1Q84 question

A quarter way through the book and there isn't enough story to support the weight of the tedious descriptions of sexual encounters. A 5:1 ratio would be tolerable but this is about 3:1, making the sex scenes so frequent that they're tiresome. This many lengthy passages about food preparation or taxidermy would be equally boring but no one would argue that quiche or glass eyes make the work edgy.

short answer to channel question: no

He is a male and writes what he knows.
I do not remember anything that counts as pedophilia. Yes he has younger women and older men but not in anything sexual.
The actual pairing may have an age difference but not beyond reasonable.

Bottom line is that many are not about sex and several are more about love. Then again I have more than a few titles to read, and so far will read.

It's so tiring as a woman to read these books. I like his magical worlds and descriptions (to an extent anyway), but literally EVERY SINGLE ONE of his female characters is sexualized in some way, and some of them ARE very young girls. I don't care what "the male experience," is, it's not okay for an older man to be viewing young girls in a sexual way. And what about the kind of incestuous sex in Kafka? Not to mention most of the women in The Wind Up Bird Chronicle were naked in 3/4 of all the scenes. And I guess he has some kink for the woman initiating it? And the rape of Creta Kano as a major plot device for her character?
I'm so tired of Murakami. His imagination is great, but the ridiculous sexualization of all his female characters makes his books dry and not worth reading in my opinion. I'm so sick of old, perverted men thinking that they know women.

Actually, no. But I do get sick of undergrads overusing adjectives and hating on Murakami's genius.

The same rule applies to Kafka on the Shore, btw, where the protagonist is a 15-year-old boy. That relationship is not paedopilia, either, though many readers might find it socially distasteful and certainly it is illegal in many countries (not sure about Japan).

His novels have always toed the line on pedaphilia themes but recently he has crossed those lines with Kafka on the shore and 1Q84. Old man in strange relationship with teen is Murakami trope. Cats and pasta are other tired tropes that he uses.

I can't remember the trainers name but I completely thought that she had been drugged in the orgy scene. but it was never really brought up. A lot of people hate the way that he writes women. I think he must not know too many.

For what it's worth, in this era where literary novels are supposedly dying, or dead -- or something -- Murakami's work seems to me to be a breath of fresh air. It is always quintessentially psychological, deals with the struggle we all have with anomie, and is filled with weirdness and mystery in ways that no other storytelling medium is capable of (maybe Twin Peaks?). I loved 1Q84 and feel it's one of the finest books I've read in years.

As far as the sex stuff is concerned (here in the post 50 Shades era) I found the writing provocative, sensual, and always interesting. Murakami's sex is certainly charged, but it's also generally about a lot more than sex. I wonder if people's problems stem from being so enmeshed in the psychology of things and the open-ended mysteries he presents. Certainly the reader's mind is opened up and in a dream state where so much is possible.

Maybe it's just the male gaze and that usually well described erect penis Haruki manages. Not sure what folks expect. It's the 21st century and there's porn about two clicks from here right now. 1Q84 may be wild, but it's not pornographic. And, honestly, if that sex is boring or distasteful, what do you want?