1Q84

A long, compelling read. I found the story to be very engaging, despite the mundane life tasks that Murakami found it necessary to describe. It was very readable, despite the complex magical realism elements that permeated the book. I think the mundane juxtaposed with the magical realism ended up giving the book somewhat of a dreamy vibe? As if you're not quite sure what you're reading or getting into, but you have to see it through. Somewhere around page 800, I began to feel restless with the slow pace of the plot. We know pretty early on that the characters are destined to meet, but the majority of the book they travel along their own separate journeys and those journeys are compelling in their own right. Once those journeys were complete, I found myself wanting Murakami to just get to the point, yet he inserts a third point of view from a character that up until that point, and through the end of the book, I wasn't invested in. I honestly thought those pieces could have been edited out and the book would have been better for it. Due to that last section's superfluous content, I ended up settling on three stars rather than four. I think the writing style is definitely not for everyone, and the book is too long for someone who doesn't get into it from the very beginning to try to persevere to the end, especially since the end takes so long to come. Even though I'm giving this book 3 stars, I still think that I will keep the rest of this author's works on my to read list.