1Q84 : osat 1-3

(SPOILERS IN THE REVIEW)

1st:

Fuka-Eri dictates to her sister events that happened to her in a cult compound known as Sakigate. These events involve Air Chrysalis', two moons and Little People. That manuscript - titled Air Chrysalis -is submitted to the New Writers Contest. It captures an editors heart and a novelist whose job - among others - is to read the submitted works.

Tengo is that novelists name. Komatsu knows it can be a winner and because of that he pretty much forces Tengo to ghost write it, to make it better.

Unbeknownst to them this unlocks a world of problems. Fiction becomes reality, reality becomes fiction. One moon becomes two.

2nd:

Aomame is a killer of abusive men. She and her ice pick that isn't quite an ice pick pierce the brain stem and send the man to the other side. She, after finding herself in the world of 1Q84, is tasked with killing Leader. The head of Sakigate and the hearer of the voices.

Aomame and Tengo share a complicated past. A single memory that has stuck with them for twenty years. A moment in a classroom where they held hands.

They've never forgotten each other. Not a day passed when they didn't think of each other. Tengo's world is turned upside down by the novel, Aomame's by her killing Leader. This brings them into each other's orbit and closer to the other.

Will they or won't they find each other?

This is a love story. A weird, wacky, wonderful love story. Their is drama with the changing of the worlds, and curious happenings with Fuka-Eri and the Little People. Their are side characters like Ushikawa and Tamaru that add a lot to the story and keep you wondering what will happen next.

Tengo's story plays out richly, as does Aomame's. You really get to know them. You really begin to root for them and hope that they find each other. That begins to consume you. You begin to not care so much about anything else which is good because towards the latter portion of the book things begin to wind themselves up and in a way that isn't so climactic. If you expect a Hollywood shootout or Bonnie and Clyde style ending, something with more bang then you're going to be disappointed. This is after all, a love story. That's the point of it. You're meant to fall for Tengo and Aomame and root for them.

It is a will they or won't they find each other sort of story. One worth reading.

5 out 5 ( )

Well it was certainly long. I've heard about Murakami for years but had never read any of his books, partially because I'm generally leery of translated literature and partially because I just wasn't ever in the mood. I came in with pretty high expectations given how much I've heard his name. I really like long books that are good, but I don't like long books for length's sake, and this one just felt like it went on for too long. I feel like it could have been twice as good at half the length.

It did improve some for me in the latter portion of the book. Initially, I had figured maybe this was because it was finally all coming to a head, but after finishing, I read the end matter and learned that the first two books were translated by one person and the last book by another. I'm not a perceptive enough reader that I think I actually noticed a substantive change in the translation, but I do wonder a little whether there's not something subtle in the translation of the last book that, paired with things drawing toward resolution, made it more appealing to me.

Curiously, though the book felt like a long book, it was also somehow staccato, the style and pacing and dialogue often very clipped, and perhaps it is this characteristic that, spread out over nearly 1200 pages, began to feel a bit like being kept up at night listening to a dripping sink -- each drop dandy and perhaps even pleasantly musical taken on its own but the sum of them over the course of a long sleepless night pretty frustrating.

If I were to read the book again (doubtful), I think I'd want to pay closer attention to the styles of the different translators. I harbor a suspicion that the first two books have a more declarative style with more simple sentences and that the third has more subordinate clauses and slightly more complex sentences, providing a break from the relentless drip. That's just a suspicion, though; I haven't gone back really and looked. ( )

This book is as heavy as a sandbag. I looked forward to reading its 1,300 plus pages. At page 2, so far so good and various themes set in motion.A few weeks later... It took a month to read, all 1,318 pages. It is a trilogy after all and I enjoyed it. It is well written and captures attention throughout. I like the chapter by character approach. I struggled with the other world features such as the Air Chrysalis, maza and dohta, two moons, Perceiver and Receiver. Putting aside religious cults and fantasy v reality, I think it is all about reality. I read it as a futuristic story about conglomerates and corporations running the world. Wherever one is, and whatever one does is tracked. Behind the narrative I think the theme is no escape from all powerful states and mega companies (Google for instance has just incorporated Fitbit). Such entities will absorb every step and determine every decision we make. Governments and states will do the same. They can find us and do whatever they like with us. I was surprised that there was.a happy ending - or so it seemed. ( )

Loved the language and the way the story looped and folded back on itself but it sputtered out at the end ( )

I was expecting to feel somewhat more accomplished having reached the end of this 1029 page e-book. There are a lot of loose ends that are not addressed, and I am still not sure whether to consider this a fantasy or some sort of surrealist fiction (recommended reading in discussion guide includes "Infinite Jest," "Slaughterhouse Five," and "Cryptonomicon," which actually gives prospective readers a good idea of what they're getting into).

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