1Q84 Book 1 (1Q84, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

May 22, 2012 Ra rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: nypl

Murakami gets two stars because he got me to continue with this overlong drivel and kept me interested enough to finish it, but it was not painless. I had to go through descriptions of a character named Ushikawa (an ugly man with a misshapen head) at least four times. The sex scenes reminded me of bad fan fiction. And near the end it got very insulting when the author entered his voice explaining to me what the characters do not know and what should have been obvious to any even semi-awake reade Murakami gets two stars because he got me to continue with this overlong drivel and kept me interested enough to finish it, but it was not painless. I had to go through descriptions of a character named Ushikawa (an ugly man with a misshapen head) at least four times. The sex scenes reminded me of bad fan fiction. And near the end it got very insulting when the author entered his voice explaining to me what the characters do not know and what should have been obvious to any even semi-awake reader. That said, I was actually fascinated by the mundane descriptions of daily routine; teeth-brushing, can-opening, shirt-ironing, and vegetable chopping, that wasn't the worst part of it, not at all.

The New York Times book review podcast gave good advice when it recommended this book only to die-hard Murakami fans and invited the rest of the population to start with some other Murakami title. It will take me a while though, especially when some reviewers claim that this to be the best Murakami book ever.

So what is all the fuss about. The book starts out with the two main characters. A mysterious woman named Aomame (surname). She is a fitness instructor who has developed her own regime of stretching exercise. But we first meet her as she is carrying out a dangerous assignment. This assignment is in fact criminal but she has her own moral justifications for doing it. The second main character is a man called Tengo (first name), a part-time math teacher, and aspiring writer. Who gets to ghost-write a strange piece of fiction, dictated by a dyslexic 17 year old girl. The piece depicts a paranormal world with two moon, powerful little people, who spin air chrysalises. The fantasy world and the real world soon collide and we discover the threads that join Aomame and Tengo together.

What first starts as an exploration of social issues, wanders to become a story about religious fanaticism and cult, with a dash of paranormal and destiny (I personally prefer Stephen King for that). Then it morphs into a plain old love story with badly written sex scenes. Most of the threads that we followed faithfully for the duration of this marathon diminish into nothingness. Murakami enjoys leaving the loose ends out there for everyone to see, just because he can. Or maybe there is more to the story? Oh dear.

My final advice: If you read this book imagine yourself on a long long cruise to nowhere for the time it takes to finish over 900 pages of this book, because at the end you will not be going very far, just enjoy the ride while you can. The cruise has it good moments. ...more

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