Book Review: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

RACHEL SOO THOW - 3 FEB 2022

“As if to build a fence around the fatal emptiness inside her, she had to create the sunny person that she became. But if you peeled away the ornamental egos that she had built, there was only an abyss of nothingness and the intense thirst that came with it. Though she tried to forget it, the nothingness would visit her periodically – on a lonely rainy afternoon, or at dawn when she woke from a nightmare. What she needed at such times was to be held by someone, anyone.”

Sitting at 1318 pages, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami was gathering dust on the bookshelves, and with a little encouragement from my fellow Bookstagrammers, I decided to finally take the plunge and it has become ANYTHING other than ordinary. Presenting itself as a trilogy, don’t let the size of this novel hold you back: the ambition that Murakami possessed in writing this is truly admirable and an amazing literary feat. It will hit you with electrifying sparks of romance, dreamlike phenomena, parallel dimensions, cultish territories, and beautifully detailed language: 

“The muscles of her face tightened, pulling in several directions at once and emphasizing the lack of symmetry in the overall structure. Deep wrinkles formed in her skin, her eyes suddenly drew inward, her nose and mouth became violently distorted, her jaw twisted to the side, and her lips curled back, exposing Aomame’s large white teeth.”

Hooked yet?

In this purely melancholic novel, we are introduced to Aomame and Tengo, a boy and a girl and their fates which become closely intertwined in a world with two moons: 1Q84. A play on the year 1984, the ’Q’ stands for ‘Question’ and an alternate world that Aomame happens to stumble upon through an emergency staircase leading down from the Metropolitan expressway. It’s inherently inevitable that what she will find will be a world that resembles a cocoon of sorts and an intro into an element of escapism that we all crave. This is where I fell head first into this near-magical world that felt like if I ever was to consider leaving, it would be like trying to escape a rabbit-hole with no exit. Petrifying yet addictive. Was this what addiction feels like? It was like in some way, like the fates of Tengo and Aomame, I too, was also intertwined in a world where the anticipation felt too good to be real.

“The pain one feels in this world is real pain. Deaths caused in this world are real deaths. Blood shed in this world is real blood. This is no imitation world, no imaginary world, no metaphysical world. I guarantee you that. But this is not the 1984 you know.”

Aomame, a martial-arts instructor and physical therapist, is working for the Dowager (an elderly woman known for running a shelter for those suffering from domestic violence) and is also quite the femme badass sent out on various occasions to inflict furtive punishment on violent men. Tengo on the other hand, is a maths teacher and writer and is given the task of ghost-writing a novel called ‘Air Chrysalis’ written by a seventeen-year-old girl. Fast-forward thirty years, and the romance is still lying beneath the surface and the journey to reclaim these fates is smothered in yearnful chatter and daily action in this parallel world. Each chapter in this novel is constructed from the viewpoint of these characters and seems to seamlessly make up the larger-than-life epic; as we are subject to the day to day lives of each of them, Murakami seems to transform each page into a detailed sense of wonderment that mixes equal measures of calm routine, wholesome curiosity, and wayward passion. Take for example, the concept of the Little People – I mean this fantastical element in itself is intriguing and imaginative; what springs to mind is that classic film ‘The Borrowers’ (1952) and already I’m transported to a childhood full of questions and awe. Fleeting doubt and where every action or reaction is a spectacle. THIS is where the success of this novel lies – the realization that there is a real world and within it the possible wonderment of another is fantastically created.

 If you’re familiar with Murakami’s work, then you’ll know his words are simply exquisite and masterful in his execution of fantastical elements and his character development is inherently divine. Lo and behold, this is absolutely the case with 1Q84 – every page is delectable in its ability to emit a variety of emotional depth and yet exhibit a narrative that has you languishing for the next chapter.

It's hard to put into a few words just how much this novel means to me so I feel that this review doesn’t do it justice and all I would ask is that for anyone that still has this sitting on their shelves, that this is your sign to reach for this novel this year and indulge in a beautiful, comforting story that magically seems to intertwine with the complexities of modernity. This is where I find Murakami’s work to be the most relevant; through space and time, Murakami’s writing never ceases to amaze me- literary temptations of morality, love, consciousness, imagination, and gripping originality, have a way of finding purpose in this world and the next. Be prepared to (hopefully!) immerse yourself in a novel that could only be described purely as the very definition of the maddening brilliance of love.

It's an easy five-star from me and one of the best novels I’ve read in a very long time.

“Is there a concrete reason that you think you probably will never be united with him?”

“Not in particular,” Aomame said. “Other than the fact that I am me.”

“Don’t you have any intention of taking the initiative to approach him?”

Aomame shook her head. “The most important thing to me is the fact that I want him with my whole heart.

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