Review of Murakami's IQ84 Books 1 & 2 only - No spoilers
I'm pretty surprised by some of the negative reviews for Murakami's IQ84 Books 1 & 2. I finished this two days ago and still enjoying reflecting on the work now. Let me start by nailing my colours to the mast. I love Murakami's writing, have read most of his other works and am working my way through all of his stuff in no particular order - I would probably be as sad as to read the phone book if Murakami wrote it, as the saying goes.
Reading some of the less kind reviews a number of recurring issues seem to crop up - these are, that in these books, Murakami's writing is guilty of unnecessary repetition, the work is bloated probably down to the editorial team being too-reverential toward the author, the sex scenes are too frequent, unnecessary and again, poorly written (the opinion from a few of the reviewers are that these episodes are likely the product of some kind of late mid life crises episode from the sexagenarian author). Other general issues include the plot development being too slow, the dialogue being unnatural and the character development being insufficient. I would counter that the writing is layered, the plot/dialogue/characters are to the standard you would expect from Murakami, and well, most of us are just not prudes these days! (I would certainly argue that the many of the sex scenes serve as character development for the two protagonists and one in particular maybe unpalatable but is certainly essential in terms of plot) One complaint that made me chuckle was a reference to "the constant product placement", as if the author was being sponsored Hollywood style (I can't recall a single instance of this but I do think the reviewer is referring to Murakami's use of pop culture references) Other complaints include the extent of the writing devoted to the minutiae of the main protagonists daily lives, the preparing of their meals, the music that they listen to - i'm afraid, again this is a constant in Murakami's work, and probably something that initially irritated me at first before I got into the author, In fact if you are into the authors work you will find all the elements of 'Murakami bingo' are here - (unexpected phone calls/secret passageways/weird sex/mysterious villains et al)
This is a large book and I think that your enjoyment of this book will be directly related to the process of how you have actually consume it - both the reading environment and the format you have read it on. If you are a competitive speed reader, just rushing through it to get to the other pile of books on your 'must read' list, then I can understand some of the comments issues in the reviews (bloated/repetition etc), likewise if you have only thirty minutes spare, twice a day and are trying to get through this on your kindle in a packed commute on the train or tube then I can sympathise the commenters who wanted the pace of the plot to speed up. But I would argue that this is the choice of the reader and hardly the fault of the author. From my perspective I have always been a speed reader, If I start a book I usually get through it in a few days at the most. These days I tend to do a lot of dry technical reading in my day job (and the speed reading is very much an asset in this situation), which means I usually leave any kind of bingeing on fiction/non work related reading during holiday or vacation periods. Last summer in a two week vacation whilst de-sterssing I somehow got through 9 books in the first week, lazing by the pool before I had get a grip of myself and force myself to put the kindle down and spend time with the family. What's my point? Well my approach to reading Murakami tends to be different, I somehow now manage to slow down in order to appreciate the beauty of the language, the simplicity of the prose, in short, I truly do savour his writing.
When I picked up this book I happened to be off work for a few months due to a leg injury which pretty much immobilised me, meaning I had a lot of time on my hands. I also had a large hardback edition of this book on the shelf, which had been ordered when this was first released, somehow making the book seem even bigger. After a few weeks of exhausting other distractions I picked it up and started chipping away at it reading an even number of chapters each day, perhaps 2-4 chapters at a time, maybe 1-2 reading sessions per day (as other reviewers have said the chapters alternate between the protagonists viewpoints so I found that this was a good way to tackle it) leaving enough time and space to enjoy the experience. Taking this lazier approach probably meant it took me about a month to get through the book, and I found reading this book to be relaxing and thought provoking - in short it was time well spent. As anything, this book was a good companion during that time.
This leads me to the main point of my review - If you are a dyed in the wool Murakami fan, don't let any of these negative comments put you off, just go for it, but for the more casual fan perhaps heed the the words of caution for taking on this book, in particular, you should wait until you have a good period of distraction free time set aside just for pleasurable reading in order to trull appreciate it (I am returning to work tomorrow for the first time and have decided to hold off from starting IQ84 book 3 until the next period of available free time for the reasons stated)
End of review
End notes for the Murakami fan - my first introduction to Murakami was the Wind Up Bird Chronicle about 6 years ago, and for that reason I would still list that book as my favourite - I've read most of the big works, but at this stage I would rank the first two books of IQ84 (if you read them as one book) as being within the top three of his books that I have read so far. Hope that helps.
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incorrectly cropped pages from 793-end of the book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2019
end pages were cut off at the top and not fitted correctly inside the book at the end
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2019
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