1Q84

Ultimately, 1q84 reminded me of LOST as a whole. I had great hopes, it was beautifully described, completely enigmatic, and absolutely less complicated than it seemed. There's about a bajillion reviews since the book was so hyped. So in the interest of being short and sweet (unlike the book, jeez) I will say: the characterization was damn good, the storyline, for all it's initial weirdness, was actually pretty pedestrian? I definitely had a, “that's all?” moment toward the end there. I loved certain elements. Tengo's dad, his mistress (what happened to her, that's my great mystery). I loved the stuff about Chekov. There's a lot to like really. It could have been at least 200 pages shorter. I'm going to have to read six or so kids books as palette cleanser, but I'm glad I read it.

2nd short piece that I have read by Haruki Murakami thats available in The New Yorker. I can relate to this one better as I can someone identify with Tengo and his daddy issues. Tengo's father is never given a name, which I understand since he is a selfish and jealous man.

“Going to see his father was a depressing prospect. He had never much liked the man, and his father had no special love for him, either.” With that being stated I could understand the resentment, dislike, and anger that Tengo felt from his father. From the beginning Tengo felt out of place at home thus it trickled down to his every day life.

Tengo's father raised him alone since his mother “died” but Tengo doesn't believe that. Tengo believes that his mother left Tengo and his father and ran off. Based on Tengo's fathers attitude I could understand that, but not taking Tengo? Did the father threaten her? Make her feel as if he was the competent parent?

The final act in this short piece is what makes me give this a 4 star rating instead of 5. I don't like that the father's response was riddles, I don't understand why he could not tell his son the truth about his mother. Did he truly have no heart at all?

This piece is an excerpt from Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84. Unfortunately its over 900 pages so I won't be reading it. I do want to know if Tengo ever finds his mother though.

Pretendo formar uma opinião mais completa quando terminar a trilogia — o que pode ou não acontecer, mais cedo ou mais tarde —, então vou ser bem sucinto sobre o primeiro livro: gostei muito. Há ressalvas, como sempre há, mas 1Q84 é uma obra que, com certeza, faz jus à popularidade. No todo, eu só fiquei querendo menos sexo e mais desenrolar da história em algumas partes,* mas esse foi um problema completamente meu.

Este foi meu segundo Murakami, e o primeiro que realmente gostei. Talvez por outros motivos que não tenham a ver com os livros em si, mas o outro que li, After Dark, não havia me convencido por completo, não tanto quanto 1Q84.

* Chegaram a me explicar que o Murakami usa sexo como uma espécie de crítica ao conservadorismo e à repressão da sociedade japonesa, mas eu ainda fico incomodado. Sei que acabo soando pudico ao reclamar disso, mas as cenas de sexo de 1Q84 foram realmente aleatórias e sem necessidade aparente, na minha opinião. Ou talvez tenha a ver com como o sexo é descrito. Não sei.

I initially wasn't sure how I felt about this book. The ending fell flat for me, it didn't click well. But over a year later I still think about 1Q84 and vividly remember details from it - I don't remember anything from some books I read in 2018. The best thing I can say is that this book is relentlessly original and has a stronger emotional through-line that I could have anticipated.

The first 2/3s of the book are fascinating as subplots and characters interact in strange and interesting ways, even if it is rather slow paced at times. But the last third is about as exciting as reading about somebody hanging out in a small apartment and never going outside for months or about a guy visiting an old folks home and reading short stories for weeks on end–cause that's pretty much all that happens in the last volume of the book. I didn't expect every loose end to be neatly tied up or every surreal incident to be explained in a completely logical manner, but some sort of climax might have been nice. Overall an interesting story that feels cheated by a meandering ending

Well, that felt like running a brain marathon.

I've been reading this book pretty much the entire month of January, which isn't to say it's slow. I was reading until way too late at night trying to figure out what was going on, but there was still a lot more going on. As I often feel about Murakami's works, I was confused when I started and confused about totally different things when I finished. However, I ended up enjoying it anyway.

There's a couple of themes that stick out from this book. First off, the dangers of seclusion. Pretty much all of the characters in this story are secluded for one reason or another, by or against their own will in multiple ways. That seclusion does things to their psychology, forcing them to really explore themselves in ways a busy, interconnected lifestyle prevents. Fuka-Eri's initial encounter with the Little People involves being in solitary confinement, the place where she first learns to make air chrysalises. Fantastic elements like these are generally used as accents to the larger themes, but I think they serve their purpose well. I still don't know what that last scene with them meant at all though...

Tengo and Aomame's plot line involves the trials in ending that isolation. Neither of them has a strong grasp of self, and that's kept them apart for twenty years. It's scary to break out of your own confinement when you've been alone that long, and while the reader might not have actually cultists chasing them down if they step out of hiding, that fear is still something to which the reader, or at least this reader, can relate.

The other theme seems to be about domestic violence. A lot of horrible things happen to women in this story, and Murakami seems to be pointing out a real problem in Japan that doesn't get talked about. Women are definitely still second class citizens there, and I appreciate him bringing up how the isolation of women can actually be dangerous. That said, Murakami really likes to write weird lesbian subplots with straight women that make no sense. It's weird, and it will always be weird to me.

The book was not easy to read, and I'm really glad I have the Japanese background to retranslate some of the sentences. The translator did a great job, but some phrases just don't make sense in English and some cultural notes (Like overexhuberant NHK collectors) would have really puzzled me five years ago. I'd recommend reading this book with a wiki close by if you don't have much experience with Japanese culture.

It's a book I'll probably keep thinking about, and that makes it good, even if the ending left me more confused than the beginning. That's just what I expect from Murakami novels.

En mi primer review (del primer y segundo libro), creo que mencioné que esperaba que algunas preguntas se respondieran.

En esta parte me quedé con gusto a poco. Demasiadas dudas sin respuesta, y más de las que puedo tolerar. No pasa absolutamente nada en todo el libro. Me siento inmensamente decepcionada y con un sinfín de misterios en mi mente. ¡Debo confesar que me alegra el por fin haberlo terminado!

This book was a slow, contemplative one with that Murakami sparkled added in.

Since it's, you know, three books, it's longer and the plot can feel like it's ebbing and flowing in odd ways because of that.

There are a lot of elements of this book that dip into what we already know. Hey, look, it's star-crossed lovers with the outside world preventing them from seeing each other. It's a book about a novelist! Very original! Ah yes, mentions of 1984 and a Communist cult, subtle!

This is very much a book about writing, if that makes sense. Tengo is a sad, lonely guy and writing fiction is his escape from reality. Much of what happens in the book is on a surrealist plane, inside of a world with two moons, little people with ominous, ill-explained powers, cocoons to grow ideas and people, and the idea of one's mind and essence split into two parts. There are perceivers and receivers.

Aomame is searching for Tengo, which means entering the world of his fiction, both of them lost inside of this surrealist world, although not everyone they speak with or encounter is seemingly aware of or inhabiting this parallel world as well. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, it's sort of immaterial unless you yourself want to get lost in Cat Town.

Elk moment nu moet het komen, dacht ik bijna duizend bladzijden lang. Elk moment nu moet dit een goed boek worden, met echte personages en een echt plot en een echte wereld en zo. Overal werd er over dat boek gesproken, elke krant had een uitstekende review, iedereen zei mij: dát moet ge lezen.

Helaas, neen.

Duizend pagina's met herhaling, en herhaling. En herhaling. En ook, euh, had ik al gezegd “herhaling”? Ik denk niet dat ik overdrijf als er zeker dertig bladzijden beschrijvingen van borsten zijn – waarvan twee derden Aomame's zelfbeklag dat haar borsten te klein zijn en niet allebei even groot. Tel daar nog alle hersenpijndoend slechte omschrijvingen van sex bij, en meer specifiek van de genitaliën van Tengo en wie ze precies in de handen houdt, en ik denk dat we op 10% van het hele boek komen.

Aomame's ouders waren in een soort Getuigen van Jehova, Tengo's moeder is weg en het werk van zijn vader was aan deuren gaan kloppen en mensen kijk-en luistergeld doen betalen. Aomame en Tengo zaten twee jaar in de zelfde lagere school. Zij werd gepest of toch zeker genegeerd, hij was een kindgenie, sterk in wiskunde en in sport. Ze hielden één keer elkaars handen vast, als ze tien waren, en daarna nooit meer en (euh ja, sorry, het is zo) nu twintig jaar blijkt dat ze allebei al heel hun leven op elkaar verliefd zijn.

Tengo geeft les wiskunde op een soort studiebureau-school en schrijft na zijn uren; hij herschrijft op aansturen van zijn uitgever een manuscript van een zeventienjarig meisje, Fuka-Eri. Aomame werkt als personal trainer en oh ja, ook als huurmoordenaar om vrouwenmishandelaars te dispatchen.

Het manuscript wordt uitgegeven en wordt een bestseller. Het beschrijft een wereld met kleine mensen die uit de mond van dode geiten komen en die Ho ho zeggen en luchtpoppen (niet poppen-barbie, wel poppen-insekten) maken, en het gaat over een soort ontdubbeling van mensen op een Body Snatchers-achtige manier en over perceivers en receivers, enfin, ‘t maakt allemaal niet zo heel erg veel uit, want ondanks de talloze herhalingen dat alles toch wel heel erg vreemd is, en ettelijke pagina' expositie, liet het mij allemaal redelijk Siberisch koud. En wordt geen enkele vraag beantwoord.

Het duurt een eeuw voor Tengo en Aomame beseffen dat ze in een soort alternatieve wereld terecht gekomen zijn, en wel de wereld die Tengo in het herschreven manuscript zelf mee uitgewerkt lijkt te hebben.

Er is sprake van een soort sekte met een leider, die de vader blijkt te zijn van Fuka-Eri, en oh ja die mens verkracht op de één of andere manier kleine meisjes maar niet echt, en dan besluit de opdrachtgeefster van Aomame dat hij dood moet, en dan gebeurt dat, en dan moet Aomame onderduiken en Tengo ook want Fuka-Eri is bij hem ondergedoken.

En, urgh, het duurt maar en het duurt maar. Ik denk dat Murakami niet goed meer wist hoe een trilogie te trekken uit een verhaal dat al na anderhalf boek echt álle stoom kwijt was, want in het derde deel komt er nog een derde hoofdpersonage bij, Ushikawa (wel zeker dertig pagina's met keer op keer de omschrijving van zijn vreemde hoofd), die op aansturen van die sekte zoekt naar Aomame en haar via Tengo op het spoor komt.

Niet dat het ooit echt spannend wordt of zo: de twee momenten dat er een zweem van spanning in de lucht dreigt te hangen, worden elk vakkundig door hun eigen deus ex machina de kop ingedrukt. En ook niet dat er ooit diepgang of zo komt: het is bijna bewonderenswaardig hoeveel woorden Murakami over personages kan schrijven zonder ze ook maar op enige manier anders dan eendimensionaal te maken.

Fuka-Eri en Aomame bestaan in functie van hun lichaam (mager met dikke tetten en gespierd met ongelijke kleine tetten, respectievelijk), en Tengo is een soort superman: uitstekend schrijver, uitstekend sportman, leert een instrument op een week tijd, wiskundegenie, aantrekkelijk voor alle vrouwen.

‘t Zal wel literatuur zijn, en ik zal er wel niets van begrepen hebben, maar ik vond dit verbijsterend slecht. Interessante premisse,  goed begin, gevolgd door honderden en honderden (en honderden) bladzijden alsmaar slechter geschreven luie en saaie herhaling, en dan op een bladzijde of vijf een einde dat niet de minste voldoening schenkt.

By the way: ook bijzonder slecht vertaald. Het leest bij tijden als een slechte scanlation van een derderangsmanga. Pijnlijk.

“It's not me but the world that's deranged.”This is not my first Murakami book. Or my second or third, for that matter. I guess what I mean to say is that I'm no stranger to Murakami's surreal style and vague endings. I enjoyed [b:The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 11275 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327872639l/11275.SY75.jpg 2531376] so much. When my book club friends decided to get together to finally knock 1Q84 out, I jumped on board. I thought I was in for a trip. It was, but in the boring, extended, overblown business trip sense and not in the fun, dreamlike, what-did-I-just-eat Murakami sense.There's entire swaths of this book that could have been cut and affected nothing of the story. There's (probably) a book in here that's really enjoyable, if only the extraneous stuff had been cut. Entire chapters were basically repeated with no real forward progress. I can only read about Aomame's workout routine so many times before I start skimming a bit. So much water was boiled in this book. So by the end of the book arrives, I'm already a little annoyed at having to slog through so much repetitiveness to get there. I was hoping we'd get some sort of wrap-up to make the slog worth it. I'm all geared up to decipher a Murakami vague ending and come up with answers myself, and then the book just ends. Spoiler for hanging threads: What happened to Fuka-Eri? Was she the dohta or the maza, and why doesn't it really matter? Does leaving 1Q84 actually do anything? What's up with the NHK guy who was banging on all their doors near the end? All these questions and more can be yours for the low, low price of 1300 pages. Ushikawa was the one bright spot of the entire book, and it took us 2/3rds of the book to really get to him. He was so delightfully inept, and I loved watching him bungle his stakeouts and thinking he's a first class detective. Why did he have moss on his tongue though? No idea.I don't know, this book was missing something for me that I got from other books. I had many questions after finishing Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but in a good way. I felt like there were enough clues and impressions and thoughtful inclusions that it led me to forming my own conclusions without spelling it out for me. This book felt like it missed all of that. All words, no soul.

Nice trilogy when taking into account the love story between Tengo and Aomame: a love born in their childhood days which resisted time and different worlds.

Even though I liked the wrap up, I felt the books unnecessarily long and composed at times by long boring narrative which made me feel like dropping the book, dragging myself towards the end. No wonder I abandoned this book almost 4 years ago and just picked it again because I challenged myself to finish my TBR list.

As a result, I don't feel like reading other books by the author.

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.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. There was extensive character development, and the story moves along (most of the time). I would classify it as more of a fantasy with strong romance tones. I more of a mystery buff and this had some of that, and the conclusion was satisfying, but left a number of unanswered questions.
I haven't read any Murakami before. I was cautious about embarking upon this due to it's length, but overall it didn't bother me in this case.

I get bored very easily & yet I wanted more pages to just appear after reaching the end

Amazing story, the connection between Aomame & Tengo is just very beautiful. And this is coming from someone who usually cringe at romance in books.

The intrigue and whole cat & mouse story going on between the characters got me very hooked and immersed.

I was holding my breath on the last pages, sharing their apprehension and anxiety.

Definitely a great book !