Book Title: 1Q84
ISBN: 978-0-099-57807-9
Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Vintage Books
Price: RM52.90
It’s just that you’re about to do something out of the ordinary. And after you do something like that, the everyday look of things might seem to change a little. Things may look different to you than they did before. But don’t let appearances fool you. There’s always only one reality.
– Haruki Murakami, 1Q84
Haruki Murakami may be referred to as a cult figure as his book 1Q84 and other works have sold millions of copies in both their original Japanese language and translations.
The novel tells the story of Aomame, a lady who notices strange changes in the world and becomes quickly entangled in a plot involving Tengo, her childhood sweetheart, and Sakigake, a religious cult. Aomame then sets out on a journey to discover what is “real” in the world.
One of the cults is the Society of Witnesses, a Christian organisation whose members distribute pamphlets but oppose life-saving surgery.
The second cult, on the other hand, is more enigmatic. Sakigake is a Japanese word that may be a misspelling of the words “forerunner,” “precursor,” or “pioneer.” We learn some terrifying details about its leader from two wounded fugitives.
Tengo, one of the two main protagonists, is persuaded by his editor to take part in a literary scheme in which he ghost-rewrites a teenage girl’s manuscript, which is later published and wins an award.
Almost all of Murakami’s books feature apertures or portals through which characters can pass. An emergency stairway leading down from a city motorway is one such example.
The book takes place in 1984, but after reading a news article about the establishment of a joint American-Soviet lunar outpost and the appearance of a second moon in the sky, Aomame realises she has accidentally visited a parallel universe she calls 1Q84, where the “Q” stands for “question.”
As the storyline of this lengthy book, a boy and a girl meet, hunt, and search for one another using the melancholy yearning that Murakami has long mastered.
However, the author claimed that his intention was to make a straightforward story as complicated as possible. He has clearly succeeded, and given the length of the book, a specific playground scene at the end is practically a guarantee to be quite moving.
But to be honest, Murakami said it with extraordinary restraint. It’s a situation where total technical expertise makes any two pages’ technical excellence conceivable.
The length of the book also allows for a variety of surprises, such as a tragic, amusing, and ultimately heart-breaking portrayal of a private detective who unexpectedly takes on the role of the third focal point of third-person narration in the third volume.
Murakami includes a plethora of details that serve as pleasant and reassuring fan service, as well as some noisy sex scenes, such as a young woman with a beautiful ear and the typical appearances of cats and crows. The same kind of tolerant, healthy inquiry that Murakami applies to stir-frying food is applied to all of these particulars.
Despite the strange and outlandish situations, the characters are as real as they can be. Murakami accomplishes this in two ways: first, through a slow-paced, meticulous cataloguing of typical daily activity; and second, through the brilliantly humorous imagining of his characters’ inner monologue.
A fantasy dystopian book will inevitably puzzle, bewilder, and charm the reader. Many of the story’s withdrawn, self-centred characters serve as inspiration for us to empathise with the Little People and seek our own voices rather than as actual leaders.
The only thing that distinguishes them from one another in their little bubbles is the sporadic dysfunctional purpose when they try to exhibit feeling.
A memorable work, in my opinion, contains well-written sections that you want to share with others and that relate to your own beliefs, concerns, and ideals. 1Q84 is one such book.
