1Q84 (Vintage International) Paperback – January 22, 2013

It is important to note that 1Q84 is not for the ill of heart. It has been compared to The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie and 1984 by George Orwell but this epic novel definitely stands on its own for its originality, depth of characters, and fluid writing style. A lengthy novel of over 1,100 pages, 1Q84 has two alternating storylines; one concerning Tengo Kawana, a cram school math teacher and the other concerning Aomame, a sports club physical trainer. Under different circumstances, they each fall into the new world of 1Q84 (aptly named by Aomame) instead of 1984, where there are two moons and a bestselling fantasy novel, Air Chrysalis, actually contains classified information about a highly religious organization, Sakigake. As each of them adjust into this new world and try to find one another after twenty years, dangerous obstacles stand in their way of them reaching their goals. With only a few trusted companions and their own inner strength, they have to survive long enough to hopefully discover a way back to the real world and have the storybook ending they so deeply desire.This novel took on so much in terms of storytelling and character development, but one of the best parts of 1Q84 is the combination of Murakami’s writing style and the translation of Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel. The words flowed so evenly, so much so that the reader may forget (as I did many times) that they are reading a translated novel. Because of this fluidity, it was so easy to become hypnotized by the events that took place and are swept away with the plot twists that keep the reader guessing until the very end. The other beautiful aspect of Murakami’s writing is the way that 1Q84 is a love story, but that fact is not in your face. I appreciated the way the he presented love with fate, and did not make it the focus of the story; it played an important part but you were not smothered by it.The length, which most readers seemed to have a problem with, is a bittersweet subject for me. I do not mind a long novel because the longer the novel is, the more opportunity the author has to test his characters in various scenarios to show their complexity and versatility. On the other hand, staying at a consistent pace to keep the reader’s attention is very important in such a novel, but unfortunately in 1Q84, in the last two hundred pages, the story line becomes slower and you have to push to finish it. Please do not think that the story becomes less interesting and that is a reason not to read this amazing novel! What I mean is 80% of the novel is so fast paced sometimes you forget to breathe. Slowly, everything slows down, and the new relaxed pace is a difficult adjustment to make after such a wild ride and especially since you are so close to the end.The ending is good, but not great. Throughout the entire novel, I could not figure out how everything would sort itself out but as the story started to relax and everything became more predictable, the ending (not a surprise) was conventional. Personally, I was hoping for something grandiose, but the fact that the ending is simple is not bad; it is merely personal preference.The biggest mistake Murakami makes in this novel, however, is not the length or the ending but the way he eliminates key characters as the story goes on, characters that are not given a follow-up after they have left the storyline and are never heard from again. If he would have given some background as to what happens to them once they leave the story, then the story may have continued to pick up some speed. Unfortunately, though, Murakami lets them fade into the wind, almost making the reader wonder if they had ever existed in the first place.Regardless of everything negative, Murakami's characters are what make 1Q84 a masterpiece. The characters have wonderfully well-rounded personalities and at times it is almost impossible to not make connections between your world and theirs, so much so that the readers may find themselves looking up at the sky and wondering if their moon has changed into the ones in the world of 1Q84.

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.