1Q84 - Wyrmsign.org

library binding, 1184 pages

Published Jan. 22, 2013 by Turtleback Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-606-27012-0

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and …

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s — 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

3 editions

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 👍🏻.