Scan barcode
A review by hama
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
5.0
I give this book 5/5 star
“It’s so detailed and beautifully written, and I feel like I can grasp the structure of that lonely little planet. But I can’t seem to go forward. It’s like I’m in a boat, paddling upstream. I row for a while, but then when I take a rest and am thinking about something, I find myself back where I started”
Trigger warning this book contains:
• Domestic Abuse
• Murder
• Child abuse
• Cults and depiction of religion as occult
• Guns, Gun usage
• Attempted suicide, discussion of suicide
1Q84 is considered Murakami’s magnum opus and it is certainly the longest book that he’s ever written. The world of 1Q84 is a derivation of 1984 and the “Q” actually stands for “Kyu”, which is “nine” in Japanese. This book actually does refer quite frequently to both literatures in Western canon and literature in Japanese canon. The actual substance of this book is very hard to address because it is a 1300-page novel, and the plot doesn’t really take off running.
“It’s very difficult to logically explain the illogical”
The basic idea of this book is that it is a dual narrative for book#1 and book#2 and it is kind of like “Kafka on The Shore” and “Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world” and our protagonists are “Tango” and “Aomame”, however in book#3 we will get to hear from another narrator named “Ushikawa”. Were book#1 was more about world-building, book#2 and book#3 were about character development and answering questions about weird events that happened in world 1Q84. The whole book is being told from the third point of view and the writing style was amazing and it flows very smoothly. What disturbed me was the fact that the book left me with many questions rather than answers. Simply I wouldn’t mind reading 1000 more pages just to get my answers.
“It feels like I’m experiencing someone else’s dream. Like we’re simultaneously sharing feelings. But I can’t really grasp what it means to be simultaneous. Our feeling seems extremely close, but in reality, there’s a considerable gap between us”
“It’s so detailed and beautifully written, and I feel like I can grasp the structure of that lonely little planet. But I can’t seem to go forward. It’s like I’m in a boat, paddling upstream. I row for a while, but then when I take a rest and am thinking about something, I find myself back where I started”
Trigger warning this book contains:
• Domestic Abuse
• Murder
• Child abuse
• Cults and depiction of religion as occult
• Guns, Gun usage
• Attempted suicide, discussion of suicide
1Q84 is considered Murakami’s magnum opus and it is certainly the longest book that he’s ever written. The world of 1Q84 is a derivation of 1984 and the “Q” actually stands for “Kyu”, which is “nine” in Japanese. This book actually does refer quite frequently to both literatures in Western canon and literature in Japanese canon. The actual substance of this book is very hard to address because it is a 1300-page novel, and the plot doesn’t really take off running.
“It’s very difficult to logically explain the illogical”
The basic idea of this book is that it is a dual narrative for book#1 and book#2 and it is kind of like “Kafka on The Shore” and “Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world” and our protagonists are “Tango” and “Aomame”, however in book#3 we will get to hear from another narrator named “Ushikawa”. Were book#1 was more about world-building, book#2 and book#3 were about character development and answering questions about weird events that happened in world 1Q84. The whole book is being told from the third point of view and the writing style was amazing and it flows very smoothly. What disturbed me was the fact that the book left me with many questions rather than answers. Simply I wouldn’t mind reading 1000 more pages just to get my answers.
“It feels like I’m experiencing someone else’s dream. Like we’re simultaneously sharing feelings. But I can’t really grasp what it means to be simultaneous. Our feeling seems extremely close, but in reality, there’s a considerable gap between us”