932 pages long. I listened to the audio book — 47 hours!
1Q84 (One Q Eighty-Four or ichi-kyu-hachi-yon) is a novel by Haruki Murakami, first published in three volumes in Japan in 2009–10. The novel quickly became a sensation, with its first printing selling out the day it was released, and reaching sales of one million within a month. …
… in Japan during a fictionalized 1984 …
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1Q84 is Japanese word play on the year 1984, in which the story takes place.
There are few parallels with Orwell’s 1984, actually. One of the translators felt that title was not right for the book.
This epic compares more obviously with the Millennium Trilogy — both favourably and unfavourably.
Like Millennium, there are all sorts of details and characters unnecessary to the plot.
Like Millennium, there are many bizarre sexual acts. And a rape revenge sub-plot.
Those who love the book, find it dreamy.
… personally, I’ve got mixed feelings about 1Q84.
Certainly it’s too long. It would be much stronger weighing in at 500 pages, or less. Supposedly Murakami uses repetition for effect. The effect for me is to wish he had a more demanding editor.
I’d love to read a version rewritten by a more succinct novelist, Paul Theroux, for example.
Theroux reviewed it for Vanity Fair:
… at first glance a large, loose, and baggy monster of a novel, but after a satisfying read a symmetrical and multi-layered yarn, as near to a 19th-century three-decker as it is possible to be (it was issued in three volumes to great acclaim in Japan in 2009–10). The label of fantasy-realism has been stuck to it, but it actually has more of a Dickensian or Trollopian structure. Coincidentally, like Trollope, the reclusive Murakami customarily rises at 4:30 A.M. and writes until midmorning—after that, unlike Trollope, he trains for triathlons. … (and ultra-marathons)
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It does have an engaging plot. And fascinating lead characters:
• Aomame (ultra-fit female serial killer)
• Tengo (unpublished novelist)
• Ushikawa (ugly private investigator)
After 47hrs … I was sorry it had ended.
I’ll read more Murakami. And have just downloaded Kafka on the Shore.
Rick McCharles 