1Q84

I didn’t realize until I read this book that I was pronouncing it the wrong way all the time as IQ84, and not 1Q84. Oops!

That wasn’t the only confusion I had when I started the book. Like all Murakami books, you have to put aside your day to day life, and prepare yourself for an immersive experience into the world of the weird.

The Plot

There are two main protagonists – Aomame who is a 30 year old physical fitness trainer with a side gig as assassin. And Tengo, who is a math and judo prodigy who teaches math and is a struggling author on the side.

What these two have in common is a shared school experience, where they inexplicably fall in love without actually knowing too much about each other.  

I mean they once held hands, and then never saw each other in the next twenty years. But that moment of innocent intimacy seems to sustain them in their adult lives. 

Now as adults, their paths cross in ways too bizarre to explain here. You just need to read the next 1300 odd pages to see if they get their happy ending.

My Thoughts

I really loved this book. It’s wacky and weird, and compelling. That said, I have a hard time articulating why I loved it so much. This sentence from the book summarizes my thoughts about the book perfectly.

So, I am not going to explain some of the interesting plot points to you. But I’m going to talk about how the book made me feel.

Usually, when I read a long book, I take breaks interspersing lighter reads in between. Not so for 1Q84, I read this at a quick pace; this book didn’t have one boring or slow moment in it. In spite of it being such a huge chunkster, I could finish it over the space of two weekends. It’s definitely not hard reading at all.

This book was such an immersive experience, while reading the book late at night, I sometimes felt myself in an alternate world. One day, driving to work, I felt like the policemen on the road were wearing different uniforms (something that happens in 1Q84).

When I finished reading the book, I felt a sense of elation. One reason of course was the fact that I managed to finish this huge tome. But another reason is the sheer sense of optimism and positivity that is present in the book. The book deals with complex and not always happy events – life in communes, assassins, wife beating, and so on, but overall, there’s a very happy vibe, especially in the ending. I don’t know if I am the only person seeing it that way, but after reading the book, I felt very light and uplifted.

That said, I won’t recommend this book to everyone. If you have read some of his earlier books, this one is a must-read. You will recognize and enjoy some of his signature quirks – music, cats, ear fetishes, weird sex, precocious teenage girls, urban ennui, and so on. If you haven’t read any of his books before, ignore 1Q84, and try one of his shorter books.

If you like them, then 1Q84 is for you.

Have you read 1Q84? If so, how did you like the book?