willowmillway reviewed 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
"cue-teen eighty-four"?
5 stars
A long one, but held me until the end. Murakami does this thing with repetition: an idea or phrase is reiterated sometimes word-for-word at different times or different povs. Its obvious on the diction level but has a parallel in the larger scale of the story as well. It strings together a long strung out story and gives it consistency, familiarity. Murakami often lures the reader into familiarity even to the point of drip-feeding the clues to a coming plot point, dramatic irony appearing at the last moment. However, the familiarity is also a ruse, a way to shock the reader when something truly unprecedented is revealed. I appreciate the sympathetic powers in employ of Murakami's writing; characters who are hardly likeable in any easy sense are made intimately understandable even if we hate them at times. His stories often culminate in supernaturally charged climaxes and 1Q84 is no exception, …
A long one, but held me until the end. Murakami does this thing with repetition: an idea or phrase is reiterated sometimes word-for-word at different times or different povs. Its obvious on the diction level but has a parallel in the larger scale of the story as well. It strings together a long strung out story and gives it consistency, familiarity. Murakami often lures the reader into familiarity even to the point of drip-feeding the clues to a coming plot point, dramatic irony appearing at the last moment. However, the familiarity is also a ruse, a way to shock the reader when something truly unprecedented is revealed. I appreciate the sympathetic powers in employ of Murakami's writing; characters who are hardly likeable in any easy sense are made intimately understandable even if we hate them at times. His stories often culminate in supernaturally charged climaxes and 1Q84 is no exception, but i feel he really outdid himself in this case of fates converging and veils thinning; the inexplicable phenomenon having such terrible power until the very end. In conclusion: Put a Tiger in Your Tank 👍🏻.