Readers love Haruki Murakami. Released on October 25th in North America, fans were talking about 1Q84 for months before the author's kanji had even been translated into English, pressed to the page and delivered to bookstores. Murakami's fame followed the release of his fifth novel, Norwegian Wood, after which his name exploded like a supernova in the states. It was something colossal, exotic and different for readers. For twenty years he didn't relent, releasing a handful of wonderfully imaginative books that gripped the imagination of readers across the globe. But now, in a book that fascinatingly discusses the cult of the novelist, Murakami's own literary talent falls short of the legacy it created.
1Q84 Suffers From Weak Prose
The biggest drawback of 1Q84 is difficult to overlook: it's not very well-written. Murakami's prose, which once seemed so clear and effortless, comes off as a bit cliche and lazy this time around. An example: "Aomame could not help feeling sorry for the plant. If she were ever reincarnated, let her not be reborn as such a miserable rubber plant!" (28). The attempt at humor falls flat and the reader is left feeling slightly patronized by a writer who is undeniably brilliant but sometimes writes sentences that would make a mature reader cringe.
A possible explanation for this lapse style is Murakami's attempt at third-person narration in 1Q84, a mode of story-telling that is noticeably absent from his previous work. This narrative style creates a vacuum in 1Q84, a vacuum that he tries filling with lots of internalized dialogue which is marked with italics throughout the book. These introspective moments are tired and seem to be directed at readers who have not been paying attention for the last 200 pages.
1Q84 Has Big Shoes to Fill
The second biggest problem with 1Q84 is that it does not live up to expectations which, admittedly, had been set very high for the veteran Japanese writer. At 928 pages, the book sags under the weight of its own ambition. It is tedious and repetitive at times. It reads as if the author were doing an imitation of himself. 1Q84 doesn't hold a candle to Murakami at his best, books like Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, books where Murakami's writing is solid enough to bear the weight of his immense imaginative ability.
1Q84 Plot Summary
The novel tells the story of Aomame and Tengo, two young adults in their thirties who are estranged lovers who are experiencing a mutual yearning without even being aware of it. The two attended elementary school together where they once held hands. The remainder of the book is essentially borne out of this moment, which is beautiful, and through repetition becomes seared in the mind of readers in much the same way it becomes impressed upon the minds of the book's characters. Through some very esoteric novel-writing, the two end up in a parallel universe, the titular 1Q84. The lives of Tengo and Aomame become intertwined in ways that even the two of them are not initially aware of, and they embark on a 900-page quest to find one another.
1Q84 Wrap-Up
At its best, though, 1Q84 is a quirky tale, a fresh look at the boy-meets-girl genre. If it weren't for tremendous shadow cast by its own author, 1Q84 could stand on its own as a decent novel, albeit too long. Murakami is an excellent crafter of plot. The book is worth reading, but only if you've already exhausted the author's extensive catalogue of literary gems.
Todd Christopher Petty - Todd Petty is a student studying Journalism and English Literature at The College of New Jersey.
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