5 Stars
Haruki Murakami may well be the most technically gifted story teller in the world today. I am such a huge fan, and love every minute that I spend in his imaginative worlds. His works bend genre lines, and twist between fantasy, science fiction, historical literature, and fairy tale in nature. He writes novels that transport the reader to places that they have never been before. This book 1Q84, is no exception. It is a love story that transcends time and space and questions reality itself. It is an ethereal, imaginative, and lyrical tale about long a lost love from childhood. It is filled with the unexpected, with “Little People”, and with fantastical tales. Many themes persevere throughout this tome, but “Things are not what they seem” lies at the heart of the story.

I am always blown away at how poetic Murakami’s writing is:
“The hothouse air was warm and humid and thick with the smell of plants. Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end. Whenever she came in here, Aomame felt as if she had lost all sense of time.”

It can be lyrical and delicious too:
“Tengo chopped a lot of ginger to a fine consistency. Then he sliced some celery and mushrooms into nice-sized pieces. The Chinese parsley, too, he chopped up finely. He peeled the shrimp and washed them at the sink. Spreading a paper towel, he laid the shrimp out in neat rows, like troops in formation. When the edamame were finished boiling, he drained them in a colander and left them to cool. Next he warmed a large frying pan and dribbled in some sesame oil and spread it over the bottom. He slowly fried the chopped ginger over a low flame.”

There is a great deal of symbolism that is repeated throughout this novel that adds depth and meaning to this story.
“A trace of fatigue was discernible in his voice. “One thing should be perfectly clear. My wife is irretrievably lost. She can no longer visit your home in any form. That is what I am saying.””

The main story contains a great deal of religious overtones, involves cults, and god theology. In a poignant chapter involving Ushikawa and Tamaru, Ushikawa quotes Carl Jung, “Cold or Not, God Is Present!” They then have a philosophical discussion on the meaning of this that coincides well with the pulse of this story.

This is a huge book that is really three books in one. Books numbers one and two are nearly flawless and are a pinnacle achievement from the master story teller Murakami. The concluding third book seemed out of place. It was terribly slow, introduces an unnecessary third POV, and to me, made our protagonists make contradicting character type decisions. Like all Murakami novels there are so many layers that need to be peeled back like an onion to reach the core. The characters are all created and made to seem real, to be likable, and to be identifiable. The supporting cast is colorful and adds a great deal of profundity to this masterpiece. There is a tremendous amount of symbolism and many themes to talk about. Powerlessness might have been the main theme that drove the story forward as all of our protagonists and antagonists suffered from it to one degree or another.

There is simply too much to talk about and to summarize to do any justice to this gem. It is a shame that the third book went in the direction that it did, as this would have been a true masterpiece. To me this was the best written novel of 2011, and will be my favorite of the year. You will be thinking about it long after you finish this massive read. I love Murakami and hope that if you have never read his works before that you will give him a try.

"Ho Ho".