1Q84 Book 1 (1Q84, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

May 07, 2013 El rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, society-went-boom, big-effing-books, 1001-books-list, library-borrow, peer-pressure

There have been a few conversations that occurred in my home while I was finishing this book today. They all involved my boyfriend trying to talk and me yelling "BITCH, C'MON!" To break up some of the monotony of this, occasionally I'd give him a rundown on where I was in the reading process. "C'mon, 100 more pages!" "Babe, just 45 more pages..."

What's funny is to look at what I just wrote makes it sound like I was really involved in this book and he was distracting me from a really awesome stor There have been a few conversations that occurred in my home while I was finishing this book today. They all involved my boyfriend trying to talk and me yelling "BITCH, C'MON!" To break up some of the monotony of this, occasionally I'd give him a rundown on where I was in the reading process. "C'mon, 100 more pages!" "Babe, just 45 more pages..."

What's funny is to look at what I just wrote makes it sound like I was really involved in this book and he was distracting me from a really awesome story and I was gonna cut him. In reality, while it was a fine book, the majority of my ire directed at him and his mouth was that a) this book is due at the library tomorrow and I refuse to extend this check-out and b) I just wanted to finish the fucking book. Sweetie-baby, I promise I will rub your feet when I'm done, just please let me finish this book before my fucking head explodes. Head-explosion doesn't help anyone.

I turned into a dude watching a football game while reading this book. "You can talk all you want if you just let me finish this, I'm almost done, hold on, don't fall apart yet..." Total role reversal in this joint tonight.

So. The thing is that I don't really like Murakami all that much. I've read him, and I continue to read him, but when I'm done I wonder why I took the time. It's not that it's all shit-poor, but there's always something lacking. This is a really long book, over 900 pages, and while normally that gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning, these 900+ pages were sort of... unnecessary. It's filled with a lot of repetitious details, boring sequences that don't move the plot along, and it's like Murakami was trying to pull a David Lynch with this one. And, c'mon, let's be honest. No one can be David Lynch but David Lynch.

It's a crazy story, and it's really no bad, but (like my reviews, ahem) it went on entirely too long. Except, unlike my reviews, Murakami gets paid the big bucks and there's no excuse for it.

I'm sure someone is going to try to make a movie of this at some point and I'll totally see it. It'll be totally Hollywoodized and it'll be like, I dunno, Jesse Eisenberg and Amanda Bynes and I'll hate it. But if it's done right it could be pretty decent.

Whatever, I'm just happy to be done. ...more

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Jan 24, 2012 Christina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, translated

I had this 900+ page book for three weeks with very, very little time to read. I couldn't renew it because someone else had a hold; I realized, in spite of everything that was ingrained in me as a child, I might have to keep this book a few days overdue. I simply could not return it to the library unfinished. On the day it was due, I brought it when I went to work (hardcover, p.s.-not light) and read it on the train, at lunch, and finally finished it on the bus after work on the way to the gym, ...more

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Jul 27, 2013 Tiffany rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: group_read, 1001-books, 1001-books__fromlist

Reading this book is a MASSIVE undertaking, but worth it. It didn't change my life or anything, but it was a trippy (and really, "trippy" is probably the best way to describe it. Maybe "surreal," but I don't think that fully illustrates how... crazy, wild, unimaginable, and ... trippy the book is) fantasy that was worth my time. The prose (whether this is more about Murakami or the translator, I don't know) is often beautiful and poetic, and the imagery and similes are astounding.

The story--In ...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Rachel rated it liked it · review of another edition

You read a long book over several months and it starts feeling like a friend. But when you finish, your relationship is never the same.

There are many "old friends" in this novel for Murakami friends: talking cats, supernatural conspiracies, too-coincidental coincidences, a pretentious liking of classic jazz and plenty of classic literature name-dropping. In Japan, the novel was published in three books, and some reviews said that the third book was a big disappointment. So I stopped reading afte ...more

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Nov 06, 2011 Sophia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, mainstreamfiction, 2011, translated

Here I again encounter the problem with the GR rating system not having half stars -- I've given some truly mediocre books three stars for having an interesting premise, so I need to give this book more than that, but it's not really a great book. Its premise is much better than "interesting", and I'm probably judging more harshly because I read a lot of Murakami this year and I know what he's really capable of doing with his prose. Mostly I think the book suffers from having been written and pu ...more

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Mar 20, 2015 Chrissie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I find that Murakami is incredibly successful at using inexplicably complicated and fantastic worlds to convey he simple truths of life. I suppose we've named this genre. I could have just said magic realism. I never feel like I know WHY things are happening in his book, what the fantasy aspects are meant to convey, or even which aspects are meant to be fantasy, but at the end I always feel something.

This is really 4.5 stars. ...more

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Oct 14, 2011 Liz marked it as to-read · review of another edition

928 pages? I need a vacation with long travel times and a beach to lie on for days at a time.

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Jan 02, 2013 steen rated it it was ok · review of another edition

As a whole, the story was pretty interesting. It was a little drawn out and some parts were just dull. The dialogue was stilted and awkward in a way that would have made George Lucas proud. I made my way through this but only with a relief at having done so; maybe Murakami is not my cup of tea, maybe I just don't "get it". Either way, this was more of a chore than an enjoyment. ...more

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