese Falcon, 165,000, ‘Really something.’

18

oddly peaceful and quiet mood, mad buzzing of a dying bee in a pool of winter sunlight, autumn deepened, piles of dry leaves, slender plumes of smoke, botanical garden, mushroom and spinach sandwiches, oaks, black-tailed birds, new sport shirts, olive-green turtleneck, beige cardigan, socks, new sneakers, Santa Claus, October rains, fragrance of wet fallen leaves

tapes of classic jazz musicians, Bix Beiderbecke, Woody Herman, Bunny Berigan, a shot of whiskey, cookie, metal buttons, sport coat, pale pink lipstick, thin sweaters, autumn air

19

leaving town, unbearable sense of futility, certain sense of relief, TV, old Robert Taylor western, commercials, weather report, white noise, shower, no destination, real dread, flashing beacon, clear morning sunlight

fingertips were yellow with nicotine, twelve twenty, gloomy basement, Coke, rotting, each individual’s choices, void, change, walk slowly

20

November holidays, spaghetti, shiso, basil, serious discussion about the art of cooking spaghetti, ginger ale, passing glory, rose-colored glass, optimistic fool beats the alternative

coffee shop, taxi, Meiji Avenue, gray suit, blue necktie with three diagonal stripes, gray sweater, jeans, scuffed desert boots, Waseda Avenue, Mejiro Avenue, list of pinball fanatics, serial number 165020, February 3, 1971,, Goldfinger, university lecturer’s business card, autumn dusk, suburbs

21

pitch black, layered black, darkness, odd perspective, giant night bird with outspread wings, groves of trees, nice bath, open a beer, my Kant, my warm bed, dream

five hundred yards off the road in the middle of an empty field, deep breaths, chickens, faint illumination, dim relief, the edge of the world, fragrance of grass, smell of chicken, warehouse, cold storage for chicken carcasses, blanket of chill, fifty pinball machines, fifty wine labels, animal crouching in the dark, gray walls, gloomy, foreboding structure,, ice cold doors

22

(…)

23

(…)

24

(…)

25

(…)

Summary and Memoir

prologue

‘I’s’ looking back on his 1969. ‘I’ described the decayed scene of his university.

  • The description and situation of this section resembles the world of Norwegian Wood. They are Murakami’s memories of the Japanese student movement.

Naoko talked about memory of her hometown. ‘I’ went alone to her hometown.

Changed the scene, ‘I’ described current his life with twins .

‘I’ talked about Naoko, her background and her family.

‘I’ told this novel begins in September 1973, that’s the entrance, and ‘Sure hope there’s an exit’.

  • But, pinball machine has no exit, so the pinballs became competitive.

On the Birth of Pinball

The history of pinball machine according to Raymond Moloney. In 1934, the first pinball machine invented by Raymond Moloney. The story of his was not dynamic, moved or sad story. But his invented pinball machines had mystical or occultic powers that temper people by numerical exchange for skill and pride.

1

‘I’ tell about the twin sisters stay his apartment, and their characteristics.

Now (1973), ‘I’ and his friend open a small translation company. girl. earn money.

The twins wear the navy blue sweatshirts with the numbers 208 and 209.

2

Descriptions of the Rat’s autumn of 1973, his lonely isolated daily life and situation, and his devastating mind.

3

A morning, a repairman of a phone company visited ‘my’ apartment and changed a switch panel. After his job, ‘I’, twins and the repairman have breakfast of coffee, Danish and boiled eggs. Then the old switch panel left on the floor of ‘my’ apartment.

  • The old switch panel is a symbol of mother or women.

4

Description of the Rat’s regular visits alone to a beach in his childhood.

Description of the Rat’s visits to the woman’s apartment by a sea.

5

‘My’ memories of 1970 according to a pink pay telephone of the apartment and a girl lived on the second floor.

Description of ‘my’ daily life with twins.

6

The Rat’s life of his mountainside perch. Sometimes he see the sign of human activity on the hillside below.

  • The words of ‘a golfer’ and ‘downhill course’ course connected with ‘my’ life?

The first meeting of the Rat’s girl friend. He bought her electric typewriter listed in the Used Goods section on a local new paper.

7

A day, ‘I’ caught cold but he finished his daily work.

After back home, ‘I’ went to bed. And the twins made dinner and play the Beatles’ Rubber Soul record.

8

The Rat went to a cemetery near a crest of mountain with his girlfriend. Descriptions of the cemetery and feelings of them.

9

‘I’ strolled the golf course.

In ‘my’ apartment, ‘I’ and twins talked about the old switch panel.

10

A description of the Rat’s repetitive dull life.
A the Rat’s visiting to J’s Bar. After the visiting, the Rat drove the seaside road, then he viewed the apartment of his girlfriend.

11

A fine rainy Sunday morning, ‘I’ and twins went to a reservoir and held a funeral of the old switch panel. They made and watched the old switch panel sank into the bottom of the reservoir.

12

‘My’ daily work of a Thursday. ‘I’ and the girl with long legs went to a great lobster restaurant.

13

A Sunday evening in October, when ‘I’ and twins sat on the green of the golf course and watching the sunset, anywhy ‘I’ recalled the memories of the pinball machine and it seized ‘me’.

In 1970, ‘I’ and the Rat, especially the Rat absorbed in the Spaceship pinball machine in the J’s Bar.

  • After disappearing the old switch panel, then my searching for the pinball machine began.
  • Recalling of the pinball machine bring about the former part of this story.
  • ‘I’ absorbed in numbers of game.

14

Descriptions of the Rat’s dull daily life and the memory of ‘my’ first visit to J’s Bar in ‘my’ eighteen.

15

In the winter of 1970, during six mouths, ‘I’ enthusiasticaly soaked up the Spaceship pinball machine of a game arcade, identical to the one at J’s Bar.

  • The Spaceship pinball machine is woman.

But the pinball machine disappeared in February. The game arcade was replaced by an all-night doughnut shop.

16

A hard rainy day, again, the Rat drove the seaside and looked the apartment of his girlfriend and recalled the conditions inside her room.

17

In 1973, ‘I’ started to search the pinball machine. And, ‘I’ appointed a pinball enthusiast.

At a café, ‘I’ talked with a pinball enthusiast Spanish lecturer. He talked about the history of pinball machines and the enigma and misfortune of the Spaceship. Then ‘I’ asked the existence of the Spaceship set up in a small game arcade in Shinjuku. But the lecturer didn’t know one’s whereabouts.

18

A description of my private life with the twins in the autumn.

‘My’ days in the translation office were pleasant.

19

The Rat went to J’s Bar after midnight to tell he would leave the town. But he couldn’t tell his real intention, said only ‘I’m lost’.

20

The Spanish lecturer told ‘me’ to he found out the whereabouts of the pinball machine.

‘I’ and the Spanish lecturer went to the suburban Tokyo by a taxi.

21

‘I’ approached alone the chilly dreary silent treatment for warehouse holding fifty pinball machines by a pinball fanatic.

22

(…)

23

(…)

24

(…)

25

(…)

Chapters about ‘me’, total 16, 14 or 12

: (prologue,) 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, (12, 13,) 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, (25)

Chapters about the Rat, total 10

: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 14, 16, 19, 23, 24

Talking with the long leg girl about their annual office trip on chapter 12, or (and) recalling the pinball on chapter 13 is the turning point of this novel.

Analysis and Remark

  • The former part of this novel is the story of old switch panel and the Rat’s love with his girlfriend. The later part is the story of searching for the pinball machine and the Rat’s days of demolition.
  • On this second novel, Murakami’s work entered a state of overflow of signs in consumer society.
  • The Rat’s ruined idle life is meaningless and stagnant. Also ‘my’ life is lifeless and stagnant.
  • ‘I’ hate the centralization system symbolized the switching panel, and but ‘I’ like the game of numbers.
  • Hear the Wing Sing is a story of summer 1970, this novel is a story of autumn 1973, following, A Wild Sheep Chase is a story of winter 1978.
  • The summer went by, the Rat’s mind made sick. In the autumn, it fell in to ruin.
  • This novel is a story about devices, and contains two urban adventure about devices (the old switch panel and the three flippers pinball machine). And the twins are not human, they seem to be pets or marionettes of ‘me’ to cure him.
  • When the old switch panel had disappeared, I remembered the pinball machine. And when ‘I’ had met again with the pinball machine, the twins left for anywhere.
  • Is the pinball machine and old switch panel is a mediator of changing from analogue to digital? Or, metaphor of forgettable things and losers by changing era?
  • The pinball machine seems to be mataphor of memories of the Rat or looser as the Rat, but factually ‘she’ is a metaphor of Naoko or memory of her.

Haruki Murakami Pinball 1973 Vintage Books Relationship Chart

Details of the Book

Wind/Pinball: Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 (Two Novels) (Vintage International)
Haruki Murakami, Ted Goossen
Vintage Books, London, 3 May 2016
256 pages, $16.00, Canada $19.95
ISBN 978-0804170147
Contents

  • The Birth of My Kitchen-Table Fiction: An Introduction to Two Short Novels
  • Hear the Wind Song
  • Pinball, 1973

Related Posts and Pages

Note (EN) | Hear the Wind Sing

Note (EN) | A Wild Sheep Chase

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Note (EN) | Novelist as a Vocation

Book Review | Killing Commendatore

Note (EN) | Killing Commendatore, Book 1

Note (EN) | Killing Commendatore, Book 2

Note (EN) Horned Owl Spreads Its Wings Only With the Falling of the Dusk (Haruki Murakami A Long, Long Interview) with Mieko Kawakami

Timeline of Haruki Murakami

Works of Haruki Murakami

Literature / littérature / Literatur Page

YouTube Haruki Murakami Commentary Playlist

YouTube Literature & Philosophy Channel