1Q84: Books 1 and 2
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Review
"[Murakami's] towering new novel, his magnum opus, a work on a par with Don DeLillo's Underworld or Roberto Bolano's 2666."--Stephen Amidon, Sunday Times
"It is a work of maddening brilliance and gripping originality, deceptively casual in style, but vibrating with wit, intellect and ambition."--Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times
"Critics have variously likened him to Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, Arthur C. Clarke, Don DeLillo, Philip K. Dick, Bret Easton Ellis and Thomas Pynchon - a roster so ill assorted as to suggest Murakami is in fact an original"--New York Times
"[1Q84] may become a mandatory read for anyone trying to get to grips with contemporary Japanese culture... [It is Murakami's] magnum opus."--Japan Times
"It is a work of maddening brilliance and gripping originality, deceptively casual in style, but vibrating with wit, intellect and ambition."--Richard Lloyd Parry, The Times
"Critics have variously likened him to Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, Arthur C. Clarke, Don DeLillo, Philip K. Dick, Bret Easton Ellis and Thomas Pynchon - a roster so ill assorted as to suggest Murakami is in fact an original"--New York Times
"[1Q84] may become a mandatory read for anyone trying to get to grips with contemporary Japanese culture... [It is Murakami's] magnum opus."--Japan Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
72 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant,
By M. Dowden (London, UK) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: 1Q84: Books 1 and 2 (Kindle Edition)
Once again Murakami has produced something that is truly magical. I would have to agree with the previous reviewer, if you have never read Murakami before, then this is probably not the best place to start, due to its length and surrealism, if you are not familiar with his work you may end up feeling rather perplexed.It is 1984, and the place is Japan, but things are going to suddenly start altering. With two main characters, Aomame and Tengo, the tale is told in alternating chapters between the two. At first you have a mystery, in that what relation do these two characters actually bear to each other? Both characters seem to be living completely different lives, and have very little in common, but as you progress everything is slowly revealed, drawing you further in to the story. Aomame feels that she is in a different reality, or parallel universe, but is she? Could she just be more real than others? With Aomame as a gym instructor and assassin, and Tengo as a teacher and writer you are completely mesmerised by the two. Taking in such things as religious cults, and some history of what happened in Japan in the last century, this could be seen in some ways as an allergory of the Japanese people as a nation. There is just so much to take in here, especially with the appearance of the 'Little People' that you are held in thrall. Tengo has taken part in a literary fraud with a publisher and the original writer of a story, and is hoping not to be revealed. Aomame is sent on a mission to kill 'The Leader', the head of a cult. You could in actuality read this story twice, once reading the chapters to do with Aomame, and then the ones that are about Tengo, but it is much better to read them as a whole and enter Murakami's imagination; just relax and go with the flow, you won't be disappointed. Once again, if you have never read any fiction by Murakami, I wouldn't suggest this as a first read. I usually tell people to read After The Quake. There is a good reason for this, as this is a short story collection where all the stories centre on one subject, an earthquake. If you enjoy and 'get' those then you should enjoy anything else written by Murakami. I can't wait until next week when the third volume comes out. I should point out that this kindle edition does have an active table of contents.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Infuriates and Enthralls in equal measure,
By
This review is from: 1Q84: Books 1 and 2 (Hardcover)
This book could've been vastly improved by being edited by Tengo before release (I still don't understand the furore described in 1Q84 about editing a novel).The conversations are stilted and all incidental characters seem to know too much about obscure books/symphonies etc when asked, to be believable. Murakami also seems to be embarrassingly obsessed with breasts in this novel, and his descriptions of sex are cringeworthy. I don't know if it's been badly translated, which seems unlikely given it was by the same guy who translated the Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (there are other Murakami books which have been badly translated, but not usually the ones by Jay Rubin). Underneath these complaints there's an intriguing story fighting to get out, and after around the 5th chapter I was hooked. I've just started Book 3, which seems to be better written than books 1 and 2 so far. I recommend reading it, but its not a patch on the wind-up bird chronicles.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
IQ84 book 1,
By
This review is from: 1Q84: Books 1 and 2 (Hardcover)
This volume contains Books 1 and 2 of Murakami's IQ84 - I understand that when originally published in Japanese they appeared separately so I want to review them that separately (and not influence the Book 1 review by reading Book 2 at the same time). I am, therefore, reviewing Book 1 now and will and modify this to include a review of Book 2 later.The story concerns Aomame, a woman who, at the start of the book is late for an appointment - saying what for would give too much away - and Tengo, an aspiring writer who is engaged to rework a story by a 17 year girl, Fuka-eri, so that it can win a literary prize. Her story is, I think, key to the world - or worlds - described here, as its events and charecters, which are alluded to but never set out clearly, seem to be shaping both Aomame's world and Tengo's. IQ84 proceeds in alternate chapters, focussing on the two central characters. While a loose link between the stories does emerge, they never cross over and by the end of Book 1 we're uncertain even whether the two exist - or have ever existed - in the same reality: at the start, Aomame seems to have been jolted into a parallel world - the IQ84 of the title - but whether she has gone to, or come from, Tengo's reality and whether a similar moment comes for him, is delightfully unclear. They could be living in each others' dreams, Tengo could be writing Aomame's story as he reworks Fuka-eri's material - or neither. I only have two criticisms of the book. First, the pace is a rather slow in the middle. It's gripping at the start, as we learn about Aomame's and Tengo's lives, but then flags, only picking up speed towards the end, with threats of various sorts to Fuka-eri and, possibly, the others, looming. Secondly, some of the sex narrated here made me squirm - not, I hope, from prudery but more because it simply didn't ring true": I wondered if a nomination for the Bad Sex awards was on the cards. (I recently read The Pursued a totally different sort of book written in 1930s England and undiscovered since then and, of course, in keeping with the times it was much more reticent about such things despite being - in its own words - a story of lust, bloodshed and revenge. But it does make me wonder whether, in this respect at least, less isn't more. But I honestly can't decide whether that might not have been the intended effect ie that Murakami is using this to signal something about his characters or the worlds they inhabit.) It's all very Alice in Wonderland and I'm really looking forward to reading Book 2.
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