Complicated and involving Japanese fiction

1Q84

by Haruki Murakami

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Have you ever wondered what Orwell's classic 1984 would have been like if it was written by a 21st-century author with magical realism in mind? This is that book.

It took me all of February 2022 to read the 925 pages of 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. I loved every bit of it! This is a complicated, dense, heavy book. I read the Kindle edition in English. Murakami wrote the book in his native Japanese, but the translation is stellar. The major characters are:

• Aomame, a 30-year old woman who teaches fitness by day and assassinates abusive men by night.
• Tengo, a 30-year old man who teaches mathematics and is also an aspiring novelist

The book is set in Japan in 1984. The point of view of each chapter alternates between the two main characters. Their stories are tantalizingly different at the beginning, but they gradually converge. It becomes clear how they once knew each other and have vivid memories of each other.

Both protagonists are haunted by their dysfunctional childhoods: Aomame was the child of a religious cult, forced to knock on doors with her mother, proselytizing. Tengo was the child of a bill collector, forced to knock on doors, demanding payment. Each was a lonely child who grew into a lonely adult.

In the first chapter, Aomame is stuck in traffic on her way to an "appointment" (a scheduled assassination). At the cab driver's suggestion, she gets out and exits the freeway via a concealed emergency stairway. After she reaches ground level, Aomame begins to realize that something is very different in her reality.

The driver chose his words carefully: “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. I’ve had that experience myself. But don’t let appearances fool you. There’s always only one reality.”

Meanwhile, Tengo becomes involved with ghost-writing a strange book called Air Chrysalis. He gets to know the odd young woman who originally wrote the book, Erico Fukada, who calls herself Fuka-Eri. Her background is strikingly similar to Aomame's: both are children of a religious cult, and both escaped the cult at a very young age. Fuka-Eri is uncommunicative and not much of a writer. Nevertheless, her manuscript has a pull on all who read it. The editor Komatsu convinces Tengo to re-write the manuscript behind the scenes, with Fuka-Eri's permission. Komatsu explains, his words Murakami's sly review of the books:

"The overall plot is a fantasy, but the descriptive detail is incredibly real. The balance between the two is excellent."

Sex is a recurring theme. Aomame trolls bars looking for guys for one-night stands. Tengo has a lengthy affair with a married woman ten years his senior. The sex each has is purely physical, devoid of meaning, only increasing their loneliness. The only meaningful sex occurs late in the book.

This is a book that will stay with me. The resolution of loneliness and meaningless sex was romantic and expected and completely fitting.