1Q84 - A book review

There are times when you suddenly wake up in middle of a night with a feeling of being gripped in a sort of dream that you find almost impossible to recall with any exactness. There is a rush of lot of thoughts, feelings, images and emotions but anything hardly concrete enough to survive complete consciousness.

Reading 1Q84, Haruki Murakami’s 1157-page book, is like experiencing such a dream. There are multiple strands of story in the book involving its lead characters – Aomame and Tengo. Aomame is a professional killer of men who abuse women while Tengo is a math teacher and an aspiring author who unwillingly becomes a part of literary scam by ghost writing a book called “Air-Chrysalis”.

Tengo and Aomame have a romantic connection and the undercurrent of their desire to meet each other fuels the story forward for large part of the book. However, it will be unfairly simple to see this book as only a story of long lost lovers finding each other in midst of a chaotic and complex world.

Book delves very deep into each of its characters and runs through their routine with meticulous, at times boring, details. Through this thorough examination and detailing of each of the characters it successfully brings out many marvellously multi-layered themes. A few of these themes are noted below with its brief description of how they pan out in the book.

Mysterious cult life : Known as Sakigake in the book - the cult represents classic characteristics of all cults like secrecy, power play and engaging in activities that are shady if not totally illegal. Sakigake is also shown as the cause a character known as FukaEri  lost contact with her parents. Its leader is also accused by another character of a heinous crime like child molestation. Aomame is tasked to kill the leader of Sakigake for this very reason.

Little People : A fantasy like beings who come out into the world from a dead goat’s mouth and are powerful enough to slightly shift the yarns of the world in order to cause much havoc in the life of book’s characters. They are probably a rival to “Big Brother” in the classic 1984 novel, or may be just a reflection of our collective consciousness. Author leaves the final interpretation to readers. 

NHK fee collector : Through this character we learn a lot about a life of common man in Japan, his frustrations, fears, challenges and reactions. His troubled relationship with his son, Tengo , is poignant reminder of how people of one considers closest drift so far apart in the usual turns of life. His conversations with Tengo towards the end of his life reveal the core vulnerability of all humans, inability to understand one’s own complex and often conflicting self. 

1Q84 Parallel universe : Title of the book is a wordplay on title of another very solid novel 1984 by George Orwell. It would be unfair to see this book in shadow of 1984. Title 1Q84 merely suggests questioning (Q) the sense of  characters for their reality. Story is set up in the year 1984 but the characters slip through a passage which basically turns their worldview upside down. Readers get an indication of parallel world by existence of two moons! It serves as a spooky yet very vivid and concrete indication of something totally fictitious. The fact that it is in “Other world” is the ultimate and overarching explanation to all things non real in the book. 

Justice or Revenge : Through character of an old lady who runs a safe-house for women who are abused by men book highlights themes of justice and revenge. We learn that dowager had lost her daughter in domestic violence and then taken up the cause to champion for other women in similar situation. Aomame is also driven to collaborate with her by similar experiences of one of her good friends. Their work invoke crucial questions whether ends justify means in today’s world? What are differences between revenge and justice?

The weird thing about half remembered and half forgotten dreams is that though you think you remember them well enough to be able to recount them over a cup of tea in morning, it is only after a blank stare from your family members that you realise that it wasn’t probably a great idea to try explaining it in first place. The best you could do is to merely suggest them reading 1Q84 when time allows. :) 

PS - In times like right now, it is an amazing feat to write a book so long, and only for so successfully achieving that feat, I am a fan of Murakami!