murakami, haruki - Norwegian wood

that Nagasawa chose me, a person with no distinctive qualities, to be
his special friend. People I hardly knew treated me with a certain
respect because of it, but what they did not seem to realize was that
the reason for my having been chosen was a simple one, namely that I
treated Nagasawa with none of the adulation he received from other
people. I had a definite interest in the strange, complex aspects of his
nature, but none of those other things - his good marks, his aura, his
looks - impressed me. This must have been something new for him.
There were sides to Nagasawa's personality that conflicted in the
extreme. Even I would be moved by his kindness at times, but he
could just as well be malicious and cruel. He was both a spirit of
amazing loftiness and an irredeemable man of the gutter. He could
charge forward, the optimistic leader, even as his heart writhed in a
swamp of loneliness. I saw these paradoxical qualities of his from the
start, and I could never understand why they weren't just as obvious to
everyone else. He lived in his own special hell.
Still, I think I always managed to view him in the most favourable
light. His greatest virtue was his honesty. Not only would he never lie,
he would always acknowledge his shortcomings. He never tried to
hide things that might embarrass him. And where I was concerned, he
was unfailingly kind and supportive. Had he not been, my life in the
dorm would have been far more unpleasant than it was. Still, I never
once opened my heart to him, and in that sense my relationship with
Nagasawa stood in stark contrast to me and Kizuki. The first time I
saw Nagasawa drunk and tormenting a girl, I promised myself never,
under any circumstances, to open myself up to him.
There were several "Nagasawa Legends" that circulated throughout
the dorm. According to one, he supposedly once ate three slugs.
Another gave him a huge penis and had him sleeping with more than
100 girls.
The slug story was true. He told me so himself. "Three big mothers,"
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