Relative to his other works, Norwegian Wood is framed as Murakami's most realistic book, both by his own claims and by audience opinion. Yet many elements in it make it feel just as surreal as many of his other stories. The only thing that really separates it from his more surreal works is the lack of explicit supernatural content- elements like sheep men and alternate worlds are absent from Norwegian Wood, and yet its characters and settings are far from what most would consider realistic.
My first read of Norwegian Wood was a few years ago, and at the time I had been going through Murakami's novels one after the other without much prior research. Upon finishing it, I hadn't even noticed the absence of supernatural elements — it felt essentially the same as any of his other books. Only after reflecting on it later and discussing it in class did I register that it was intended to be a realist novel.
I think the reason Norwegian Wood came across this way to me is that Murakami's style is so entrenched in surreality that even his realistic novels end up feeling strange, unusual, and ultimately surreal. What I love about this quality is not just that all of his books feel strange, but that he makes the surreal feel normal. A book like Norwegian Wood might read similarly to one of his more surreal works- but you could also say that his more surreal works read more grounded than they first appear. Whether it's Norwegian Wood or Killing Commendatore, Murakami blends realism and surrealism so seamlessly that even his realistic books occupy that feeling somewhere between the real and the abstract.
Kevin
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