1Q84: Book 3 [Hardcover]

I am a Murakami fan who would put the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle at the top of my list of favourites.

This trilogy does ramble and would probably benefit from intelligent editing but I can always forgive Murakami all his faults because of the impeccable way that he writes.

I am of the reviewers that like Murakami characters. I like the clean, simple lives that they lead and the fact that the male heroes are such empathizers with and fans of women.

Unlike many reviewers I found Book 3 more satisfying than volumes 1 and 2, in part because of the development of the character Ushikawa, to whom we are introduced in the first two volumes. The first 2 volumes are repetitive and slow and Ushikawa adds necessary pace to the narrative. This character also seems to me to be a respectful nod from the author to the villains in Russian novels who are credible because they are not all bad.

On the surreal elements of these volumes I quote another of the reviewers who expresses my view exactly: "I could get very irritated with the two moons/other world trope in the hands of a lesser writer, but Murakami carries me with him. I can allow my rationalist nature to take a rest knowing that I am safe in his imagination."

As with his other books it is a mixture of genius and weakness and - admirer of Murakami as I am -I wouldn' t want a newcomer to his writing to be put off him by starting with these books. For his sheer ability to seduce the reader with his writing I would probably have given the trilogy a higher rating but in order to avoid disappointing first-time readers I have given it 3 stars.

SPOILERS

My first response to finishing the book was "Thank God that's over", my second was "how could Murakami have screwed it up so badly?". The second book ended dramatically and, maybe even artistically, with Aomame standing before the portal that took her to 1Q84 with a gun in her mouth and Tengo beside the comatose body of his abusive father awaiting anything. Well, Book 3 begins with Aomame taking the gun out of her mouth and going home and Tengo continuing his solitary vigil over his father.

Here's the biggest problem from then on - nothing happens! Aomame stays in her safe house, doing exercises and reading, all the while looking out of her window towards the playground where she had seen Tengo sit atop a slide (and for some reason didn't react to it) for most of the book. Tengo hangs around the nursing home for ages, returns home, then doesn't do anything either.

There is a new addition in the chapters, a minor character from the previous books, Ushikawa, is given his own storyline but even this does nothing to make the book interesting as all he does is go over the events of the first two books. Once the reader is reminded of every tiny event that happened previously via Ushikawa, the character is killed off! His entire storyline is so contrived and irrelevant it beggars belief.

The lack of anything happening wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the tantalising storylines Murakami had set up in the last two books. Why oh why didn't he write about any of the following: the Little People - who are they, what are they, why do they exist, what is their meaning; what's the significance of the second, smaller, green moon; what happens with the mysterious cult Sakigake - does it collapse without Leader, what happens to it, does Fuka-Eri destroy it; what is the meaning of air chrysalises and the maza/dohta; Tengo and Aomame's relationship - this is the driving force behind the two main character's actions throughout the 1000 page story but the reader knows next to nothing about why they are so obsessed with each other - why not develop this to explain why?

And what do we get instead? Pages and pages of banal thoughts, banal actions, and a literary kind of treading water. Murakami completely fails to live up to the storylines he's spent hundreds of pages establishing, choosing instead to not bother writing something interesting when something empty and dull will suffice. I will say that the NHK Collector was an interesting character, especially creepy, and added a much needed element of mystery/horror as a disembodied voice, never seen and only heard (is he really Tengo's father's ghost?). But this was a very small positive compared to the overwhelming sense of boredom perpetuated throughout the novel. There was potentially a great novel here but Murakami totally flubs it through inaction and stasis.

My main complaint of the first two books still stands in this third - the love between Tengo and Aomame is so unbelievable as they barely met once when they were 10 and now twenty years later they are still madly in love with each other even though they don't say their first words to each other until the final 20 pages of the book? 20 pages out of nearly 1000! I don't understand how either of them could find this perceived connection as such a driving force behind all of their actions, behind this entire novel (or series of novels). I suspend disbelief on most things in this book but not this romance, it's too far-fetched to believe, mostly because Murakami didn't put any effort into creating it.

This is the longest victory lap any novelist has indulged in, ever, I think. It's a book that didn't need to be written and spends most of its 364 pages underlining its own irrelevance. To anyone wondering whether or not to read this after the effort taken to read the first two books, I would say read the final 25 pages of Book 3 and you've basically got it - everything that precedes it isn't worth noting. It took me a month to read the first two books, just over a month to finish the third and it's half the length of the first two - save the time and effort needed to wade through this unedited, uninteresting novel and finish this "saga" with the end of book two.

Taken as a whole, and not just book three, I've found 1Q84 a big disappointment. In all honesty, it's just a bit boring. Even if the three books were edited down I don't think that would make the novel any more exciting; the core of the story is empty and dull.

The whole way through 1Q84 I just kept thinking that the book felt like someone else trying their hardest to write a Murakami novel. The references to classical music and jazz, the bits devoted to food, the ear fetish, the surreal touches - all the boxes were being ticked off. Even the central premised was there - average 30 something male lead caught up in a whirlwind of confusion - classic Murakami.

But this time it all felt so hollow. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is very similar (on a simple level: average guy looking for his wife whilst strange things happen around him) but 1Q84 lacks the underlying darkness and vague menace that runs through TWUBC. Murakami does a very good job in TWUBC of highlighting some rather sinister undercurrents in Japanese society. 1Q84 is devoid of that. Sakigake or the Little People just never really felt like actual threats or forces that needed to be countered.

This left a gaping void in the story, which meant I experienced 1Q84 as a novel full of average characters doing very boring things. It didn't bore me when Mr Wind-Up Bird spent time in the bottom of a well but it DID bore me in this novel when Tengo or Aomane spent so much time doing not very much.

And their relationship / feelings were something I had a hard time buying into. I could accept it from Aomane's side but Tengo seems to wake-up about halfway through the novel and suddenly remember that he's had a life-long crush on his former class mate. Up until that point he's fine having his adulterous relationship and admiring Fuka-Eri (even if he says he doesn't feel any sexual feelings towards her). But suddenly that all changes in a flash. That undermined another central part of the story for me.

The prose in 1Q84 seemed unusually lifeless too. The usual sparkle was missing and in its place was a whole lot of repetition (Fuka-Eri conversations were a special bore). Oh, and there was a whole load of needless sex and large wads of Chekov dumped in the story too, all of which seemed thoroughly self-indulgent (though, yes, that criticism mostly applies to books one and two, and not three).

1Q84 isn't terrible but I struggled to finish book three and came away with very little love for the novel (by contrast I had to skim the end of Kafka on the Shore I was so bored with the book, so it's not THAT bad). Is it just me then? It's true my favourite Murakami novels (and I've read all his works) are his earlier ones (AWSC, HBW, DDD). After Dark was fine but it was also very slight. I'm feeling unconvinced by Murakami's latest offerings and 1Q84 was a big disappointment after the expectations I had. This might well be the last time I get one of his novels in hardback at launch.