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A review by hangsawoman
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
5.0
This took a while.
I have a weakness for big, messy, beautiful books. I don't exactly mean big as in long, although sometimes they are that, I mean big in concept and ideas, not always in execution. The most important thing with a book like that is: can it transcend it's issues to be amazing anyway? I spent last summer asking this question about House of Leaves, and the answer ended up being "not quite".
I think, for me at least, 1Q84 does transcend it's issues. There are lots. All the usual Murakami issues amplified, due to the book's size, both literally and metaphorically. Uncomfortable sex, repetition, possibly misogyny (this ones a little more arguable in either side); they're all here.
But he also offers up Aomame, possibly his most compelling and psychologically complex character, a number of astoundingly disturbing ideas and sequences (The Little People's first appearance and the NHK Collector stick out in my mind). And the book itself, as an expansion of Orwell's 1984, is utterly genius. It constantly plays with what the reader might expect from this. It never takes the easy path in linking to its inspiration. Instead it adds dimensions to the original--where the original was concerned a totalitarian society, Murakami gustily makes the case for a totalitarian reality, with an invisible God(s) or Devil(s) controlling fate. Instead of Big Brother he gives us The Little People. Instead of Winston Smith's journal there are the dual books at 1Q84's core that have the power to fight back against fate. Literature can alter the world around us. It can even create new worlds specifically for you.
I know a lot of people found it disappointing, overlong, repetitious. Really, it's all of those things. That's what makes it profoundly special and moving. It's a novel with an entire world trapped inside its pages, and not many other books can even come close to that.
I have a weakness for big, messy, beautiful books. I don't exactly mean big as in long, although sometimes they are that, I mean big in concept and ideas, not always in execution. The most important thing with a book like that is: can it transcend it's issues to be amazing anyway? I spent last summer asking this question about House of Leaves, and the answer ended up being "not quite".
I think, for me at least, 1Q84 does transcend it's issues. There are lots. All the usual Murakami issues amplified, due to the book's size, both literally and metaphorically. Uncomfortable sex, repetition, possibly misogyny (this ones a little more arguable in either side); they're all here.
But he also offers up Aomame, possibly his most compelling and psychologically complex character, a number of astoundingly disturbing ideas and sequences (The Little People's first appearance and the NHK Collector stick out in my mind). And the book itself, as an expansion of Orwell's 1984, is utterly genius. It constantly plays with what the reader might expect from this. It never takes the easy path in linking to its inspiration. Instead it adds dimensions to the original--where the original was concerned a totalitarian society, Murakami gustily makes the case for a totalitarian reality, with an invisible God(s) or Devil(s) controlling fate. Instead of Big Brother he gives us The Little People. Instead of Winston Smith's journal there are the dual books at 1Q84's core that have the power to fight back against fate. Literature can alter the world around us. It can even create new worlds specifically for you.
I know a lot of people found it disappointing, overlong, repetitious. Really, it's all of those things. That's what makes it profoundly special and moving. It's a novel with an entire world trapped inside its pages, and not many other books can even come close to that.