Book Review #75: 1Q84 By Haruki Murakami

Title: 1Q84

Author: Haruki Murakami

Publishing year: 2009 and 2010

Translated to English by: Jay Rubin (Book 1 & 2) and Philip Gabriel (Book 3)

Publisher: Schinchosha

Genre: General Fiction/Science Fiction/Fantasy

Pages: 1000+ (All 3 Books) eBook Edition

Source: Personal Copy

When it comes to the Fantasy genre, there are no specific rules on how do you write your story and on what basis does it stands. It all happens too fast and by the time you realized, you've already read something bizarre, something overwhelming and something odd. The book 1Q84 by the author Haruki Murakami fits in this category and breaks all those barriers of standards and gives us an immense and a riveting story that certainly keeps ringing in your head even after finished reading it. Reviewing this book was highly a difficult task considering its massive number of pages and many characters that lurks in the book like a magic.

The protagonists are also somewhat special knowing the kind of the businesses they deal with. Tengo, a mathematician and a teacher who teaches at a cram school and also a writer who aspires to become a full time novelist. Whereas, Aomame, a physical trainer who teaches fitness at a martial school and a murderer in her alternate profession who kills people that might have caused damage to someone or the other. These two protagonists were classmates long back for a brief duration and they have this traumatic childhood that leads them to build their own life from the beginning of their childhood all by themselves.

The main story unfolds in a dramatic way. Aomame was heading to kill someone gets herself stuck in a strange world where she couldn’t really understand. It was the year 1984 in reality, but, for her, this is actually the year 1Q84, because she witnesses some strange activities in her surroundings and not only that, she also sees two moons up in the sky during night times. She didn’t really understood what these two moons really indicated. She somehow realized that she is not in the same world as she was before. She continues what she does best (training in fitness center) and cared less for what was happening.

The Tengo, a part time writer gets a request from one of his friend Komatsu, an editor at a publishing house, with a strange story called “Air Chrysalis” written by a teenage girl called Fuka Eri a.k.a Erika Fukado. Komatsu sensed a strangeness in that story and asked Tengo to ghostwrite this story for a competition. Reluctantly, Tengo agrees to ghostwrite this story after consulting with the guardian of Fuka Eri, Prof. Ebisuno. Tengo didn’t realized initially that, what he was going to rewrite could lead him to a strange problem in later part of his life. He just attracted by the beauty of the story and writes an elaborated copy of the story and submits this story for the competition.

What follows after these events are beyond the level of understanding. The story that Tengo ghostwrites was actually happening in real. Tengo meets this teenage girl who actually wrote the “Air Chrysalis” and tries to understand the story from her point of view. He learnt that, this girl actually narrating a true event that has happened with her. But, he wasn't sure of how these “Little People” emerge from a Goat’s mouth or how they were building the Air Chrysalis and what they actually intended to achieve finally. He believes that, this will lead him to somewhat bigger surprises.

As the story further progresses, the author introduces us to the parents of this young girl Fuka Eri. The father of this girl was a friend of Prof. Ebisuno long back during their younger days. This father figure now heads a communist kind of group, now an officially recognized religion in Japan, called Sakigake. As soon as they found this religion group, they abandoned the entry of normal citizens to their fort and almost became a cult. Soon enough, this father rose to the new heights and became the Leader of this religious group. And, somehow, the girl Fuka Eri escapes from this group and she was well guarded by Prof. Ebisuno.

Due to some strange events, the young girls in the vicinity of this Sakigake group was tortured, raped and mutilated to the core. There was a woman called The Dowager, a powerful, wealthy woman that runs a destitute home for abandoned women and young children. She finds out that this Sakigake group is responsible for those rapes and tortures. She decides to hire someone special to look in to the case. This was handed over to Aomame, a certified fitness expert and a murderer.

As the story keeps us occupied and making us to guess what would happen next, Aomame prepares herself to murder this Leader of Sakigake. Several strange events do happen when she meets this Leader and she was surprised to witness these events with her eyes. She also learns that, she is destined to meet her long last friend, now her boyfriend, Tengo. Even in case of Tengo, he gets the mysterious assurance from this teenage girl Fuka Eri that he will be meeting Aomame.

The climax part of the novel is where the real story or the story inside story is kept hidden. Both Aomame and Tengo unanimously agrees that they are living in their strange world. Aomame termed it as “1Q84” whereas Tengo termed it as “The Cats Town”. What happens to both of them? Will they be able to meet at last? What does this Sakigake group will do once they found out that Aomame was involved in the murder of their Leader? Was Aomame and Tengo will be able to return to the normal world of 1984? These are questions for which the answers should be read from the book alone.

It is highly impossible to write the review of this book in a few lines or paragraphs. The book (including the three books) is more than 1000 pages. For a normal reader, it is even difficult to keep track of the story leave alone consolidate it for a review!! I was immensely impressed at the sheer brilliance of the author to write such bizarre story. The entire story is connected brilliantly at the right time and at the right place. The English translation work is just awesome. For sure, you would actually question yourself whether the story is happening in 1984 or 1Q84!!

I would highly recommend this book to be read by everyone. Though you may not understand it at the beginning, but as you immerse yourself in the story, the experience is vivid and it’s not possible to put down the book. You will certainly enjoy living in this fantasized world of 1Q84 throughout the novel.

My Rating:

5/5