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A review by marrlee713
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
3.0
Update a decade later: Having read a few other contemporary Japanese novels (1Q84 was my first!!), I now understand that dropping into a story, spending some time with the characters, and then departing their lives, which appear to continue on without an audience (and without the tidy ending to which I have grown accustomed) is a common enough storytelling method, and I’m much more comfortable with it now. I simply dove into the deep end of the pool. Changing my rating accordingly, as it was a richly immersive book that kept me turning hundreds and hundreds of pages.
I'm not quite sure how to feel about this book - while the world Murakami created was engaging and the mystery demanded attention, in the end...I was left underwhelmed. I think Murakami brings this upon himself by repeatedly conjuring the ghosts of Dostoevsky, Chekov and other writers, writers whose works caused me to see the world differently, or to carry their stories around with me long after I finished the story. However, the world of 1Q84 melted away from me—like fog burning off—the moment I finished the last page. The more bizarre or mysterious characters that I wanted to understand, or at least know more about, turn out to be mere plot devices for the more pedestrian main characters. I finished the book thinking, "1000 pages for that?"
I'm not quite sure how to feel about this book - while the world Murakami created was engaging and the mystery demanded attention, in the end...I was left underwhelmed. I think Murakami brings this upon himself by repeatedly conjuring the ghosts of Dostoevsky, Chekov and other writers, writers whose works caused me to see the world differently, or to carry their stories around with me long after I finished the story. However, the world of 1Q84 melted away from me—like fog burning off—the moment I finished the last page. The more bizarre or mysterious characters that I wanted to understand, or at least know more about, turn out to be mere plot devices for the more pedestrian main characters. I finished the book thinking, "1000 pages for that?"