Lucas LaBella, Class III
“Time flows in strange ways on Sundays, and sights become mysteriously distorted.”
-Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
What I want to do is call this book a romance novel, because at heart it’s a love story. There are two main characters, Aomame and Tengo. They briefly knew each other in grade school. Aomame, whose story we learn of first, escaped her cultist upbringing only to work as an assassin in her 30s for a syndicate targeting abusive men. Tengo is a math teacher and undiscovered novelist. They meet as children, fall in love, and are separated for many years.
The story isn’t conventionally romantic. The author is merely an observer, without any opinion on what’s happening in the piece. The plot itself is massive and complicated. The thing that stays with me about this book is the feeling of floating through a strange, almost psychedelic world.
The characters live in 1984, switching over to 1Q84, and back. 1Q84 is a parallel Earth that runs alongside the original. You can tell you’re in 1Q84 because there are two moons in the sky. This parallel existence is dubbed “1Q84” by Aomame, the “Q” standing for “question mark” regarding its nebulous nature.
What really draws me to talk about this book is the pacing and flow of the story. When Aomame murders a man in a hotel room with nothing but a needle, it is told as dispassionately as the description of Tengo editing a fantasy novel. The story is problematic in places, and the author made some interesting choices. What sticks with me is the feeling of gliding through these intertwining lives. If you manage to get through it, which is certainly a feat (it's a thousand pages long) you'll find yourself undoubtedly satisfied. Especially towards the end, when Aomame and Tengo get closer and closer to finding each other, the story really speeds up. It feels like the entire story is exposition and rising action and only the very end is the climax. The whole book seems to lead up to something, and the something happens, but without explanation. You’re not sure why or how, but it feels complete. There's no resolution, no answering of the questions the reader has throughout. It feels like a dream, when you're in the process of reading it you're just along for the ride. When it's done, your unanswered questions seem to fade as the atmosphere of the novel remains. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants the experience of a wild and winding dream.
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