Why it took me so long to get round to this, I don't know. There are several Murakami reviews on this blog, and he's easily one of my top favourite authors. But, with a summer with nothing to do, why not?1Q84 starts off as Aomame's story as she takes a taxi on her way to a job. A job that, it turns out, is a kind of assassination. Meanwhile, Tengo is asked to rewrite a novel written by a mysterious 17 year old girl. Okay, so what next... Aomame is unhappy with her life, seeks one night stands with balding men, and eventually notices that there are two moons in the sky. Tengo is a maths teacher who meets with an older married woman once a week, but is finding himself drawn to 'Air Chrysalis', and its beautiful author.
Book One opens on the life of Aomame and Tengo. Each chapter takes a turn at following their thoughts and actions - one with Aomame, then Tengo, Aomame, then Tengo. The stories start in parallel, but slowly begin to converge as the novel progresses. In the way that it is written, I wonder if Murakami wrote them in that way, or if he wrote each character consecutively before splicing them together like that. But that's just a writer wondering how another writer works. Probably, it came into my mind because the chapters don't necessarily mirror one another, or seem to always suggest obvious links, which is different to the apparent patterns in other novels with multiple plots.
However, as 1Q84 continues, both Aomame and Tengo find themselves asking questions of the same thing - a potentially dangerous cult community with various unknowns. Writing this review before reading the other two parts of the book means that for now I can only speculate, but I'm really interested to see where Aomame and Tengo's stories go, how far they can find what they want to find, and to discover more about how their worlds may or may not change. The two moons thing is part of Murakami's surrealism, but so are the Little People who are said to have great power, though no one can say what that might be.
So far, 1Q84 delivers what I expect, and always enjoy, from Murakami - quirky characters, the ordinary made fascinating, the inclusion of the bizarre, and some thoughtful, skilled writing. So far, so good.
P.S I will not Google anything further to do with this book until I've finished. Unfortunately, I fear that some poorly written reviews and a trip on Google Images has ruined some big plot points for me. Grr.
Harvill Secker, 2011;
Hardback;
329 pages




