You probably wouldn't buy the latest Murakami for a slice of gritty realism, so it's reassuring that Aomame's decision pitches her headlong into a different reality, conveyed in Jay Rubin's lucid translation with plenty of zest. Somehow, 1984 has closed to Aomame, and the sequence of bizarre events that unfolds suggests that she has been drawn into a new universe which looks much the same, but has two moons. The landscape is similar enough for her to name it 1Q84, the Q standing for question, while she puzzles out how her own destiny is tangled up in the moral and procedural framework of this new reality.
reviewing a Murakami is probably far more difficult than reading it and that’s true. The plots are inter-connected and the reader at one point finds it difficult to keep pace with what is going on (though it is not that difficult). Murakami’s writing is simple and yet very effective. Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel as his translators for years now are masters of their craft. They know exactly what words to use to capture the emotion and the scene as I am sure must have played out in the original.

Murakami’s characters are as complex as he pleases them to be. Aomame and Tengo as the protagonists are forever struggling to get their questions answered while the others play their parts and blend in fantastically to the story.
There is beauty. There are all kinds of social commentary. The book is a complete feat I am sure. Murakami does it only the way he knows how to: Stupendously.


Murakmi has such a powerful sense of interlinking and parallellism, ironic situations, metaphors, and over-arching allegories.

Let yourself get lost in this novel. If you hate it, I'm truly sorry. But try not to focus on the bad stuff... the technical level failures-- anyone can screw those up. Instead, I encourage you to get excited and happy about the good things this book has to offer: the powerful mythos, the advanced literary techniques, and hope for the future of literature as a whole.