1Q84

Well, here I am!  I was really unsure whether or not I was going to continue doing this -- "blogging" (amazing how dated that term seems already!) and/or doing book posts -- but I figured I was unlikely to stop paying for the blog and the domain is paid up for another year or two, so might as well do something with it, right?!  While that won't win any awards for enthusiasm, I do still feel good about keeping these book posts alive... and we'll see what else... probably still some eye candy every now and then! :-)

The first book of the year is a big one, tho technically I started last year (December 22nd).  While not the fastest reader around, it is rare that I spend more than a week (or two, at the most) with one book, so tackling Haruki Murakami's magnum opus, 1Q84, for nearly a month of solid, committed reading time (typically at least a couple of hours a day) is really saying something.  My feeling is that there are so many books to read, so little time... why not knock say 3 books off the list vs. 1 like this?  

This was originally published as a trilogy in Japan and while I was credited 928 pages on this one... it really seemed quite a bit more.  Quite geekily, I maintain a running average of "density" with my Kindle books, i.e., how many Kindle locations make up a page.  After about 100 Kindle books, it has averaged out to be about 15 locations per page.  This book was nearly 24 locations per page!  In old-fashioned days (and confirmed by a trip to a real bookstore), this was a printed book with A LOT of words per page.  So using that average density, 1Q84 was more like 1400 pages.  But anyhow, a looong book!  

The good news was that any fears of wasting valuable reading time were quelled as I almost instantly became immersed in the world of 1984 (or is it?) Tokyo and the lives of Aomame, health club employee by day/hired assassin by night (with shades of Lisbeth Salander), and Tengo, math instructor and budding novelist.

To try to simply explain anything in this book seems nearly impossible, and besides it ruins the fun of knowing too much in advance. But to give you a hint, Murakami describes it best with this line: "Two story lines at work, with different starting points but running parallel to each other." It is a dense, detailed, and a quite deliberately paced work. Murakami makes reference to circular motions -- whirlpools, hurricanes -- and there is this twirling and spinning quality with aspects coming around again/being repeated... perhaps not always seeming to be moving, but in constant and sometimes furious motion. So while there was many a day (or week!) when progress felt slow, I still found it to be easy reading and compulsively intriguing.

Pop-culturally, I've decided 1Q84 is not so dissimilar to the TV series Lost. Interesting characters, complex plots involving the past and present, puzzles that are intricately pieced together, and yes... supernatural elements. It is those elements that may be the hinge on which one enjoyment door swings on this book. In Lost, if you lost it (ha!) when it came to the smoke monsters, islands disappearing, and such... you would likely have the same issues with 1Q84. I found myself open-minded/suspending belief for most of the fantastical aspects, though there were still a few that head-scratching/WTF?! moments. But other parts entered my real-world psyche. Suddenly every random stranger of Japanese descent seemed like a character from the book and, for pretty much every night for the last month, I looked up to the sky to confirm that there was still only one moon up there.

So that's likely enough of a hint to say that this is not a book for everyone. Even for some folks who I think might enjoy it, I honestly could not be totally sure. While it's breadth and depth were aspects I very much liked about the book, I could easily see how others would find it to be bloated and self-indulgent. Back to my Lost reference, I can also see where detractors would feel like that Murakami was making things up as he went along or leading readers off on unnecessary detours.

As proof of that "not everyone liking it," while I was well underway, 1Q84 was announced as one of the entrants in the 2012 Tournament of Books competition.  I am a member of the ToB group on Goodreads, and once the books are announced, folks tend to jump on nominated books.  One of the group moderators, who I typically have pretty good agreement with re: books, started on this one and abandoned it about a third-ways thru and absolutely eviscerated it in his review.  Funny enough, we said some of the same things and, as mentioned, I totally get why someone wouldn't like it (tho I am guessing, he probably can not say the same about those of us who did like it).

Onto my own rating, I felt that it did not have that "slam-dunk" feeling of 5 stars. However, there is this a sense of awe, achievement, and accomplishment -- for both Murakami and myself -- and despite the length and time commitment, I still found myself wanting the story to continue on.  So, I waffled (shocking!) and give it 4.5 stars but gave it a deserving nudge to 5 stars for Goodreads.

Comments

[Joanna]

Ed, I have been waiting for this one! Definitely a review that pushed me forward into the "read it" camp. I'll let you know how I feel on the other side.