#it... but ACTUALLY he secretly printed himself out a copy to study in private to compare to his own notes bc

[dbphantom]

maybe i should have gone into practical effects instead of computer science...

[bentchcreates]

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Seemingly unimpressionable Aomame finds herself living in a world that is almost unchanged except that there are now two moons in the sky. A writer, Tengo, notices the same, and notes its similarity to a fantasy book he has secretly ghostwritten. As the fine line between reality and fantasy blurs, a unique love story between the two blossoms and in time, they must find a way out of 1Q84 to escape the clutches of a mysterious religious cult that pursues them for something neither wants to give up.

I had put off starting this for so long because look at it! Haha! To say that I was intimidated by its size is an understatement. But like what my cousin – who absolutely adores all Murakami stories – said, this was such an experience. 

*also, I loved my cousin’s gorgeous hardcover copy so much, it’s graced my IG a bunch of times. heehee

This is my second Haruki Murakami book after Colorless Tsukuru so I was somehow familiar with his subtle integration of fantasy elements in a seemingly contemporary setting. I also know very little about Japanese culture, especially in the year 1984 so I will admit that there were parts of it that I didn’t fully grasp, or have completely flown over my head. Still here’s are my thoughts (also, mild spoiler alert!):

The femininity and sexual fluidity of Aomame. I will use the term sexual fluidity loosely here because Aomame is straight for the most part of the narrative, but as the blurred reality unravels around her, the readers are shown more of Aomame’s background and preferences. I didn’t want to point it out too much –because love is love, and I feel like Aomame’s lesbian trysts were borne out of love – but this book’s nonchalant presentation of it, of a woman comfortable with her sexuality like this, is notable.

Tengo’s complacence and his eventual longing to break the monotony of the life he had built around himself. As with Colorless Tsukuru, Murakami’s male lead here isn’t dead but isn’t actually living. He’s going through the motions. And Murakami shows in this story that it isn’t particularly bad if one chooses to live like this. There’s a reason why people would choose this and although boring, it makes sense. Ultimately Tengo makes a choice to leave it behind, to risk it, and I’m happy it doesn’t all go to waste in the end.

Complexity of characters. Tengo and Aomame’s depth of character were magnificently portrayed in this book. As well as  the supporting characters like the dowager, Tamaru, Ayumi (huhu), Komatsu, Fuka-Eri and Ushikawa. I also felt that Buzzcut and Ponytail were distinctly Japanese but maybe that’s just because they remind me of anime goons a lot.

Magical realism.  I will admit that I’m drawn more to books/stories where the magic is straight up fantastical and flashy, but the subtleness of the magic here is an artform. I can’t claim to understand and make sense of everything (i.e. what are the maza and dohta and what exactly do they do???)but maybe that’s how the author wants it to be? Reality is whoozy in the world of 1Q84 so my real-world logic must not apply.

Ushikawa. I was ready to sympathize with him because Murakami have drawn out his character so much, even giving him his own POV in the third book and then ~the end~ happens!? Argh. To this day I don’t know what I feel about that.

The romance. This is not in the same alley as the romance books I normally devour but it is successful in making me root for the characters and feel what they’re feeling. Murakami also painfully teases the reader, putting a lot of situations where they should’ve already met, and then twists it so they won’t meet yet. Agh! I actually had to cheat at one point and skimmed the last few pages for me to know the outcome. I’m not going to say what happens but for someone like me –who absolutely hates spoiling the story by getting to the end first – to take a peek at the endings, I have Murakami’s compelling writing skill to blame.

I understand why people tag this as a difficult read. It took me 8 months to finish all of it and I had to read other books in between for breaks. It’s not so much because the narrative is boring or is particularly bad, it’s just so long and winding. There’s a part here where Tengo was reading something from an encyclopedia (or something) about a group of indigenous people, I don’t know, and I skipped it. It might have something to do with the story, and underlying theme or what not, but I got so frustrated that I felt like I was reading it too slow so I did away with it. No regrets.

5 of 5 Stars. Why a perfect score, you may ask. Well, why not? I don’t think I will ever understand why it had to drag for so long, for a bunch of subthemes to just suddenly be there without direct importance to the plot, but there is no denying that Haruki Murakami has worked on this artfully. Maybe the reader’s frustration is deliberate to express the craziness of the parallel world; maybe it was there to distract us from the fact that Tengo and Aomame’s worlds are converging under our very noses. But when it starts to fall into place, when you’re at the edge of your seat at full attention to what is happening to the characters (this is after you power through 75% of the trilogy, I’m sorry to say) then it becomes clear why Murakami is such a prolific writer with fans all over the world, despite the mixed reviews this book is getting.

Blurb:

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.  As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector. A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s — 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

Buy Links:

Kindle EBook: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LROUW2/

Print copies are available in leading bookstores worldwide.

About the Author:

Murakami Haruki (Japanese: 村上 春樹) is a popular contemporary Japanese writer and translator. His work has been described as 'easily accessible, yet profoundly complex'. He can be located on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/harukimuraka... Since childhood, Murakami has been heavily influenced by Western culture, particularly Western music and literature. He grew up reading a range of works by American writers, such as Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan, and he is often distinguished from other Japanese writers by his Western influences. Murakami studied drama at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he met his wife, Yoko. His first job was at a record store, which is where one of his main characters, Toru Watanabe in Norwegian Wood, works. Shortly before finishing his studies, Murakami opened the coffeehouse 'Peter Cat' which was a jazz bar in the evening in Kokubunji, Tokyo with his wife. Many of his novels have themes and titles that invoke classical music, such as the three books making up The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: The Thieving Magpie (after Rossini's opera), Bird as Prophet (after a piano piece by Robert Schumann usually known in English as The Prophet Bird), and The Bird-Catcher (a character in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute). Some of his novels take their titles from songs: Dance, Dance, Dance (after The Dells' song, although it is widely thought it was titled after the Beach Boys tune), Norwegian Wood(after The Beatles' song) and South of the Border, West of the Sun (the first part being the title of a song by Nat King Cole).