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.
