1Q84: Book Review

After years of seeing 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami in bookstores staring at me, daring me to read it, I finally decided to give it a chance. And what an adventure that was. Keep reading to find out what I thought about it and about

1Q84 Summary

Aomame is headed towards an important rendezvous and is in a taxi that gets stuck on the expressway. She decided to descend down a set of stairs and soon after realized that she might be in an alternate dimension as there are some differences that never happened in the old reality. One of the biggest differences is that in this world there are two moons.

We find out soon after that Aomame is a hired hitman that kills abusive men. Her next job is to kill the leader of a cult that is shrouded in secrecy and mysticism. This job leads her to find out about her childhood crush and how he is also in this same world that Aomame calls 1Q84.

Tengo Kawana is a math teacher and an aspiring writer. He is approached to re-write a novel written by a teenager named Eriko Fukada. After rewriting the novel, Tengo gets caught up in a cult that is searching for Fukada and trying to cover up the exposure of the Little People.

A big plot of the novel is Aomame and Tengo meeting up again in this new reality even though they haven’t seen each other since fifth grade. Will they find each other before the cult finds them? And will they be able to ever go back to their own reality where there is only one moon?

Commentary

This is a novel that is filled with heavy subjects and themes and Murakami doesn’t do the best job handling them delicately. His description of relationships doesn’t feel authentic at times and has left many readers angry.

For me, I do think the reaction is a bit much. While I do agree with the critique, it doesn’t seem intentional. The novel was published in three volumes from 2009 to 2010 in Japan. The translated version was released in late 2011 and was received with mixed reception. One section of the novel was nominated for a Bad Sex in Fiction Award and they aren’t wrong.

The three volumes of this novel make the pacing of this book interesting and overall, hurt it in the long run. There is one main plot that drags from the first page to the last which I wasn’t a fan of. It felt unnecessary and I would have been happy if the novel finished much earlier. The first half of this book is worth reading but after that, my interest dropped.

That is because the goal that one of the characters had was achieved and then she had to wait. Reading about a character waiting for hundreds of pages is not fun and I was surprised I even ended up finishing this book.

Conclusion

After reading my first Murakami novel, I can honestly say it will also be the last time I read a book written by him. From what I have heard, many of his books follow the same overall plot and his writing is slow paced often times.

From my own experience, I wasn’t a fan of his writing style. 1Q84 is a decent novel but it also feels like a fever dream where the dream should be over but it just keeps going. It isn’t a novel I would ever recommend to anyone though. Happy reading!

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