Norwegian Wood: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

On Monday, Midori is not in class. Toru wonders what’s going on with her and where she is. A few days later, he bumps into Nagasawa in the dining hall. Nagasawa apologizes for his behavior at dinner and tells Toru that Hatsumi relayed Toru’s advice that she should leave Nagasawa. Nagasawa admits that he, too, believes Hatsumi is too good for him.

That next evening, Toru is awakened from a deep nap by the ringing of his phone. He picks it up and finds that Midori is on the other end, asking if he wants to go out. After setting a time and place to meet, Toru hangs up the phone, gets ready, and heads out. He meets Midori at the underground bar they visited last time and orders a drink. Midori explains that she’s just gotten back from a long trip: first she went north to Nara with her boyfriend, and then went south to Aomori alone.

Toru asks Midori about her father’s funeral, and she explains blithely that funerals are a “piece of cake” compared to caring for a sick person—especially for her and her sister, who’ve had so much sickness and death in their lives. After the funeral, she and her sister got drunk together and decided to close the shop and enjoy their lives for a little while. Momoko decided to stay at home with her fiancé, while Midori went to Nara with her boyfriend intending to “fuck like crazy” for a few days. But Midori got her period as soon as they arrived, and, after a big fight with her boyfriend, they parted ways. Midori hasn’t seen him since and admits that the whole time she was traveling around, she thought of no one but Toru.

After drinks, Toru and Midori go to a run-down porno theater in the busy Shinjuku district. They watch a dark S&M flick, and Midori cheers along as the violent action on-screen unfolds. At intermission, Midori looks around the theater and remarks how charmed she is by the idea that every man inside it has an erection. After the second movie bores Midori she asks Toru if they can leave, and they go to another bar for more drinks. After they leave the bar, Midori needs to use the bathroom. Toru pays for her to use a public toilet but is worried when she doesn’t come out for a long time. Eventually Midori emerges and admits she fell asleep on the toilet. Toru suggests that it's time for her to go home, but Midori says she doesn’t want to, then asks Toru to take her to a disco.

As Midori dances, her mood improves—but soon she says she’s hungry. At a nearby restaurant, Midori eats six slices of pizza. Toru offers to take her home, and the tired Midori at last agrees. Back at Midori’s apartment, Midori shows Toru to their family’s Buddhist altar and tells him that the other day, she placed her father’s picture on it and got naked. Toru asks why Midori would do something like that, and she tells him simply that she wanted to show him “the daughter [he] made.” Plus, she admits, she was slightly drunk. After Toru lights some incense, Midori bids her father’s picture goodnight, and adds that she hopes he and his wife have been reunited in heaven and are “really do[ing] it.”

After taking turns in the bath and changing into pajamas, Midori and Toru spread out a mattress in front of the altar and lie down together. Midori asks Toru to say something that will make her feel good. He tells her she’s cute. Midori asks Toru if he’ll take care of her, and he promises that he will. Toru holds Midori until she falls asleep. Unable to sleep himself, he gets up from bed, drinks a beer, and stays up reading throughout the night. In the morning, he leaves Midori a note and heads home, falling into a leaden sleep as soon as he hits the mattress.

As the weeks go by and October turns to November, Toru and Naoko continue exchanging letters. Naoko says she often feels lonely, and that when she hears the trees swaying in the autumn wind, she believes it is her sister and Kizuki trying to talk to her—they must be lonely too, she thinks. Three days after his birthday, Toru receives a package from Naoko containing a maroon crewneck sweater. Both Naoko and Reiko have enclosed letters in the package explaining that they worked on the sweater together and wishing Toru a happy 20th birthday.