Norwegian Wood

While summer break is underway, the university calls the police to disperse the striking students. The barricades are broken down, and order is restored. When he returns to campus, Watanabe is “thunderstruck” to find everything in perfect order, and he wonders what the protesting students were doing all that time. Even worse, he discovers that the protesters are back in class, taking notes like nothing happened, all commitment to their cause gone. He thinks that Kizuki is “not missing a damn thing” and concludes that his education is “meaningless” (48). However, because he has nothing else to do, Watanabe continues attending school, treating it “as a period of training in techniques for dealing with boredom” (48). Mysteriously, Storm Trooper doesn’t return with the start of the new school year. Watanabe keeps the room clean in his roommate’s absence, but Storm Trooper never appears.

After a History of Drama class, Watanabe goes to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Halfway through his meal, a girl with a pixie cut and dark sunglasses sits beside him. At first, he doesn’t recognize her, and she introduces herself as Midori from his class. He remembers she used to have longer hair, but she tells him she cut it over the summer after a bad perm. He compliments her new look, and she complains that other guys don’t like it; they all prefer girls with long hair. She asks Watanabe questions, teasing him and telling him he talks like Humphrey Bogart. Finally, she asks if she can borrow his notes from class. He agrees, and Midori offers to buy him lunch the following Wednesday.

On Wednesday, however, there is no sign of Midori. Watanabe eats lunch alone as usual, then goes to his German class. Afterward, he looks up Midori’s name on the History of Drama roster, finds her number, and calls her home. A man answers and says Midori isn’t in; she’s probably at the hospital. Hoping she hasn’t been hurt, Watanabe hangs up.

That night, Watanabe visits Nagasawa, who has recently completed his exams to enter the Foreign Ministry and is waiting for his marks. Over the evening, they discuss their plans and aspirations for the future. Nagasawa tells Watanabe that he hopes to be a “gentleman,” which surprises Watanabe, who cannot imagine this desire coming from the selfish and womanizing Nagasawa.

Watanabe doesn’t see Midori in his next History of Drama class, so he writes another letter to Naoko, begging her for a short reply. Midori arrives late and sits next to Watanabe. When the class is interrupted by students hoping to hold a political discussion, she pulls Watanabe out and takes him for lunch at a restaurant near her old high school, a prestigious all-girls institute. Midori tells Watanabe how much she hated the school. All the girls came from rich families, and Midori, who came from more modest means, always felt out of place. As the afternoon wraps up, Midori invites Watanabe to visit her the following Sunday.

On Sunday, Watanabe buys some daffodils and follows Midori’s hand-drawn map to her family’s bookstore. He arrives early, but Midori invites him up anyway, and he finds her cooking an elaborate lunch. He watches her work “in awe” and is amazed by the delicious spread. Midori tells him she taught herself to cook because no one else in her family “gave a damn about food” (68). They talk about Midori’s family, and she tells Watanabe that her mother died of a brain tumor two years ago, and her father moved to Uruguay after losing his wife, leaving Midori and her sister behind.

After lunch, they drink beer on the roof and watch smoke rising from a building fire down the street. Midori plays folk songs on her guitar and tells Watanabe more about her family, saying her parents loved her “somewhere between ‘not enough’ and ‘not at all’” (76). Now, as an adult, she is looking for “perfect selfishness” in love, someone willing to do anything for her. They kiss briefly, and Midori tells Watanabe she has a boyfriend. He admits to being in a “very complicated” relationship but tells Midori he wants to see her again.

Midori isn’t in class the next day, and Watanabe feels especially lonely as he sees everyone out enjoying the beautiful September day. He imagines they are all part of a scene he doesn’t belong to and muses that he hasn’t felt a sense of belonging since the afternoon spent playing pool with Kizuki.

The following weekend, Nagasawa invites Watanabe out to look for women. He agrees, but the two have bad luck. The first women they meet are waiting for their boyfriends, and the next pair leaves to make their curfew. Nagasawa visits his girlfriend’s apartment, and Watanabe goes to an all-night movie theater. He leaves the theater at dawn and goes to a cafe to wait for the first train back to the dorm. As he waits, the cafe fills up, and two women come to share his table. They seem to be immersed in a “serious discussion,” and when one goes to the bathroom, the other asks Watanabe if there is somewhere nearby where they can get a drink. Her friend just learned that her boyfriend cheated and is very upset. Watanabe is surprised because it is 5:25 am, but he agrees to buy the women some sake and drink with them in an empty parking lot. Eventually, the aggrieved woman’s friend has to leave, and Watanabe and the woman go to a hotel. They have sex, and she calls out another man’s name. When Watanabe wakes up later in the afternoon, she is gone.

He tries to call Midori, but no one answers. When Watanabe arrives at his dorm, a letter from Naoko is waiting for him.