Ratings387
Average rating3.7
I can see why some people don't love it, but I thought it was beautiful. Thoroughly enjoyed it all, even the parts that are left unexplained.
Yep, this book is long, and feels draggy toward the middle / early end. Worse, it leaves some of its more interesting themes and plotlines on the table. But I love Murakami and certainly found things about this book to like... and the story and characters kind of stick with you. I wouldn't recommend anyone who hasn't read his books before start here, but I enjoyed it despite, or maybe even because of, its flaws.
I find myself looking at the moon more carefully now.
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.
Definitely not his best work, much too long if you ask me. The length robs you of some of the magic in his other books. The story itself it interesting, but not all that satisfying. it was like running a marathon, only to hop in a golf cart for the last mile.
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.
Great style and imagination as usual... enjoyed the first book and partly the second. But after that, it's mostly repetition and an utterly unsatisfying ending. Murakami's mystery works in shorter books, a book with 1300 pages needs more.
Short Review: A fascinating but flawed book. I love the story in all of its weird wandering. But it seriously needs an editor. An easy 200 pages could have been cut without harm to the story. 50 pages could be cut by just eliminating all of the characters repeating one another all the time. I was fine with the fact that only one of the story threads was really wrapped up, and even that only had a hint at the solution.
But in spite of the problems I really did like the story. And it only took me 2 weeks to listen to 47 hours of audiobook.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/iq84-by-haruki-murakami/
Flat compared the previous Murakami books I've read. Did not invoke much feeling or wonderment. Often felt it was stalling itself – would have been a good short-story .
I really don't know if I am going to review this book just here and now.
This is my first of any Murakami works and though I did find it monotonous, repetitive at times, I ended up wanting more of what and how these principal characters were playing in my mind's eye.
What I do want to say, first of all, is that it made me want more... and I firmly feel I am going to read more, much more by the author. The ending of the book was a bit abrupt for me and certain plot references in the first half of the book seemed contrived and intentional as far as the lives of the characters double up... or the way these lives are introduced to the foreign reader. But there are a few things that must be given a mention in my view. In the end, you feel you have acquainted yourself with the character mentality thoroughly and it seems you know them, met them and started following up there lives somewhere. This is made possible for the expansive dimensional space Murakami chooses to exert over the reader.. It goes bit by bit and this presumably threefold space sort of sucks the reader into the world of 1Q84.
I found some of the literary references concise and well placed...
Apart from Aomame and Tengo, I could really feel Ushikawa develops into a full blood and bones character. His and Tamaru's interaction, for me, is one highlight of the book.
I feel like writing more on this book... just as I have stated that it makes me read more by Murakami. The possibility of story-telling manifests pretty crisply through this book, and though I don't find it a great book I'd say you cannot put down or ignore the parallel magical world witnessed so.
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
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.
Moves at a languid pace. Weighing in at over 1,000 pages it's a collection of 3 books. It meanders, takes odd tangents and closes in on itself in ever tightening concentric circles. It could probably be rendered in a third of the length but I never found myself begrudging it's heft.
Simple and straightforward in its prose, perhaps due to translation. It's the story of Tengo, a cram school math teacher and budding writer and Aomame, a fitness instructor and part time assassin. Two divergent lives slowly, inevitably drawn together (
This was easily the best book of Murakami's that I've read. It retains the magical, yet based in reality feel of his previous books. Unlike others though, he comes really close to nailing the ending of this one. It's a big one and feels a bit longer than necessary in parts, but damn good nonetheless.
When I first started 1Q84, I was mostly just intrigued but not too impressed with the start.
30% in I decided I probably wasn't going to finish it but would give it just a bit longer to pull me in.
40% in I realized it was 925 pages and the dialogue was putting me to sleep.
For lack of anything better to read, I stuck it out.
60% in and I was hooked.
Don't go into this lightly and give it time to build.
1Q84 is the second book I've read by Murakami. I felt similar feelings for the first, Kafka on the Shore, as I did this one. Murakami's stories are entertaining, I'll give him that, but I honestly do not understand why is he is often labeled a literary genius. Likely I'm just too much of a literary snob who can't recognize an accomplished writer with the brilliance of Murakami. Perhaps.
That being said, I felt more connected with IQ84 than I did with Kafka on the Shore. While Kafka... was extremely entertaining, I felt like I was being taken on an amusement park ride, its sole purpose to thrill me with breathtaking drops and vibrant colors. 1Q84, despite its superior length, is a much more focused work; entering the world of 1Q84, I understood—perhaps accepted is a better word—I accepted the rules that governed the universe, as I did its peoples' quests.
In my oft-wrong opinion, 1Q84 suffers from a lack of editing (some of this could be issues with translation). In writing a 955 page epic, Murakami has developed a need for excessive introspection, excessive repetition, excessive trivial detail, and excessive repetition. Must we hear every one of Aomame's rambling reflections? How many times must we be reminded that Air Chrysalis, the fictional book within 1Q84, “wasn't a long book”? Must we know every detail of Tengo's daily routine? How many times must we be reminded that Air Chrysalis, the fictional book within 1Q84, “wasn't a long book”?
And then there were the analogies and similes that I can only pray were issues caused by translation. Take, for instance, my favorite: “If his erection had been a movie, it would have been low budget, straight to video. Not an erection even worth discussing.” I wish it truly hadn't been.
Regardless of its many sufferings, 1Q84 was largely entertaining. At times it became bogged down under its own mass, but when the story was moving, it moved. Of the three books, the second was the most thrilling and insightful. The dialogue between Aomame and Tamaru at the end of the first book and into the second was captivating and became the force which propelled me to read further. This story is all about Aomame and Tengo, but I found some of the supporting characters so interesting that I wanted to know more about them.
Haruki Murakami is probably my favorite author whom I care little for. I don't understand him and I don't really appreciate his work that much. He may be a “genius,” but his genius doesn't resonate with me. Regardless, I am attracted to his stories and I want to read more. Any other author who has impressed me so little after two novels wouldn't get a third read. But there is just something magical about Murakami, something that draws me back. Perhaps this is his genius. Perhaps not being able to put this “magic” into words is why I don't understand Murakami's appeal. He may be brilliant, but I'm not willing to completely accept this yet.
I did really like this, though it is very detailed and sometimes repetitive. Also lots of unanswered questions, but definitely interesting. Not like anything else I've read.
This is one of the worst books I have read. I started skipping chapters in the end because they felt like a waste of time. The characters were boring to read about and in the end I could care less what happened to them.