If you’ve never read Haruki Murakami before, this may not be the best place to start. 1Q84 clocks in at over 1,000 pages, with multiple plot lines (including some that seem to peter out into nothingness) and literary devices so out of the ordinary that unless you’re a fan of Murakami bingo, you may feel like a fish out of water trying to get through the novel. I’ve been reading Japanese fiction for around five years, though, and since Murakami is one of the most popular modern Japanese authors nowadays, he and I are no stranger to one another. In fact, his book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (although it’s similarly bizarre) is one of my all-time favorite books. Given my enthusiasm about Wind-Up Bird, when 1Q84 dropped I was similarly excited to read it, although I did wait until it came out in paperback to save on costs.
1Q84 is set in Tokyo in 1984. The two major plot lines concern a man and woman, Tengo and Aomame, who are essentially star-crossed lovers after crossing paths in childhood. Tengo is a struggling writer, while Aomame works at a fitness club and administers a form of “street justice” to abusive husbands on the side, bankrolled by a mysterious wealthy benefactor. As the book progresses, the two characters gradually become aware that they have entered a parallel universe similar to 1984, but different in ominous ways. Aomame nicknames this alternate reality “1Q84,” with the “Q” representing a question mark.
My SO listened to this book on audio tapes at the same time that I was reading it, and one of his criticisms was that some of the fantastical elements in the book were not well explained. I understand this argument to a point, but would counter by saying that if one is familiar with Murakami’s writing style, it is easy to put two and two together between the less realistic concepts by using abstract thinking. For example, in one section of the novel, several characters are visited at their homes by a vaguely threatening NHK fee collector. (Culture note: Similarly to the BBC in the UK, Japanese television owners are required to pay a monthly subscription fee to NHK, the Japanese national broadcasting network.) At the same time that these visits are occurring, Tengo’s father is comatose in a residential care facility. Although Murakami never explicitly connects these two plot points, we learn that Tengo’s father was an NHK fee collector in his youth. Using abstract reasoning, it can be determined that Tengo’s father is entering an altered state of consciousness and visiting these characters in spectral form. This is just an illustration, but I find it to be demonstrative of the kind of logical leaps that one must make on one’s own when reading 1Q84.
Another common complaint I would like to address with 1Q84 is the charge that the book repeats itself too much. The reviewers who mentioned this aspect are likely referring to two chief aspects of the novel; one is a cultural consideration, and the other is structural. Unlike some of Murakami’s other works, 1Q84 was translated by two separate individuals due to its length, creating a difference in style in certain sections of the novel. This is most evident in the tendency of certain characters to repeat what has just been said by others. For example (and I’m making this up because I don’t have the book in front of me now), if Fuka-Eri were to say, “I went to the store and bought some tofu,” Tengo might repeat, “Oh, you bought some tofu?” This is not a translation error, but is instead a linguistic quirk in Japanese. It is polite in Japan to repeat what has just been said to show that one is listening, similar to saying “Oh” or “I see” in English. Usually this sort of thing would be edited out for brevity, but one of the translators chose not to do this, leading to the repetition some readers noticed.
Regarding the structural repetition in the novel, one major plot arc in the latter half of the novel concerns a private investigator’s surveillance of Tengo and Aomame. Essentially he is investigating their activities over the course of the first half of the book, so naturally there is some repetition. Some readers evidently found this frustrating, but the private investigator is a well-written, unique character, and I for one found it interesting to hear the events from an outsider’s point of view.
All in all, I found 1Q84 to be a fun read, although it was admittedly very time-consuming. It was typical Murakami fare and provided a fun break from the nonfiction I often read nowadays. However, I can understand the objections of people like my SO, who may not be used to Murakami’s writing style. To wrap it up, I would definitely recommend 1Q84 if you know what you are getting yourself into. If you are a newcomer to Murakami’s body of work, a softball like The Elephant Vanishes or Norwegian Wood may be a better starting place.
Sophie's Book Reviews 