1Q84

After just loving the first three Murakami books I've read, I was excited to finally jump into a fourth this summer- the lengthy 1Q84. It's a novel told in three parts totalling around 1000 pages, detailing the seemingly separate stories of a man and a woman living in Tokyo in the eighties- he, Tengo, an aspiring novelist taking who becomes a reluctant ghost-writer, trying to turn a sloppy teenager's fantasy story into a best-seller; she, Aomame, an assassin working for an elderly woman, seeking to rid the world of particularly abusive men. The chapters here alternate between focusing on Tengo and Aomame, and as you may have guessed we learn the two of them, without knowing eachother, are deeply linked as their stories eventually begin to intersect without the two meeting. Of course it wouldn't be a Murakami novel unless things started to get trippy and surreal, and that's all over 1Q84. Over the course of the book it becomes more apparent to our main characters that they have crossed into some sort of parallel universe where the Earth has two moons, among other smaller changes. You see, apparently the Japanese pronounciation for the letter "Q" is a lot like the pronounciation for "9", so the book's title is a pun for the year the book takes place, only slightly off in this parallel universe. Pretty clever!

 

So how was it? Unfortunately, this was easily my least favorite book of his. The alternating chapters which initially drew me in eventually became kind of annoying- information was often repeated several times as each character finds out more about what's going on, and the forced perspective switches really messed with the pace of the book. In part three a third character is introduced with his own chapters, and while he eventually grew more interesting, his chapters really slowed the pace of the book to a crawl for a while. Content-wise this is mostly an interesting story, but the surreal elements Murakami specializes in didn't work too well here. In previous novels Murakami has featured dream worlds and hallucinations, and given them meaning and the gravity they deserve. Here it just feels like he was throwing a bunch of malarkey out there and I just couldn't suspend my disbelief. I won't let this sour me on Murakami though- the AV Club just gave an excellent review to his latest novel, so I'll pick that up soon.

 

One more thing though- I've been posting that gag bingo chart joking about how Murakami keeps featuring the same images and settings in his novels but 1Q84 was the biggest offender by far. Let's see if it scores a Bingo, shall we?

Mysterious Woman- No. There's a teen girl I'd describe as mysterious, and Aomame might be mysterious to others but she's the main character so I don't think she counts. The rest of the women in the book aren't really mysterious.

 

Ear Fetish- No, and I haven't seen this in any books yet.

 

Dried-Up Well- No, this one was pretty clearly about a previous book of his.

 

Something Vanishing- Ding ding ding! Yes. Several people and things vanish over the course of 1Q84.

 

Feeling of Being Followed- Yes, several times, and the feeling is usually correct.

 

Unexpected Phone Call- Yes, and Murakami even makes a big deal about how Tengo can seemingly sense who is calling him by how the phone rings.

 

Cats- Yes, although only in a fictional story in the book.

 

Old Jazz Record- Yes, repeatedly.

 

Urban Ennui- Not really. Tengo lives the more boring life but he seems happy with it. 1Q84 takes place, like many Murakami books, in Tokyo.

 

Supernatural Powers- Yes, several characters seem to exhibit supernatural powers

 

Running- No running!

 

Secret Passageway- Yes, literally how the book begins.

 

Train Station- Yes, repeatedly- Tengo in particular takes several train trips, even though there's little focus on the stations.

 

Historical Flashback- Close. There's a lengthy passage from Anton Chekhov's travel diary from 1893, but it's not a flashback.

 

Precocious Teenager- Yes, the teenager whose story Tengo re-writes.

 

Cooking- Yes, although you could say a lot of authors focus too much on this (GRRM?)

 

Speaking to Cats- No, although it's really close!

 

Parallel Worlds- YUP.

 

Weird Sex- YUP. REPEATEDLY.

 

Chip Kidd Cover- Yes. I didn't know what this was, but he's a guy who designs a lot of cool looking book covers, including many of Murakami's.

 

Tokyo At Night- Yes, Tokyo is the main setting.

 

Unusual Name- Yes, 'Aomame' is literally what the Bingo card lists as its example unusual name. I think it translates to "Sweet Pea".

 

Faceless Villain- No.

 

Vanishing Cats- No, unless you want to get figurative.

Almost! Just needed some urban ennui!