Step into another world with Murakami's 1Q84

To open Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 is to take a daring step into a world with two moons and two stories to tell. 1Q84 is a world full of love, and heartbreak, and confusion: “a dangerous place, where logic [has] no purpose”. It’s home to two young lovers with intertwined lives, connected by ominous forces and threads of air and wind, trying to survive in a universe where everything is different, but undoubtedly the same- and anything is possible, but only at a high price.

Throughout Murakami’s 900-page novel, readers learn the story of Tengo and Aomame, two former classmates living very different lives in the year 1984. The book is told through alternating perspectives, and it begins with Aomame, detailing her descent down a rickety set of stairs on the edge of the expressway as she travels to perform a less-than-savory deed. As she steps off of the expressway and into a new life, Aomame becomes acquainted with a new reality- one she christens 1Q84.

Meanwhile, her counterpart- a surly teacher and aspiring author named Tengo- is meeting with a book agent to close an unscrupulous but once-in-a-lifetime deal, one that will cast him as the author of the next raging bestseller. This will happen, though, only if he is willing to ghostwrite in the place of a young girl, Fuka-Eri. Eri, a seventeen-year-old with boundless secrets and extremely strange mannerisms, has written a science-fiction novel called Air Chrysalis. This soon-to-be hit expounds a story that may not be entirely fiction as Tengo first believes; it describes the way group of beings called “Little People” create cocoons of air housing a twin to one’s soul- the ‘dohtas’ to a living and breathing ‘mazas’.

These Little People are as dangerous as they are abstract, only described in full when readers are more than halfway through the novel. These not-quite-fictional beings hold dominion over much of the world Air Chrysalis takes place in- and over the world that Tengo and his former flame are drawn into. The course of the book describes the connection between Aomame and Tengo, the impressiveness of which draws the two of them into an unstoppable but inevitable fight. Logic, reason, and common sense have no place in Murakami’s world; readers are left wondering what is real, what is fake, and what is just the result of the second moon hanging high in the sky of their new reality.

The world that Murakami creates is as convoluted as it is entertaining; the year 1Q84 somehow manages to be as unique as a science fiction world should be while also maintaining the simplicity and mundanity of our own. 1Q84 is unsettling, unnerving not because of what’s different but because of what has stayed the same. Aomame and Tengo are almost ignorant of the shift in reality in fact; it isn’t until they each spot a second moon in the sky that their worldviews are forever changed. Murakami’s extremely vivid descriptions- coupled with his tendency to extensively delineate simple things and while leaving more complicated concepts undefined- is a trademark of his unique style and adds easily to the absurdity of the piece.

The characters are stellar, as well; over the course of 900 pages, it is rather easily to fall in love with Tengo and Aomame and desire to witness their ostensible but still-perfect romance. The two of them are drawn into a new world not because of anything they’ve done or thought or said, but simply because they are so powerfully drawn to each other. Their motives are clear- admirable, even though they may not be engaging in pursuits that should ever see the light of day; their actions are all intended to curtail the omnipotent Little People and to bring the two of them together, to finally reach the conclusion of the slow burn that they have faced for over 20 years. The supporting cast is just as well-written, though Murakami’s loquaciousness often leaves readers with a bit too much information about characters’ breasts and sexual desires, as opposed to their true backgrounds, wants, or even plot-moving actions. However, readers can still easily form connections with Aomame, Tengo, Fuka-Eri, and others. This is indicative of Murakami’s exceptional writing skill, and this carries through also in his other works.

Overall, I really enjoyed 1Q84, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind the daunting length and the absurd but interesting story premise. It’s confusing at times, frustrating, and certainly not for the weak of heart (or literary knowledge). The world Murakami creates defies all logic, unsettles readers and gets under their skin. His characters are as risible as they are captivating, and his descriptions certainly leave a lot to the imagination- and a lot to the mind’s eye that perhaps one might not want to ‘see’. However strange it might be, though, 1Q84 is definitely worth the read, and it has now become one of my personal favorite books of all time.

So go ahead. Open the book, flip to the first page. But be warned: once you enter the world of 1Q84, there is really no turning back.