February 25, 2015
I had previously mentioned wanting to read a contemporary work by an Asian author. I saw a poll about Murakami's works on Buzzfeed; this hefty novel was the top ranked. Intrigued, I decided to give this internationally renowned Japanese author a try.
1Q84 is quite a polarizing text. People seem to love it or hate it. Even fans of Murakami's other works weren't necessarily taken with this one. I found this book fascinating, and definitely unlike anything I've read before. At its core, it is a love story. Does it really matter what the Little People or the air chrysalises represented? I personally don't think they represent anything, they're just factors in this bizarro dimension that Aomame and Tengo find themselves in.
I feel like it would take way too long to summarize this book, so I'll keep it brief. The two main characters, Aomame and Tengo, grew up feeling alienated from other people. As young children they'd formed a bond with each other that neither of them ever forgot, even when their lives went in opposite directions. But as adults, they were both lonely in their lives, solitary creatures. I connected with both of them for that reason, that they don't really feel connected to anyone, even though they both live in the biggest city in the world.
Both of them end up passing into a new dimension. Aomame crosses over after climbing down an emergency stairwell from an expressway during a traffic jam. She begins to notice subtle changes in the world around her, then bigger ones, like the fact that there are two moons. This world, which she calls 1Q84 (as opposed to 1984, the actual year in the "real" world), is kinda run by these Little People, who can shape people's realities. Anyway, Tengo separately gets involved with the Little People through Fuka-Eri, a young author (I think she's a dohta, which I'm not even going to explain here) who writes of her experiences with the Little People.
There's a cult involved in the situation, and Aomame and Tengo separately piece together the facts about this strange dimension. They eventually find each other, and climb out of 1Q84, to find themselves in what is probably yet another dimension. But they feel hopeful, because they are finally together.
It's frustrating to try to succinctly sum up this book. It's just so out of the ordinary, but in a good way I think. Some readers expressed frustration at Murakami's overly detailed descriptions. I personally don't like a ton of physical description about characters because it actually makes it harder for me to imagine them, but I do appreciate background information, especially since it was ultimately important to the plot. I did roll my eyes when Aomame was described as having no excess fat on her body, but when I got to know more about her, I figured out why that would be the case. Some readers were turned off by the repetition of some ideas, but it's important to keep in mind that 1Q84 was published in three separate parts. It does seem repetitive in one go, but his Japanese audience, reading it in separate installments, might have appreciated that.
Aomame and Tengo were not the only interesting characters. Some chapters follow Ushikawa, a grotesquely ugly man who is sort of a PI for the cult called Sakigake. Poor Ushikawa is kind of like the other two in that he wasn't really loved by his family, and that he's lonely as an adult. The difference here though is that he made some bad decisions that decided his fate, like getting disbarred for illegal practices and losing his wife and children. Still, he's a pitiable character, and his death at the hands of Tamaru is kind of tragic.
Tamaru is a character that I'd love to read more about. He's a badass bodyguard, but also an intellectual and very literate. His being gay is really neither here nor there, as it should be. I'd totally read a book revolving around him; I thought at first that he'd turn on Aomame at some point, but he was a good friend to her straight through.
I'd recommend this book cautiously. Readers with more conventional tastes, with the need to have everything tied up neatly with a bow, would hate this book. But readers looking for something different, something surreal, would have some appreciation for what Murakami has crafted here.
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