For starters I won’t throw any spoilers here. 1Q84 is a beautiful trilogy spread over 1300 plus pages. For those not very well conversant with Murakami’s writings, well, each of his books has a, flair of its own. Vivid scene descriptions, detailed character accounts, and use of simple words, that’s Murakami. Maurakami describes his characters in an innate way, the reader finds him/her self fully immersed in the environment. 1Q84 is at a totally different level, there are few characters and all of them connected in one way or the other.
Aomame and Tengo childhood lovers lose contact after which life takes them along different routes. One becoming a Mathematics prodigy the other a highly trained assassin. Set in the year 1984 the story enters a new dimension when Aomame enters in to a parallel world in the same year termed as 1Q84. Things take a different turn with magical realism becoming more evident. Though, I did see a hint of mysticism in this book other than pure fiction, magical realism and a little bit of suspense. Being a voluminous trilogy of over 1300 pages it took me about a month to read it. Nevertheless, as you read it and progress you cannot put it down, makes you wonder “what’s next”. I’m giving it 5 starts.
My favorite lines:
- Everyone deep in their hearts is waiting for the end of world to come.
- 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.
- A person who is incapable of loving another cannot properly love himself.
- It is impossible to live without hope.
- In most cases one pain is alleviated or canceled out by another pain.
- All happiness is alike, but each pain is painful in its own way.