1Q84: A Book Review
When I sat down in Barnes and Noble with Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 in my lap, I was only expecting to spend maybe 5 minutes reading it before returning it to the shelf. The book was over 1,100 pages long, so I wasn’t feeling too keen on reading it all the way through. Soon 5 minutes turned to 10, however, and 10 to 30. Before I knew it, I was engrossed in the book. So I purchased it, and continued to read once I got home. Just a few months later, I was finished.
The book’s strongest feature is definitely its prose. Even after translation from Japanese to English, Murakami’s writing style drew me in with the force of a whirlpool. This style features dense descriptions and inner monologue — but not dense in the sense of being stuffy and academic; dense in the sense of being tightly packed with meaning. Far too many authors (Brandon Sanderson, for example, bless his heart) write in a format of “and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened.” Murakami, however, makes you feel like you’re really there, rather than passively reading an account of events.
Another of the book’s strengths is the plot. For a book as long as this one, 1Q84’s plot moves forward at a decent rate, continually unfolding into new conundrums for the characters. The continual beating drum of plot progression is probably why I was able to finish Murakami’s heavy volume without getting bored.
While strong in various areas, however, 1Q84 also has some clear weaknesses. For me, the book’s biggest weakness is the way in which its characters evolve and grow. Or rather, the way in which they don’t. You see, even after 1,100 pages, the characters are still exactly the same people they were at the beginning of the novel. While the plot changes continually, the characters remain utterly static. They also don’t have clear motivations. Despite the fact that I’ve inhabited the minds of the book’s two main characters Tengo and Aomame for nearly 600 pages each, I still have very little idea what their values or desires are. It would seem that Murakami uses characters not as independent, autonomous entities, but simply as pawns to move the plot forward.
The book also has other flaws — untied loose ends, emotionally empty sex scenes, etc.— and other strengths — interesting subplots, really good symbolism, etc. Overall, I’m willing to take the good with the bad and say that it’s worth reading. While it is a very big book, don’t feel intimidated by 1Q84. Murakami’s prose will make it feel like a volume 1/3 the size.