THAT TOOK A WHILE... | PART I

1Q84 (1Q84 #1-3)
by Haruki Murakami
Vintage International | January 22, 2013
Status: Part 1 complete

      The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
      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.

I really enjoyed this book, even though it's not something I read. It's not something I usually pickup because it's literary fiction and I usually dwell in the realm of YA fiction.

Warning: I'm probably going to be incredibly pretentious and off topic in this post.

I love Murakami's writing style. I love the flow of his sentences and how it makes me feel mature and fancy while reading it. I'm not reading this book for aesthetic purposes. I picked up Murakami's work because of my sister's influence and because of Killian @ Leaf On The Breeze. Their general positive attitudes towards his [Murakami] works inspired me to pick them [Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84] up.

I find his work to be incredibly mature. The characters are mature, elegant and intelligent. There are unexpected sexual scenes, but I handled it with maturity and dignity, I think. This book is incredibly repetitive and some of the same passages overlap in the double point of view. It's surprising to see the other side and more information. The repetition allows readers to see the darker side. I found it interesting how history was incorporated. I learned many things and I saw little tweaks to the history. I love (will repeat this word very often) Murakami's imaginative prose. His elegant and beautiful writing style aids in developing the otherworldly and ethereal feel in his imaginative prose. If you read how Murakami describes mundane things like Math and Reading, you'll understand. It's an embellished, but quite simplistic yet metaphorical at the same time. Murakami keeps you hypnotized. The first part is rather slow (it's the exposition and part of the rising action), but Murakami feeds you the must surprising and jaw dropping revelations. You need to continue reading for more.

This book is rather confusing, but my bookstagram friend assured be that it's totally normal when reading his works. You just need to reread things. Yeah... Not reading 1,000 twice. Because I'm impatient, I read the Q&A Murakami has on his website and a Wiki about the plot. I don't remember much of it, but it was beneficial for me. I acquired some understanding and reading the book became easier. However, the parallel universe setting and the time was still confusing. I questioned the timing of everything while reading. Is Tengo in the parallel universe with Aomame? How does Amomame leave? Does what happens in one universe also happen in the other? What are the effects? I wish there was more on the parallel universe concept.