1Q84 #1-2 (1Q84, #1-2)

by Haruki Murakami

This was Tengo’s souvenir photograph of his mother. The ten-second scene was burned into his brain with perfect clarity. It was the only concrete information he had about his mother, the one tenuous connection his mind could make with her. They were linked by a hypothetical umbilical cord. His mind floated in the amniotic fluid of memory, listening for echoes of the past.

Constipation was one of the things she hated most in the world, on par with despicable men who commit domestic violence and narrow-minded religious fundamentalists.

But Tengo’s father never seemed to suffer discomfort from the narrowness and the stagnant air of his cramped little world.

The breeze carried the roar of distant streets like a man-made ocean. The glitter of neon had diminished somewhat now that midnight had passed.

nothing costs more and yields less benefit than revenge,”