Book review- 1Q84 (Trilogy) by Haruki Murakami

 

I finished this thick trilogy of 1318 pages when my life events led to a numb situation, leaving me dumb and fooled. Right now, my mindset is like the lives of the protagonists in the novel who landed in some parallel world where everything is different and yet everything is the same. The book's ending has lent me some hope that there may be a stairwell for me, too… which will escape me from the dead-end.

1Q84 refers to 1984, where the Q stands for “question mark,” i.e. A world that bears a question.

This novel follows two protagonists, Tengo and Aomame. Both of them are doing something dangerous, and unknowingly, in a strange intertwining of fates, they are together drawn to a peculiar world and start living through magical realism- 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; and two moons in the sky of Tokyo.

Each character in the book has a valid sense of philosophy and represents the thoughts of good and evil in stark contrast. The book's subtle voice reminds the reader that the world is a delicate balance of positive and negative, and everything is necessary.

My conclusion - First, to better understand this book, I recommend reading 1984 by George Orwell. 19Q4 is captivating, a tremendous feast of imagination and a quick sequester. Whether you like or hate it hinges on a particular point of your interpretation. For me…since it's Murakami, someone I'm pretty sympathetic to and who is not usually dumb or simple or reprehensible, the book is an absolute delight.

Quotes from the book of my liking-

“I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning.”

“That's what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories."

“I'm a very ordinary human being; I just happen to like reading books.”

“Life is not like water. Things in life don't necessarily flow over the shortest possible route.”

“Please remember: things are not what they seem.”

“I'm all alone, but I'm not lonely.”

“If you can't understand it without an explanation, you can't understand it with an explanation.”