1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (TofB)

 (AARRGGHH!  Well, my favorite to win the Tournament of Books, The Tiger's Wife has been cast aside by the mammoth 1Q84.  I enjoyed the story and rated the book 4 stars, so why does this bother me so much?  Has my original enjoyment for the book been soured by the fact that my friends hated it?  Yes, they pointed out the flaws I was able to overlook while reading it, but should that lessen my opinion of the book?  Or did the fact that after reading some of the other ToB books make me realize that 1Q84 just wasn't that good?
Here is Goodreads synopsis:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10357575-1q84

I will add comments to my original posting here in red - so here is my review:

December 27, 2011
Wow! Pretty darn good story. Still debating between 4 and 5 stars - it probably is a 4 1/2. More to come later!
My original first impression of a book was very positive.  I remember really enjoying the book.  I flew through it.  I was annoyed by the redundancy but overall I read it as a love story however implausable as it may be.

So after reading some of my friends comments and realizing some of the flaws, I sat down a couple weeks later to right my updated review as follows:

UPDATED REVIEW 1/17/2012

I probably should not rate books until after the book has had a chance to settle in. This is definitely no more than a 4 star book.

Hmmm, where do I want to start? By chance, earlier in the year, I read Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murikami. It was weird. It made no sense and no questions raised in the book were answered at the end. But, I loved it. Kafka on the Shore was the book that made me realize that, I really like surrealistic or magically realistic books. Who woulda thought? So I realized that some of my favorite books - Thousand Autumns of Jacob Dezoet but David Mitchell and the charming Moondogs by Alex Yates both teemed with magical realism or surrealism.

Right after finishing Kafka on the Shore, I found out that Murikami would be releasing his opus, 1Q84, at the end of the year. I anxiously awaited the release of the book and somehow convinced my book club into reading it for our December/January book.

1Q84 is the tale of two people – Aomome and Tengo. They were both misfits growing up in families that had no true love. The story begins when the two are in their 30s and reflects back to their earlier lives as well as details the present. It appears as if the two characters have always loved the other even though the only interaction they had was when they were 10 years old.

The story alternates between Aomome and Tengo as they are enveloped into the parallel world of 1Q84. I was also drawn into 1Q84. After only a page or two I realized that I was being sucked into the depths of the book and would not want to stop reading. The story is fast paced and very interesting. It reads more like a typical mystery, leaving the reader wondering what is going to happen in the next chapter. Murikami killed me a couple times ending a chapter with a “made for TV drama style cliff hanger” making you want to skip over a chapter to find out what happens to the character in the chapter you just finished. Murikami’s language is very easy to read. It flows easily off the page. It is also chock full of similes and metaphors which is one of my favorite literary techniques. However, in some cases this technique was way overused - and I really like similes and metaphors. Interestingly, 1Q84 included a lot of magical realism, but the story flowed smoothly and most of the questions posed in the book were actually tied up at the end like a pretty Christmas present shimmering with ribbons and bows.

So, I liked this book. It was an easy read – long, yes, but very easy to read. I loved it for Murikami’s love of “the West”, that would be, us. He peppers so much of the book with references of Mel Torme, Bing Crosby, Dickens (English), Sound of Music, Sonny and Cher, Grand Funk Railroad and of course, George Orwell.

The book also raised several cultural questions for me. Do Japanese use chopsticks for everything? Like cake? Do the use the funny ceramic spoon for all liquids ice cream and soup included? Do they ever use forks? (Apparently, yes a friend of mine went to Japan for New Years and they use chopsticks for just about everything.)

Japanese religious beliefs? I thought that western religious organizations were not allowed in Japan, yet the Society of Witnesses the organizations in which Aomame’s family was wrapped up with was considered a “Christian” sect. Plus there were several references to biblical characters – Noah, prodigal son.

I do believe that the book could have been edited a bit more. There seemed to have been way too much repetitiveness of some details. In many cases almost identical information was given in both the Aomome chapters and the Tengo chapters. I could not tell a big difference in the two translators, except for the phrase “Be that as it may”. Huh? This appears twice in the last book – the one done by the second translator. The phrase “Not so much” as a sentence was used in our twenty-first century style – no way we were using that phrase in the 80s.

So, is this a 5 star book? No, not in any way. It was an entertaining story and I enjoyed reading it. Would I read it again – probably not. Did it hold me transfixed emotionally such that I thought about it and agonized over it during the day? Nope not at all. But it was a good and enjoyable story. Will I read Murikami again – most definitely.

Now as it stands for the Tournament of Books - I hope it does not win or make it that far. I don't understand why people think this is one of the best books of the year. I don't think that just because someone has written an acclaimed book in the past that his/her new work should be showered with accolades if in fact it is not a superior book. 1Q84 was declared one of the best books of the year before anyone had a chance to read it. Marriage Plot and State of Wonder are in the same category. Had these been the authors first books, would the author be so lauded?

So, trying to really look at this book objectively, without taking others criticisms into it, yes, I liked the story.  But, even though this book was 900+ pages, it read like a palette cleanser - a no brainer - a book one would read when you don't want to think about anything else - a Twilight.  I was able to gloss over the major flaws of the book and still enjoy it.  Comparing it to the other books in the ToB, in my opinion it is lacking.  Even compared to the Stranger's Child, a book I really did not care for at all, 1Q84 just did not measure up. The Stranger's Child story just did not work for me and I did not like the characters, but the structure and writing style of the book was very impressive and I can see why others enjoyed it and considered it a great piece of literature.  So, I guess I want my books to be both enjoyable and good literature and that is why I hope that 1Q84 doesn't win the ToB!