1Q84

[RichardX]

This is an interesting one:

(Knopf) - "1Q84: A Novel" by Haruki Murakami

Murakami’s latest novel, “1Q84,” is an immensely long book, originally published in three volumes in Japan (the first two parts in 2009, the third last year). Still, you’ll be glad that Knopf decided to bring out the English version as a single massive hardcover: Once you start reading “1Q84,” you won’t want to do much else until you’ve finished it.

Murakami possesses many gifts, but chief among them is an almost preternatural gift for suspenseful storytelling. Here he once again explores his favorite theme, succinctly stated by a character in his previous novel, “After Dark”: “The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you. And once that happens, you’ve had it: things’ll never be the same.”

When “1Q84” opens, a young woman named Aomame finds herself stuck in gridlock on *Tokyo’s elevated Metropolitan Expressway. Carrying a “sharp object in the bottom of her shoulder bag” and dressed to the nines, Aomame is worried about being late for a critical appointment. As if reading her mind, the taxi driver suddenly mentions that there’s an emergency service stairway nearby, and that it leads down to a street close to a subway stop. He doesn’t recommend that she climb down these rusty stairs, especially in a miniskirt and heels, but the subway offers her only chance to avoid being late. As Aomame opens the door of the cab, the driver mysteriously says: “Don’t let appearances fool you. There’s always only one reality.”

[Bev Vincent]

I'm 920 pages in and hope to finish it this weekend. A fun and perplexing and intriguing novel.

[Alexandra19]

Hi !
Funny you mention it ; books 1 and 2 are actually on my desk waiting for me to read them.
Which I may be able to begin this weekend.
I have read a lot of books by Murakami and am always hooked by his poetic universe and his very particular sense of humour.
I'm looking forward to reading it !

[Bev Vincent]

Book three has a different translator -- the difference is subtle but noticeable. In a way it's appropriate because there's a major change in the way the story is told in the third book.

[omm poppa mow mow]

I'm 27% complete on the Kindle. I've just passed the point where the dowager and Aomame are talking about killing a man, this while a ten-year-old girl looks on, a girl who has experienced trauma. Chapter 19 Aomame "Women Sharing a Secret"

Please tell me if anyone else thought this scene a bit strange.

What's also weird or strange or whatever is that I'd finished Skippy Dies by Paul Murray before beginning this read, motivated by Richard's take on it, here and elsewhere. Thing is in Skippy Dies there is much ado about parallel universes and how after WWI there was a....spiritual awakening....for lack of a better phrase....people trying to contact their dead, maimed relatives from the war...in a sense, a seeking after a parallel universe.

Some things to go along w/what the taxi driver told Aomame...something the dowager has just told her: "That is because most people believe not so much in truth as in things they wish were the truth. Their eyes maybe be wide open, but they don't see a thing."

I am enjoying the narration....the two story-lines, one w/Tengo and the other w/Aomame...and something the Tengo told the professor: "Two men w/different destinations are riding the same horse down the road. Their routes are identical to a certain point, but neither knows what is going to happen after that."

Somewhat like Tengo finishing the story began by Eri.