1Q84

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 !

Estoy viendo que llevo cinco años tratando de acabar con este libro, creo que es tiempo de aceptar la realidad: no pude con él. Aclaro, no se me hace que esté mal escrito, como siempre, Murakami es impecable; tampoco es que la historia sea mala... hasta donde llegué estaba interesante la historia de y en muchos sentidos prometía mucho. Pero hay libros, como las personas, que por más que tengan todo para gustarte, no puedes con ellos. Es entonces que tiro la toalla y a otra cosa...

Some things took me by surprise. Other things did not. The plot itself was simple, the melding of two worlds even more so. It was spoken about in a complex way. When there were rambles, they mostly interested me and always had a pay-off of some kind. Sometimes, it's about the things which are left unsaid. Not everything in life can be tied up in bows and ribbons, signed and delivered to the doorstep. Sometimes we get lost along the way and never reach the original destination. I will not re-read it, but I will keep it forever.

This was my first Murakami book. Undoubtedly, it was too long. However, I found the storytelling style calm and immersive—really, unlike anything I've read before. It was a unique reading experience, which I enjoyed.

I'd give it a 5 star had it not been for the explicit descriptions that imo serve no purpose to the story.

“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.

This book really disappointed me. All of the characters sound fascinating in theory, and I liked the parallel universes idea, but the writing was just really bad. Important points are reiterated over and over like the reader might not be paying attention, and plot points are over-explained (there is a part in book 3 where the POV characters are constantly missing each other and the narration is constantly telling you exactly when they passed each other by even though it's obvious - it made me feel like Murakami thinks his readers are idiots). 

All of the characters talk about taking control but just get pushed around by the narrative. Most of them hardly do anything at all.

The writing around underage girls is gross, especially a plot contrivance which allows a major character (who is a teacher!!) to have guilt-free sex with a teenage girl. All of the female characters are written very poorly and described by their breasts even when they are dead.

The romance that is basically the whole point of the book is ridiculous.

The first 300 pages were hard as I didn't feel like there was much happening but it got way better in the end. In the middle, I thought about interrupting but I continued and the end was so good that I think about reading the next two books of 1Q84 as well

I give up. I can't with this book.

Just saw that I still had 32 HOURS left in the audiobook and it crushed my soul. That's how I knew I should quit.

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.

after years of putting off reading this monster of a book, I decided to go with the audiobook instead and I'm so glad!

it was a slow start at first, but once I got into it I couldn't stop, though I did take a little break in the middle. I was quite literally on the edge of my seat at certain points, which I haven't experienced in a while.

I absolutely loved the writing, though tengo and eriko's relationship was a very uncomfortable thing to listen to.

I can't wait to read more of murakami's work now, and I've thankfully got a nice small list to go with!!

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.

Really? How many times can one man qualify a woman's worth by the size of her breasts? Honestly, I lost count.

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.

Bu kitabın 1200 sf olmasına gerek var mıydı? Hikaye güzel ama o kadar sayfayı doldurmuyor.

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.

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.

Let's keep it short, shall we?

If you ask me if it was worth the effort to tirelessly plough through these 1000 pages over the last 2-3 months. I'll probably retort with a shrug.

But then, I'll probably do the same if you ask me if it is worth living.

“If you can't understand it without an explanation, you can't understand it with an explanation.”

I think this is my favourite line from this book - and it occurs a few times. It says a lot about where we will end up, and is not the only hint that there is not a full and frank explanation at the end of the 900+ pages.

Other reviewers have tended to love or hate this book - lots of 4/5 star reviews, and a lot of vitriol in the low end reviews. Obviously a 900+ page book is an investment in time - and some have been disappointed by the result - this wasn't such an issue for me, as I found this really easy to read (ie easy to pick up, hard to put down).

No plot outlines here - the synopsis tells enough, and spoilers would be rife. I enjoyed the two main characters, who were interesting and explained themselves in an interesting way, giving out background information in a non-linear, but clever way throughout the book. The peripheral characters were also interesting.

The writing format and style also worked well - for me at least. Alternative chapters for the main characters, generally overlapping in time until Book 3, where a third character joins the mix. I note that Book 3 has a different translator than book 1&2 - I am not sure why this is, and it seems counter intuitive to me to do this without good reason, but there isn't a noticeable change.

So, looks like I will search out some more Murakami novels (even though i don't read a lot of fiction).

Four and a half stars, short of five stars, so settling at four.

Confusing; the symbology is sometimes fatiguing rather than enlightening, and it feels like the Scarlet Letter sometimes in that way. But the plot is interesting to say the least and Murakami's style cannot be matched.

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 took me 1 month to read this book; and I must say this book does not deserve this much time to be taken from your life. I started reading this book after reading just one quote from it - “Once you pass a certain age, life becomes nothing more than a process of continual loss. ... and I thought the book would be good read. Oh boy, never in my life I was so wrong about any book. It starts with interesting plot, but then slips into monotonous routines of each character. The book is filled with so many of writers own wild sexist fantasies. I didn't see the point of exploring in detail certain character such as Ushikawa and not explaining at all the other characters such as Little People. So many important things are left to the readers imagination.

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!

I'm generally more of a fan of Murakami's realist narratives more than his fantasy elements. This book starts very realist and slowly adds some unusual aspects. In the last third, though, it gets a little too fantasy-heavy for my tastes. Like Kafka on the Shore, there are two separate stories going on at the same time, alternating chapters. Still, it's a compelling story, and for most of the book, the 1100+ page length didn't seem imposing at all. It moves quickly and there's a lot of suspense.