Monday, July 9, 2012

Last page of Norwegian Wood

This passage really resonated with me; it's probably my favorite bit from the whole novel. It's funny that endings do that sometimes—a story drags on... and on... and then flowers into something beautiful just as it reaches its close.

Possible spoilers ahead (but not really).
I phoned Midori.

"I have to talk to you" I said. "I have a million things to talk to you about. A million things we have to talk about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning."

Midori responded with a long, long silence - the silence of all the misty rain in the world falling on all the new-mown lawns of the world. Forehead pressed against the glass, I shut my eyes and waited. At last, Midori's quiet voice broke the silence: "Where are you now?"

Where was I now? Gripping the receiver, I raised my head and turned to see what lay beyond the phone box. Where was I now? I had no idea. No idea at all. Where was this place? All that flashed into my eyes were the countless shapes of people walking by to nowhere. Again and again I called out for Midori from the dead center of this place that was no place.