1Q84 (1Q84, #2) in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 12, 2014 Bogdan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: asian-flavor

Unfortunately this second volume did not helped the cause of converting me to a fan of Haruki Murkami's works nor the genre itself. I must confess I am slightly disappointing as I saw high praises for this author and this book. It is not necessarily bad, but it seems to be written just because the author likes to do this job. Almost like those annoying people everyone avoids that just love the sound of their voice. If you want to learn more, read on as I dissect this novel.

The premise is the wee Unfortunately this second volume did not helped the cause of converting me to a fan of Haruki Murkami's works nor the genre itself. I must confess I am slightly disappointing as I saw high praises for this author and this book. It is not necessarily bad, but it seems to be written just because the author likes to do this job. Almost like those annoying people everyone avoids that just love the sound of their voice. If you want to learn more, read on as I dissect this novel.

The premise is the week point from this novel. Too many things are happening without an apparent connection with what seems to be the main story: the love between Tengo and Aomame, that started out 20 years before the novel, when they were 10 years old. Still they do extremely little to find themselves although they clearly crave for each other and are lonely persons. Due to this I will give it a 2.

On the form I liked the accessible writing style. But there are also some issues here. Dialogue is very similar from one character to another. Overall it gives the impression of shallowness, so I will give it a 4 for form.

In terms of originality, I have the feeling it is in a sense original. Still, the idea is already worn out by the first volume and this second volume does not bring out too many innovative aspects in the story. I will rate it a 3 at originality.

The characters are in the same line with the first volume, especially as there are only few new characters. They seem to be pretty much indistinguishable one from another, as if they are all different voices from the same person. Especially in dialogues this flaw is obvious. But Haruki creates some likable main characters, that you can easily identify with. Despite it, I cannot rate higher than 2.

Regarding the complexity and difficulty, it gave me the impression that the text is carefully reviewed and corrected over and over again. This is a very difficult process for any writer and I will rate it with a 5 for complexity and difficulty.

In terms of credibility, as the main elements from this universe that are author's inventions are pretty much unexplained, I will rate it with a 2.

The last criteria is edition. I liked the cover and the quality of paper pretty much in line with the high quality editions. Translation is also very well made, allowing the reader to feel as if it reads a first hand novel. Due to all this, I will rate it with a 5.

To summarize, I enjoyed it less than the first volume as the novelty faded. I will probably never be a fan of this magical realism genre. All in all, my final rating for the novel is 3.29, rounding it up to a 3 stars on Goodreads system.


+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Criteria | Rating |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Premise | 2 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Form | 4 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Originality | 3 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Characters | 2 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Difficulty/Complexity | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Credibility | 2 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Edition | 5 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+
|Total | 3.29 |
+--------------------------+-----------------+