I really don’t know if I enjoyed it or not. It was presented to me as I’ll either love it or hate it, and the reviews I read pretty much aligned with that notion, but honestly, I just thought it was ok.
I’m extremely extremely hard to offend so the indulgences of the book only annoyed me because some of them were completely ridiculous. Some parts definitely read like a very inexperienced high schooler wrote them, but when the book was good, it was really good for the most part.
Ushikawa turned out to be my favorite POV because after the ridiculousness of the chapters 11-17 of part 2, I was getting ready to DNF, but he was refreshing and really got me re-interested in the plot.
What I didn’t love was >!”the victims actually force themselves on me because they have to and crave it and they immobilize my body so I can’t fight them off, but just to make sure it’s not too creepy, they’re also just shadows of people and not actually real so what happens is wrong but still totally not as wrong as you thought it was”!< from Leader. I felt this was incredibly lazy for the set up we got, but I also don’t really know what could have been done differently.
There are a few lingering questions, but I’m not sure what a lot of the reviews meant by “more questions than answers now” because I feel like most things got explained, if not in a satisfactory way all the time.
Over all my thoughts on 1Q84 are pretty much “it’s a book. I read it” which is a little disappointing. I thought it was really ambitious tho and did enjoy it when it was good. But after finishing it I wasn’t sitting there contemplating the meaning of the universe or anything.
Sorry if I didn’t do the spoilers thing right
by HailLugalKiEn
3 Comments
Murakami books are all like that. And honestly a lot of Japanese literature either has a character not change from who they are from the beginning but they go through the journey and when the journey ends its kind of like “Hey I learned something neat.” Then it ends.
Kafka by the Shore and Killing Commendatore is like this at least.
I thought it was just okay and should have been 800 pages less.
I felt similarly. I had a hard time getting through it. Ultimately, I kind of liked it, but I can’t excuse the horrible parts. It was simultaneously nice to be immersed in the surreal world he created, but disappointing there really wasn’t much to it.
I was into the idea of the cosmic love story, but it wasn’t portrayed in any sort of special way. >!These characters had a class together when they were ten years old, their hands touching was a sexual awakening for them both, and then they’re destined to be together after all these trials and tribulations… But why? What makes it special?!<
My thoughts are just very mixed. The description of the >!sexual abuse of the little girls!< was disgusting and disturbing in an unforgiveable way, and it ultimately was excused. I’d have a hard time recommending this book to anyone the way it is.