Andrew Markham’s Reviews > 1Q84 > Status Update

Tengo arrived at the cram school and is told he has an unexpected visitor looking to speak with him about an important matter. The man identifies himself as being the director of an arts and culture institute and wants to award Tengo a grant for his work. Tengo senses something fishy about the grant and spends time investigating the strange man.

Aomame returns to the Dowagers’ compound and learns the the Leader of the Sakigake cult has abused at least four young girls. The Dowager then convinces Aomame to kill the Leader and in return, she could have the Dowager’s fortune. On her way out, Aomame has a strange conversation after asking Tamaru for a gun.

Tengo finds a tape from Fuka-Eri in his mailbox saying that she is okay and trying to lie low for a little while. Komatsu calls Tengo later that day to discuss the strange nature of her disappearance. While with his girlfriend, Tengo tells her a little about his new book and declares that he wishes he could rewrite the past and that is perhaps why he is a novelist.

Aomame and Ayumi go out on the town again and exchange information about their childhoods and habits. Ayumi says she’s learned more about the Sakigake cult and that there is likely more to them than they seem. Tamaru calls and sets up a meeting with Aomame for the next day and lets her know the guard dog, Bun, seems to have had a ‘silent explosion’ originating from her stomach and is dead.

Tengo returns to his normal routine of teaching, writing, reading, and meeting up with his older girlfriend in order to lay low while Air Chrysalis is selling like hotcakes. A few weeks into Air Chrysalis being sold, Komatsu calls Tengo to say that Fuka-Eri has been missing for a few days. Tengo says he doesn’t know where she is and worries heavily about her for the next three weeks until she finally calls him.

Aomame continues her research into Sakigake and the related Akbono cult, discovering one member escaped during the gunfight. She decides to call Ayumi to ask her if she can find anything out about them through the police records. Ayumi discovers the cult is buying up lots of land directly surrounding the compound and in cities across the country as well as a pattern of strange behaviour from Sakigake kids at schools.

We learn the young girl’s name is Tsubasa who, like Fuka-Eri, was abused by ‘the Leader’ and fled the Sakigake cult. The Dowager and Aomame agree that it would be best if he were to ‘pass on to the next life’ at some point in the next few months. Aomame returns home and falls asleep to then have a dream of the Little People emerging from an asleep Tsubasa’s mouth and begin working on some project.

We pick up after Fuka-Eri’s successful press interview where Komatsu is guaranteed to be a bestseller with how much hype it is generating. At a lunch with the three original conspirators and the Professor, they discuss how to handle the media wanting to inevitably find out more about Fuka-Eri, her parents, and the Skigake cult. They decide to try to lead the media to learn more for them about her parents and cult.

Aomame begins to fret more and more about the apparent changes to the world around her, most recently the moon. She gets called by the Dowager for another massage and dinner which Aomame accepts. At the end of the dinner, the Dowager takes Aomame to meet a mute 10 year old girl living in the adjacent abused women’s shelter who claims “the Little People” have destroyed her uterus.