"Slow, deep breathing is important… It’s like an anchor in the midst of an emotional storm: the anchor won’t get rid of the storm, but it will hold you steady until it passes.” – Russ Harris

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Norwegian Wood  by Haruki Murakami has been hailed, globally, as his most erotic novels where he traverses the journey of young hearts drenched in passion. Steamy passionate moments definitely form an integral part of the book but what stayed with me was the conversation around mental health through a beautiful storytelling.

 

Life, loss, death, pain; a cocktail of emotions, sometimes too much and sometimes a lack of it. The story brings to life the intense heartache of separation and loss. The immense suffering and pain become an inevitable part of life and as the main characters get sucked into it, life slowly starts slipping away from their hands.

 

Out of the five key characters, three are shown to be struggling with their mental health situation due to diverse reasons. It is not difficult to see how this struggle in one person can wreak havoc on the lives of the near and dear ones and destroy or complicate relationships. The story talks as much about loss as the human spirit to challenge and live.

 

The protagonist, Watanabe, hangs out with his two friends as a teenager, Kizuki and his girlfriend Naoko. Kizuki was his best friend and is the key connection between Watanabe and Naoko. One fine day, as a 17-year-old, Kizuki decides to end his life. For Naoko this is the second blow after her sister, which had happened just a few years back. The two back-to-back losses destroy her from inside, but it is being suppressed for a while till it resurfaces in her life and this time with a monstrous face.

 

Watanabe falls in love with the broken soul of Naoko, but he knows he must wait. He ignores any other worldly attraction that could destroy his chances to have a beautiful life with Naoko, as if he can choose to wait for her forever.

 

He curses Kizuki in the later part of the book for not being brave enough to face life. For taking Naoko to the brink of collapse with his selfish act. And Watanabe curses himself for having no choice but to live on. It was never clear what bothered a seventeen-year-old Kizuki that he chose death over life. But the action of this one person directly impacted two more lives, along with his own family.

 

Naoko lives in a healing place and shares her room with Reiko. Reiko is older and equally broken. Her story was uniquely different. But she was stronger and much braver to deal with her condition. She chose to not give up hope, though she gave up her own family for their sake.

 

Here enters Midori, Watanabe’s friend, the one character who brings in some colours and life to the story. While Midori is no less broken, with a life a bit unusual for a teenager, yet she holds on to the hope of life and living. She is bold, crazy, and carefree. Her broken family, with her dead parents and just one remaining sister, doesn’t stop her from craving to laugh and live a bit. She is like a breath of fresh air, who flows in now and then and removes the air of melancholy. She has got this weird zest for life.

 

The story ends with hope and life winning over gloom and suffering. Naoko’s suffering ends, in its own way. Reiko leaves her past behind and tries to move on in life, and chooses to start her new life with a bold step. And our main protagonist Watanabe finally understands what’s important to him and what he should hold on to. He chooses life.

 

“Even death, faced with the option of death or life, she would choose life.” - José Saramago