Audiobook
English language
Published July 27, 2012 by Vintage, imusti.
Really disappointed with this one. The only thing that kept me from abandoning it was that there is something nice in staying with the characters for long in a lengthy novel and trying to know how things will turn out. It was also easy to follow and read.
I'm a huge dork for Murakami, and 1Q84 isn't bad but it's kinda just Murakami doing the Murakami thing but longer than his other work. It's not bad but it's just not my faovirte of his bibliography. I didnt actually finish it I stropped just short of the end of book 3.
Mystery? Thriller? Märchen? Parapsychologie? Murakamis Schreibkunst verbindet die Genres
"It's not me but the world that's deranged."
This is not my first Murakami book. Or my second or third, for that matter. I guess what I mean to say is that I'm no stranger to Murakami's surreal style and vague endings. I enjoyed [b:The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle|11275|The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle|Haruki Murakami|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327872639l/11275.SY75.jpg|2531376] so much. When my book club friends decided to get together to finally knock 1Q84 out, I jumped on board. I thought I was in for a trip. It was, but in the boring, extended, overblown business trip sense and not in the fun, dreamlike, what-did-I-just-eat Murakami sense.
There's entire swaths of this book that could have been cut and affected nothing of the story. There's (probably) a book in here that's really enjoyable, if only the extraneous stuff had been cut. Entire chapters were basically repeated with no real forward progress. I can only …
"It's not me but the world that's deranged."
This is not my first Murakami book. Or my second or third, for that matter. I guess what I mean to say is that I'm no stranger to Murakami's surreal style and vague endings. I enjoyed [b:The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle|11275|The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle|Haruki Murakami|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327872639l/11275.SY75.jpg|2531376] so much. When my book club friends decided to get together to finally knock 1Q84 out, I jumped on board. I thought I was in for a trip. It was, but in the boring, extended, overblown business trip sense and not in the fun, dreamlike, what-did-I-just-eat Murakami sense.
There's entire swaths of this book that could have been cut and affected nothing of the story. There's (probably) a book in here that's really enjoyable, if only the extraneous stuff had been cut. Entire chapters were basically repeated with no real forward progress. I can only read about Aomame's workout routine so many times before I start skimming a bit. So much water was boiled in this book.
So by the end of the book arrives, I'm already a little annoyed at having to slog through so much repetitiveness to get there. I was hoping we'd get some sort of wrap-up to make the slog worth it. I'm all geared up to decipher a Murakami vague ending and come up with answers myself, and then the book just ends. Spoiler for hanging threads: What happened to Fuka-Eri? Was she the dohta or the maza, and why doesn't it really matter? Does leaving 1Q84 actually do anything? What's up with the NHK guy who was banging on all their doors near the end? All these questions and more can be yours for the low, low price of 1300 pages.
Ushikawa was the one bright spot of the entire book, and it took us 2/3rds of the book to really get to him. He was so delightfully inept, and I loved watching him bungle his stakeouts and thinking he's a first class detective. Why did he have moss on his tongue though? No idea.
I don't know, this book was missing something for me that I got from other books. I had many questions after finishing Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but in a good way. I felt like there were enough clues and impressions and thoughtful inclusions that it led me to forming my own conclusions without spelling it out for me. This book felt like it missed all of that. All words, no soul.
On the one hand, the style of his writing is such a wonderful read. On the other, the constant isolation of his character in most of his novels becomes tiring. On the one hand, a fantastic description of the lengthy entanglements we go through to get where we need to be. On the other, I’m not convinced by how his female characters behave.
I too am inspired to escape Cat Town.
