ok so i hated nw lmao i hated the rhetoric surrounding mental health and for me a big part of it was like naoko had little to no value compared to midori bc she was mentally ill. not that that was what murakami was trying to get at but i think it boiled down to that. and the fact that midori got naked in front of her dad's pic or w/e to show him her daughters body??? idk like it was easy to read for me but yeah those things didnt sit right 4 me. what did you think?
Yeah the mental health aspect of the novel is fucked. I don’t bring up the topic of suicide lightly as it’s just not something I think we should just throw out there, if it makes sense? And the fact that Murakami didn’t just discuss one (1) but five (5) suicides in the entire book - that isn’t that many pages to begin with - did not sit well with me at all. Naoko, who literally stuggles with the loss of Kizuki the entire novel, and who is mentally ill, is reduced to how dependant she was on men, and how she lost her wits when one killed himself and the other one found a life outside her. I suspect Toru never really had feelings for Naoko to begin with, he just felt guilty for not being there for Kizuki when he was alive, so he decides to be there for Naoko in every way he can, basically turning into Kizuki to please her.
AND I FUCKING KNOW??? HOW CAN YOU CONTINUE ON SEEING SOMEONE AFTER THEY TELL YOU THAT???? Also, at one point, I was sure Midori lied to Toru about her father dying. Since she’d been so presistent on him taking her to that porno cinema thing and he’d been like “We’ll do it eventually” and she knew that if she just told him something devestating had happened to her, he’d instantly give in and do everything to make her happy. Turns out the father was actually dead but you know… She lied about him being in Uruguay so like… ?????
Also what’s with all the cheating?? Supposdly, Toru was cheating on Naoko with the girls he was sleeping with on the weekends, Nagasawa was cheating on Hatsumi, Midori was cheating her on boyfriend ??? It’s so fucking normal for these characters to cheat that it doesn’t even faze them. It isn’t till Hatsumi scolds Toru for it that he’s like “yeah cheating isn’t cool, I’ll stay faithful to Naoko” but by then he’d already slept with like 10+ women so ????? Bitch lost his only braincell long ago and he won’t get it back ever. Clearly
I did enjoy analysing it afterward, tho! So the spiritual aspect with the Japanese folklore and Reiko supposedly being posessed with Naoko’s spirit towards the end when they have sex (don’t think about the fact that Reiko is literally double his age you’ll get brain damage) and she travels to Asahikawa. Asahikawa in Japanese folklore is supposed to represent a kind of gate between the real world and the spirit world, so by travelling there it’s already implied Reiko is going to die like Naoko. Idk, I like to analyse, even tho the entire book made me very very very frustrated lmao :) RIJIROGRIJW SOZ FOR GOING OFF