1Q84 by Haruki MurakamiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
925 pages, two main characters, two moons, two parallel universes, eight minor characters, and five or six more even more minor characters, countless literary allusions, and more than enough sexual references this book rambled on and on and on. If you are a student of writing fiction and want to know how to write descriptions and details and prose that draws the reader, take out this book and just study. Mr. Murakami repeats and re-expresses many of the same themes over and over but in a way that just drags the reader along in a timeless fashion.
It is a love story, a detective story, a murder-mystery, a social satire and commentary set in 1984 Japan that resembles modern day USA so closely that if the Japanese named characters weren't eating udu noodles and miso, you would think they lived in New York City. If Murakami wasn't a novelist, he certainly could get a job as a soap opera writer. Just as you thought the story line was reaching a climactic turning point, he threw another detail into the story told from the alternating perspective of the lovers, Aomame and Tengo, that just kept you reading.
Two complaints. One, it was just too long! 925 pages. Really! I think it was originally published in three separate books in Japan, so I can see the need for some repetition, but once it was combined into the large tome published in the USA, the translators should have edited it better because the rambling and the details dragged the less than substantial story down.
Secondly, I still don't know what really was intended by the author. It was a good story, but somehow I think there is suppose to be more, and I am afraid that somehow I am overlooking it. What was the message? What was the connection to Orwell's 1984? These are the questions, I am still asking.
The length stopped me from giving it 5 stars. It was an enjoyably well written book.
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I love the concept of parallel universes in a book, but I really dislike getting to the end (especially of a looong book) and being unsure if the author meant something, nothing, or somewhere in between. It's not satisfying, and I want to be satisfied, darn it!! LOL
ReplyDeleteI loved this book! It was one of my favorite reads of last year. I think the book was about loneliness, love and passion. Both Aomame and Tengo had this deep connection that linked them together, regardless of the fact that they may never be together (which could not happen! They had to be together!!) and because of this bond, they were never truly alone and were experiencing love and passion with one another on a different level. Plus, they used their loneliness and channeled it into other passions, which wound up bringing them together. Of course, who knows what Murakami really wanted to say with this book. I'm just sharing what I got from it. All I know is that I loved the book and those two characters haunted me for days after.
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