1Q84 [Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Upfront caveats:1. I did not know who Murakami was prior to selecting this book from Amazon's best of the month list and then reading of his oeuvre.2. Its surprising that I elected to read it after reading "about" it. My reading preferences trend toward densely detailed non-fiction (think Robert Caro and Doris Goodwin Kearns) or complex, intensely human and often "spiritual" fiction (think Dostoevsky or Marilyn Robinson). I do not generally enjoy science fiction or fantasy works.That said, and to my surprise, I really did enjoy this book. It is not a great "novel" and I am not sure it can even be characterized as a novel, unless its unique style results in a redefinition of the genre. What it is is a great story, thematically thin and deceptively simple in its telling, yet compelling in its hold on the reader. In fact, a better word than compelling would be "propelling". The short chapters made of short paragraphs, that alternate between the destined-to-intersect worlds of the two protagonists, and a third Colombo type investigator, move swiftly and purposefully carrying along the reader like a passenger on a steadily moving train on an express route free of stops or stations to pause or ponder along the way. It doesn't matter that its obvious from the very beginning that the story's denouement will be the union of the two detached and lonesome lovers. In this case, it's not the destination, it's the ride.I'll not dwell on the plot elements. If you've read the reviews you know they involve a detour into a parallel world where the main characters' lives are seemingly being controlled at first by human outside forces of cults and ideologies and then by seemingly super-natural ones evidenced by night time visits by Little People and a sky with two moons. Ultimately the story is a love story that involves two loners destined to be united, after, and by, surviving forces of apparent good and evil that turn out to be ambiguously neither. In that sense,it seems, their story is everyman's.Murakami is a great maker of moods. The first chapter had such a wonderfully mysterious quality to it that I was more than a little let down as the more mundane elements of Book One unfolded. I felt then that the book was a lot more "ordinary" than its beginning suggested. But as the story progressed, the air of mystery returned to color the seemingly more mundane events and ultimately to create a rich and sustained sense of other-worldliness.At times, the book seems to border on pulp fiction, particularly when describing the protagonists' kinky or casual sexual encounters and escapades. I suppose the point of these seemingly superfluous curiously unerotic episodes was to depict how actually loveless were the solitary lives of Tengo and Aomeme before their childhood memories of each other were reawakended from the past due to external forces in their newly shared "other" world. In that sense, I suppose, the sex was like exercise and eating, a necessary physical ritual in their respective work a days lives that was scheduled in on a regular basis, but really not anchored to anything permanent or fulfilling in the deliberately then "single" lives of Tengo and Aomeme.Aside from those odd interludes, and maybe even intending, for this purpose, to include them, the author magically mixes the mundane and the fantastic to create a surreal world where the most ordinary things intersect with supernatural ones in the course of single day or even a single paragraph.To me, Murakami (at least in this the only of his works I have read) is less a great novelist, and more a master of the craft of story telling. His style is quite simple, or more likely, his skill is his ability to make it appear simple. For a book of nearly 1000 pages, it was one of the most quickly reading books I've read in recent years. While I have read much criticism in these reviews of the level of repetition, I was not bothered by that. This is not a "subtle" or profound book, and the reader is not asked to ponder what came before and what that may mean in the context of what lies ahead. Its more like a tale you "listen" to on the edge of your bed or by the side of a burning fire (and I think the audio version would be mesmerizing), without stopping to consider its meaning and course and, in that context, the repetition of the facts you learned along the way actually help to create its uniquely propulsive reading quality- no need to stop and look at the map; the author's gps will remind you where you've been and in fact foretell what lies ahead. All you need to do is sit tight and enjoy the ride.

When sitting down to begin reviewing this novel, many conflicting opinions and ideas have flown through my mind. On a technical level, this book almost fails: the translation can be rough, the plot is often slow and tends to drag, and the characters seem unrealistic and detached. If we were going off of that purely basic merit, I'd probably give this book 3 stars, maybe 3 and 1/2 because I consider myself a Murakami fan. But, in the end, I cannot do that, because, against all odds, the whole of this novel is much greater than the sum of its parts.1Q84 by Haruki Murakami is about two people living in Tokyo, 1984. Aomame is a powerful, liberated woman who delivers justice in her own vigilante style. The other, a reticent genius named Tengo Kawana, is involved in a controversial behind-closed-doors deal to ghost write a novel. These plots seem to be totally unrelated, but over the course of the year 1984, Tengo and Aomame's paths cross, and maybe not just for the first time.When you read that summary, however, worry probably comes to your mind. The first seems decently interesting, but doesn't the second one come off as kind of... I don't know, bookish and academic? Unfortunately, yes. And, to be honest, Tengo's story line is probably the backbone of the novel: most of the mysteries stem from that one and a lot of the action occurs involving it. Often times, over the course of the novels 3 long "Books", or sections, the plot seems to drag as the narrative jumps through time to describe even the most minute details. The pace can be deadly.However, as fatal as it feels while reading it, looking back from the end of the novel, the slow movement sort of makes sense. Murakami deftly covers all the small, seemingly unimportant things the exact same way he covers the monumental, the magical, and the life changing. The narratorial voice is definitely detached throughout the novel, but it needs to be that way to present some of the more fantastical and surreal elements in such a wholly realistic way. The presentation of these elements is so powerful that it will have you searching the world around you for evidence of its existence. Beautiful.The Translation, however, can be quite *wonky*. I don't know how else to describe it. The book was translated by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel. Jay Rubin has translated a surplus of Murakami's other work, so I'm inclined to believe that it was Mr. Gabriel who dropped the ball a bit. Nothing major, it's just that here and there, sentences get awkward and often fall into the classic "Subject-Verb-Object" style of sentence. This isn't gramatically incorrect or unclear, however, it does make the dialogue sound stilted and the descriptions to sometimes be overblown and almost campy or mock-literary.A note to potential readers: this book is explicit. When I say "explicit", I mean it heavily feautres rape, incest, gratuitous sex, lots of description of genitalia, violence, some mild drug use, and, of course, some language. Wow. That's a long list! But, as a 17 year old male, I'm not too too offended by the inclusion of this. In fact, some scenes had me smiling at the outright gall of Murakami to include what he did in this book, and not only throw it in for the purpose of being racy, or to just develop a theme, but to actually create and strengthen a plot thread. Murakami is one of the only authors I've read that can marry despicable violence with the commonplace beauty of butterflies and kind words.This is a monstrous novel. The first edition, hardcover copy (which I assume most people will be reading until the three-book paperback box set comes out-- which I will be purchasing) is 925 pages long. In my opinion, this story could have been told in 100-200 pages less. During the first "Book", the length really bugged me. But at a certain point during Book 2, right after one of the most climatic and intense scenes in Murakami's opera, I kind of just settled into the story and let it take me where I wanted to go. Patterns emerge, irony and parallelism surface, and everything falls to the beat of the drum. ("Ho, Ho" as the Little People say.)One final thing that I find particularly extra-ordinary about this book is that it not only confused the heck out of me, but then it proceeded to clarify things and generally increase the range of my thought process. This is very deep, philosophical, mind-expanding stuff-- if you let it be. Once you get yourself into this book, truly fold yourself between its sentences and wrap yourself in the blanket of the plot, the deep stuff starts coming to you and you'll be wondering about Cat Towns, Little People, Two Moons, Cults, and everything else in this novel.But at the end of the day, in spite of all the craziness, this novel is a love story about two people searching for each other in today's hectic modern world (errr-- well, the modern world of 1984, but its close enough!). The Theme is vast and expansive, but there is something for everyone to relate to here.In conclusion, I would like to share with you an episode form my life. I have a friend who is also my age and loves to read, and we often discuss modern literature. She, a huge Victorian fan, feels that it's kind of going downhill. I tend to be more modern in my tastes, but for a while, I understood what she was saying. However, 1Q84 has actually started to change my mind on the subject. Murakmi has such a powerful sense of interlinking and parallellism, ironic situations, metaphors, and over-arching allegories.Let yourself get lost in this novel. If you hate it, I'm truly sorry. But try not to focus on the bad stuff... the technical level failures-- anyone can screw those up. Instead, I encourage you to get excited and happy about the good things this book has to offer: the powerful mythos, the advanced literary techniques, and hope for the future of literature as a whole. Murakami for the Nobel Prize! Woooo! (okay, I'm getting a little ahead of myself here.)Like I said earlier: If I was basing this off of the little things in the book, this review would be about 3 stars. But, my personal response to this book has been amazingly positive. Halfway through it, I went out and bought a second copy so I could keep it nice on my shelf for years to come. It's that kind of book-- lasting. And because it fights so hard to do what it wants, because it made me feel amazing while I read it, and because it's highs are so much better than it's lows are worse, I couldn't give this book anything but 5 Stars.A lot of people will dislike this book, but that's okay. Because those who do like it, will like it a lot. Just for the chance to like something as much as I enjoy this novel, I encourage you to try this book. You won't regret it.

This will undoubtedly be Murakami's epic. Not only because it's a bear at almost 1000 pages, but because it's his best book. I thought his last piece of fiction, 'After Dark', was rushed and featured too many characters. This didnt allow his characters to develop like Murakami is known for.The exact opposite is true of 1Q84. He focused on two main protagonists and let them simmer like a grand stew, slowly bringing out their flavors over time. His meticulous details help us understand who his characters are and how they live in the world. This can be trying at times like when something suspenseful is around the corner and Murakami is taking his time setting up the scene, but it's worth it in the end, because once you get there, the details are clear and you better live in the scene.I do dock him points for introducing Ushikawa as a lead near the end of the book - it felt like a cop out and disrupted the flow a bit. I understand he needed Ushikawa's perspective to move along some plot elements, but Ushikawa was extremely interesting and could have lived throughout the whole book.For Murakami fans, 1Q84 is a must. This is the one book that will represent Murakami as time passes.

The physical book is very good. I wanted to get the slightly more expensive and nice looking version because it's very long and I don't want to spend that much time with an ugly book. This book is definitely not ugly. The cover is very good and the font is readable. Not to big or small. The book is also very floppy. I prefer books like this as it makes it easier to turn the pages and stops the spine from creasing. I knew that I would probably enjoy this book because I've read his other stuff and loved it. I would definitely recommend reading some of his other shorter books before committing to this one just to make sure that you like his writing. I've read the wind up bird chronicles, Norwegian wood and after dark and they were all great. I'm excited to read this one. His writing style feels so engaging and you make connections in your head. Murakami never holds your hand and leaves you to interpret things. This is really refreshing as lots of modern media tells you everything and treats you like your stupid.

I can't say this is Murakami's best. It was a good and entertaining read, nevertheless.

After hearing a lot about Murakami and being enticed by this book's premise, I really wish I could've given it more stars. This is my first Japanese book, and I confess I don't have great knowledge about Japan's culture, two factors that may have contributed to a lower score. However, upon reading a few reviews, I believe that most of the issues I had with the story are "international issues".This edition, containing the three books that form the 1Q84 trilogy, starts quite promising with the first book and a handful of intriguing plots, points of view and dialogue. I looked past things that bothered me a bit in that first portion because, certainly, they must serve a purpose. Right? Wrong, and this sense of aimlessness, of lack of purpose, of - borrowing Murakami's overused expression - "vacuum", is 1Q84's greatest crime.The fantastic elements are compelling, but just like in the fictional novel Air Chrysalis, they lack depth. The romance between Tengo and Aomame, which should've been the focus of the story, is not only unbelievable (in the bad sense of the expression) but also is left hanging during almost the whole story and, as predicted, ends up devoid of emotion - and this is especially painful for someone like me who adores soul mate stories. The sex scenes and general erotism rank among the worse I've ever read and I'm not ashamed to say I skimmed past most of those scenes; it's not like they serve any (narrative) purpose anyway. In short, in almost one thousand pages, Murakami says and shows virtually nothing. 1Q84 could've easily been told in two books, especially when you consider the nothingness that was the third book. And still, I read all of those pages (well, technically all of them). Murakami does know how to write. The problem is just that he didn't have anything to say here or, caught up in the mess of his own creation, forgot to include a meaning. And this just makes the whole reading sadder.

1Q84 finds the master at his genre-defying best. Captivating and absorbing, Murakami once again shows that no one is better at creating both atmosphere and a distinct sense of place, even if it is usually a place that no one has ever been!