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1Q84 13: Book 3 - Chapters 1-5
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Kristi
(last edited May 19, 2013 07:21PM)
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May 19, 2013 07:20PM
What did you think of this section, the beginning of Book 3!
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Ushikawa is a spooky little guy who can happily go under your skin to get the information he wants. I am afraid to post anything more detailed because of the spoilers (I am done with the book), but I think it is brave of Murakami to introduce a new narrator (not a new character) in the final part of the book. I had a distinct feeling in the third part, that one can feel that the book was serialized because the mood and the intention of the narration changed. But I will save my more general observations for the final discussion of the novel.
So Aomame decided NOT to commit suicide. Good, because when I saw Ushikawa's narration in the first chapter, I thought that was it for her. I like Ushikawa a little more now that I am learning his way of thinking. His intuition is perhaps a little far stretched to be able to get on the right track so fast AND even finding out about Aomame's connection to Ayumi, but I am willing to take it at the face value. I'm pretty disturbed by the mysterious NHK collector. He's like a ghost behind the door we can't see, but who knows us eerily well. I don't think he's with the cult; otherwise they wouldn't need Ushikawa's assistance to find Aomame. Perhaps he has a connection to the crazy world of Little People.
Andrea wrote: "So Aomame decided NOT to commit suicide. Good, because when I saw Ushikawa's narration in the first chapter, I thought that was it for her. I like Ushikawa a little more now that I am learning his ..."The NHK collecter is indeed disturbing, mysterious, and very, very persistent. He also sounds quite threatening. He is also a certain metaphoric link between Aomame and Tengo.
I do hope that Aomame and Tengo finally meet. I don't really care if they have a successful relationship after (it's not a romance novel anyway); even if they get to see each other for a moment, that would be great. Fuka-Eri's way of talking annoys me so much! She talks like she has no soul. Maybe it's because she left her dohta behind?
Also, I am pretty sure "dohta" stands for daughter and "maza" is obviously for mother. It's great that the translator left those words in Japanese-English, rather than translating them, because I didn't clue in right away. I'm wondering why Murakami chose to give these characters a "mother/daughter" connotation, rather than let's say "sisters" or something more spiritual, like "soul" or "doppelganger".
Andrea wrote: "I do hope that Aomame and Tengo finally meet. I don't really care if they have a successful relationship after (it's not a romance novel anyway); even if they get to see each other for a moment, th..."Has it something to do with Fuka-Eri's limited linguistic abilities? I was listening to the book, and initially it was quite confusing :-)
Andrea wrote: "I do hope that Aomame and Tengo finally meet. I don't really care if they have a successful relationship after (it's not a romance novel anyway); even if they get to see each other for a moment, th..."Has it something to do with Fuka-Eri's limited linguistic abilities? I was listening to the book, and initially it was quite confusing :-)
I'm not sure what it is bothering me about her. Maybe it's her forward nature, combined with the emotionless speech that make her look like a robot (or zombie, or whatever). I'm probably too hard on her, but like I mentioned in one of my earliest posts, Murakami's female protagonists often drive me nuts :)
Zulfiya wrote: "I had a distinct feeling in the third part, that one can feel that the book was serialized because the mood and the intention of the narration changed."I wonder if this is because the translator changed. I noticed that the writing style changed quite a bit for this third section (and I like it better!) but I just assumed it was because a new person did the translation, not any intent by the author. Kind of makes me wish I knew Japanese so I could see if there is such a difference in the original text.
Andrea - I had the same thought when I saw Ushikawa's narration: that Aomame was toast. But now he is rotating three narrators, which is a good change, I think. It's definitely interesting to see things from his POV - from the first two sections, he seems like such an awful person, but now he seems to be pretty reasonable.I also had the same thoughts about his ability to guess what was going on without enough clues (or at least, I didn't think there were enough clues). This has happened at least one other time in the book, where someone makes a guess at what is happening and is EXACTLY CORRECT (though I can't remember exactly when, I just remember being annoyed by it). Not believable if you ask me.
I enjoyed this section. I agree with most of the comments above, especially regarding the NHK collector. I see the point about him knocking on a random door to scare all the other building tennants into cooperating, but I find it suspicious that he "randomly" picked Tengo and Aomame's apartments.I'm also surprised that no one has mentioned the raven yet. This is the third time it has shown up -- I'm starting to think it is a spy from the little people somehow.
I guess my biggest problem right now is that I feel like all of this could have been prevented had Aomame just gone home after working with Leader. I think this whole setup that the old lady did with clearing out Aomame's apartment ahead of time, setting up the safe house, planning for her new life, etc is causing more problems than it is solving. After all, had they found Leader dead, contacted Aomame and asked her she could have said "What?! Oh my god that's awful! No, he was definitely alive when I left, sore from the exercises but he was fine! The poor man, having a heart attack, how sad for all his followers!" But instead, it's obvious she had a part in it because she just ... vanished. So now they will all come after her with a vengeance.
Deana wrote: "I'm also surprised that no one has mentioned the raven yet. This is the third time it has shown up -- I'm starting to think it is a spy from the little people somehow."May I comment on the raven when we are done with the book? :-)
