I hadn’t read and finished a full book in a long time. I kept buying book after book wondering if this would be the one that would keep me hooked till the last page. And then the harsh reality hit me. I didn’t like most modern stories. I didn’t feel up to the modern ideas of romance much. I didn’t know I was this old school.
A friend of mine suggested me a Haruki Murakami book. All I knew was that the dude wrote strong emotions which were mostly inclined towards sadness. That was not what I wanted. But he promised me that 1Q84 was not like that and asked me to try it out. So I started that book. I didn’t finish it until I went to my sister’s place for vacation and just kept reading and reading until the story came to the most satisfactory ending one could ask for. This Murakami guy sure knows how to end something. All his novels end in a bizarre way but weirdly anyone who reads those books will be absolutely okay with that ending. As a matter of fact that bizarreness of the ending makes it much more memorable.
I did not realize that this book had three volumes and is generally sold as a single book though. A single, very large book. I had set my kindle to show progress percentage and not page number. So I just did not realize the sheer size of this novel. And when I saw the physical book at a store my eyes went wide. The only clue was that I took months to finish it. But I do that with a lot of books so that did not strike me as a good enough reason to suspect the size of this book. The story was so engaging and interesting, you don’t ever think “wow this just keeps going on and on!” I can proudly announce that I am fan of this author and I have read quite a few of his books now.
SPOILER ALERT ####
Honestly there is a way to recommend a book or a movie. I mean movies have trailers that is made by the creators themselves. But books have readers who would suggest it to their friends or colleagues whom they know would probably like this story. So when you are being introduced to a book, it sort of matters on how you get introduced. For me, the impression about Murakami has always been the dude who writes stories around depression. Now that is not a wrong impression. He does write a lot about loners and depressed people. When my friend suggested me 1Q84 he said “It is about a lady assassin who finds herself in a parallel world which has two moons. And she seems to be the only one who has realized it and is trying to wrap her mind around it.” Now this is all I needed to immediately start reading the book.
The book literally begins with the lady assassin, Aomame. But she wouldn’t notice the second moon until almost half the book is over. So I was expecting that part for quite sometime and then gave up. And after that she notices the other moon. Which was like mind blowing for me at that time. The kind of lifestyle she follows, the habits and her demeanour all are very intriguing and don’t let us understand that she is actually a soft hearted person and would do anything for love. The whole novel starts out as a lady’s journey and her life and then it switches to Tengo who is understanding reality himself and later on it sort of becomes a fantasy novel with the two moons and what not and finally it ends as a romance novel.
It is amazing how this whole transition takes place and I am still not able to put this particular piece of literature under one genre. It does not belong under any one genre at all.
The story moves at an unnervingly slow pace for the first half. You have to some how get through that to reach the gripping part. After which you just cannot put the book down. Honestly you keep wondering what is going on, why is this character doing this, what is that character doing, how could they do that… These are literally some of the questions you get while reading this book. Also the characters whose purpose is over would return to their source. They won’t appear again in the story or even be mentioned much. The story is about Aomame and Tengo. They are all that matters!
Both Aomame and Tengo are these typical loners who just have life figured out and are going about it in the most mundane way possible. And then their life takes a turn and its for the best after a while. This author has a weird way of explaining teen love. It is very raw and almost something that is not acceptable in today’s society that wants to romanticize anything. But then teen boy who have just discovered hormones really won’t know what love is. Not the ones who were born in the 60s or 70s. They only know the raw biological reactions their body produces and later on understand what it could have meant. I really liked how sex was dealt with. It was just a biological thing that needed to be fulfilled from time to time. Both the characters feel that way apart from their own feelings for each other which are complex and unrequited in their own way.
My favourite part of the whole book could be the one where Aomame is in the safe house and is looking for Tengo and Tengo also does the same. To imagine her walking around the apartment thinking and hoping she could find him some day, and him roaming around the streets thinking and feeling that she is somewhere nearby. You feel like yelling at him to look up at the apartment with the lights on! I sort of did it too.
100% I would recommend this book to anyone who asks for some strong literary fiction. This is one of the best pieces of literature I have read in my life and I would cherish this book in my heart forever!
I have read this one. A fantastic read.