1Q84 (Vintage International)
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A tremendous accomplishment. It does every last blessed thing a masterpiece is supposed to—and a few things we never even knew to expect.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“Brilliant . . . an irresistibly engaging literary fantasy.”—The Washington Post
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the Century
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is a striking feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.
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Readers say 1Q84 is a captivating, sprawling novel blending magical realism and intricate plots set in Tokyo 1984 with a parallel world. Many apprecia...
I know the English version has book this book series into 1 book, but I consider it a series. With that said this book was so hard to put down. Every twist and turn had me wondering where, when, and how. I have to say that I am loving exploring authors from Japan and Korea as their work is so artistic in bringing worlds to almost function as if they are reality.
I'm not sure where to begin with this review. HUGE disappointment. And that's an understatement. The biggest mystery is how/why I actually read all 925 painful pages.
The story is set in 1984 (but yet sometimes in 1Q84 - not even worth explaining) in Tokyo. I guess the backdrop to it all is that, 20 years earlier, at 10 years old, Tengo and Aomame were schoolmates and they fell in love without ever actually speaking to each other. And circumstances beyond their control separate them soon after and they haven't seen each other since, but they haven't stopped thinking about each other in all these years. OK, I can get on board with that. I'm a hopeless romantic. "If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there's salvation in life. Even if you can't get together with that person."
In their adult lives, Tengo is an aspiring writer who also teaches math at a local "cram" school; Aomame (the translation of her name is "green peas" - cute, isn't it?) is a trainer at a sports club, but she also has a side job as an assassin for "the Dowager," a rich older woman who dispatches Aomame to kill only those who deserve it - men who have abused women in some way. The Dowager also runs a safe house for battered women.
There's also a fantastical story going on here, about a religious cult. One of its young members, Eriko Fukada ("Fuka-Eri"), escaped at 10 years old and has been living with a family friend ever since. She's now 17 and has written an amazing story, one that was edited and rewritten (unbeknownst to the public) by Tengo, and it becomes a huge bestseller. It's all about Little People, who jump out of a dead goat's mouth, and they say "Ho-ho" a lot, and apparently they wield a lot of power. But is this just a story or is she recounting what really happened back at that cult?? The plot thickens...
So I don't know if things get "Lost in Translation," but the dialogue/narration is ludicrous. OK, Fuka-Eri is supposed to speak in a stilted, monotone fashion, asking questions with no question marks, but everyone else has these completely ridiculous, nonrealistic conversations, and it was really frustrating to read through that nonsense, especially from an author who is so highly regarded.
Then there is the gratuitous sex and pedophilia. Listen, I'm no prude, but the characters' obsession with sex was also bordering on ludicrous. And their fascination with their own bodies and sexual organs.
THEN there is the needless repetition and the author's insistence on pounding us all over the head with explanations:
"I'm a Perceiver, and you're a Receiver."
"In other words, you 'perceive' things and I 'receive' them?"
Duh, ok.
SPOILER ALERT: In 1Q84 (but not 1984), there are two moons in the sky! And the people who see the two moons get REALLY freaked out about this. Each one notices the two moons, then we get to read for 15 pages about how they're getting totally freaked out about the TWO MOONS! Then the next character discovers that there are TWO MOONS in the sky!! 15 more pages about them freaking out. What's the significance of the two $#%*& moons in the sky??? Who the *&$% knows!!! (And, frankly, who cares)
Also, there's another character, Ushikawa, who works for the religious group as a sort of spy. He's apparently not very attractive. He has a misshapen head and short bandy legs. We get this description of him at least 20 times. I'm not exaggerating. Maybe because the book is 925 freaking pages, the author thinks we might have forgotten Ushikawa and his misshapen head. If only we could be so lucky...
I think I held on because, as I said above, I'm a sucker for a cheesy love story, and I just wanted these crazy kids to get together. But admittedly, through all the glop, I got sucked into the other story line as well and wanted to see what would happen. Big fizzle. (Remember how we all got sucked into the TV show "Lost" and then the big finale - What the what??? Like that, except with bad dialogue) Characters and plot lines are introduced, only to disappear in one way or another without any real explanation or resolution.
And to sum up my point about ludicrous dialogue/narration and obsession with sex and body parts, here is Aomame's thought process toward the end of the book. Oh, another spoiler alert. She has some friends who died in the past. Not really a spoiler. OK, here's the quote:
"Aomame mourned the deaths of these two friends deeply. It saddened her to think that these women were forever gone from the world. And she mourned their lovely breasts - breasts that had vanished without a trace."
Yes, I think we can all agree, when we're reflecting on the loss of our loved ones, we bemoan the loss of their breasts, and their penises - not to mention those great asses - that we'll never ever see again, that have, in a word, VANISHED!
Sweet love story, though.
The story is set in 1984 (but yet sometimes in 1Q84 - not even worth explaining) in Tokyo. I guess the backdrop to it all is that, 20 years earlier, at 10 years old, Tengo and Aomame were schoolmates and they fell in love without ever actually speaking to each other. And circumstances beyond their control separate them soon after and they haven't seen each other since, but they haven't stopped thinking about each other in all these years. OK, I can get on board with that. I'm a hopeless romantic. "If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there's salvation in life. Even if you can't get together with that person."
In their adult lives, Tengo is an aspiring writer who also teaches math at a local "cram" school; Aomame (the translation of her name is "green peas" - cute, isn't it?) is a trainer at a sports club, but she also has a side job as an assassin for "the Dowager," a rich older woman who dispatches Aomame to kill only those who deserve it - men who have abused women in some way. The Dowager also runs a safe house for battered women.
There's also a fantastical story going on here, about a religious cult. One of its young members, Eriko Fukada ("Fuka-Eri"), escaped at 10 years old and has been living with a family friend ever since. She's now 17 and has written an amazing story, one that was edited and rewritten (unbeknownst to the public) by Tengo, and it becomes a huge bestseller. It's all about Little People, who jump out of a dead goat's mouth, and they say "Ho-ho" a lot, and apparently they wield a lot of power. But is this just a story or is she recounting what really happened back at that cult?? The plot thickens...
So I don't know if things get "Lost in Translation," but the dialogue/narration is ludicrous. OK, Fuka-Eri is supposed to speak in a stilted, monotone fashion, asking questions with no question marks, but everyone else has these completely ridiculous, nonrealistic conversations, and it was really frustrating to read through that nonsense, especially from an author who is so highly regarded.
Then there is the gratuitous sex and pedophilia. Listen, I'm no prude, but the characters' obsession with sex was also bordering on ludicrous. And their fascination with their own bodies and sexual organs.
THEN there is the needless repetition and the author's insistence on pounding us all over the head with explanations:
"I'm a Perceiver, and you're a Receiver."
"In other words, you 'perceive' things and I 'receive' them?"
Duh, ok.
SPOILER ALERT: In 1Q84 (but not 1984), there are two moons in the sky! And the people who see the two moons get REALLY freaked out about this. Each one notices the two moons, then we get to read for 15 pages about how they're getting totally freaked out about the TWO MOONS! Then the next character discovers that there are TWO MOONS in the sky!! 15 more pages about them freaking out. What's the significance of the two $#%*& moons in the sky??? Who the *&$% knows!!! (And, frankly, who cares)
Also, there's another character, Ushikawa, who works for the religious group as a sort of spy. He's apparently not very attractive. He has a misshapen head and short bandy legs. We get this description of him at least 20 times. I'm not exaggerating. Maybe because the book is 925 freaking pages, the author thinks we might have forgotten Ushikawa and his misshapen head. If only we could be so lucky...
I think I held on because, as I said above, I'm a sucker for a cheesy love story, and I just wanted these crazy kids to get together. But admittedly, through all the glop, I got sucked into the other story line as well and wanted to see what would happen. Big fizzle. (Remember how we all got sucked into the TV show "Lost" and then the big finale - What the what??? Like that, except with bad dialogue) Characters and plot lines are introduced, only to disappear in one way or another without any real explanation or resolution.
And to sum up my point about ludicrous dialogue/narration and obsession with sex and body parts, here is Aomame's thought process toward the end of the book. Oh, another spoiler alert. She has some friends who died in the past. Not really a spoiler. OK, here's the quote:
"Aomame mourned the deaths of these two friends deeply. It saddened her to think that these women were forever gone from the world. And she mourned their lovely breasts - breasts that had vanished without a trace."
Yes, I think we can all agree, when we're reflecting on the loss of our loved ones, we bemoan the loss of their breasts, and their penises - not to mention those great asses - that we'll never ever see again, that have, in a word, VANISHED!
Sweet love story, though.
Started out really good! Two parallel stories, written in a trilogy. Good storytelling, righteous issues, fantasy. BUT I finished the first, got about halfway through the second.
Loved the characters Aomame, the dowager, Tamaru, Ayiumi. But Tengo was all balls, testicles, peen, and thinking sexual thought of prepubescent girls. It got to be on every page for fucks sake. Never once did the author, describe the body or sexual organs of his “older girlfriend.” But he spent pages and pages on describing the breasts every young girl. It’s  clearly written by a dude. For this reason, I could not finish it.
Wanted to find out what the 1984, the two moons, the little people, the retaliation and revenge, the different time periods were,  but the focus on fetishizing children as sexual objects just got more than I could take.
I don’t recommend this book 
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