Stepping out of the otaku realm with this one but still keeping it in Japan.
1Q84 is a drama written by Haruki Murakami. The English language version, published in 2011,
weighs in at just over 900 pages. The
original Japanese version was released in 3 parts between 2009
and 2010.
1984 in Tokyo
two unassuming individuals are about to enter a world and a situation they have
little control over, forced to play their predestined roles as the events
before them unfold. Aomame is a woman
with a special ability and a highly focused attention to the world around
her. She works for a mysterious
benefactor as an assassin, killing men who have committed egregious sexual
crimes against women. On her way to
dispatch one such man she is stalled in a traffic-jam on the freeway. Her taxi driver informs her that she can
make her appointment by leaving the taxi and using an emergency stairway to get
to street level. She takes his advice
and quickly hurries off of the freeway amid looks of awe from the other vehicle
bound commuters. As she makes it to the
ground and heads to her appointment in Shibuya she notices that a police officer
is dressed in a slightly different uniform than she is familiar with and is
carrying an automatic pistol instead of a revolver. These are things that she tends to pay
attention to, given her job as a murder.
In casual conversation she finds that the changes happened 4 years
earlier following a deadly gun battle with a religious sect at their mountain
compound. To Aomame’s shock, she has
never heard of such an event happening before.
As she notices other subtle changes she begins to suspect that she has
somehow entered into a world parallel from hers. Now she must figure out what the changes
represent, how they will affect her ability to work moving forward all while subtly
trying to find anyone else who is experiencing the same thing.
Tengo Kawana is a
cram school teacher and wanna-be author who coasts through life effortlessly. His publishing editor friend comes to him one
night to discuss the selections for an up-coming amateur literature
contest. One manuscript in particular by
a high school girl known as Fuka-Eri has gained the attention of both men. While the story is mesmerizing and engaging
the writing style is bad even for a high school student. The editor is so compelled by the story he
enlists Tengo in a plan to rewrite the story and publish it, bringing them
and the author fame and fortune. Tengo,
concerned with the legal and social implications of a covert ghost writing venture,
tries to not participate. His friend
forces him into it by arranging for him to meet the author. When she tells him that the manuscript is not
a story but real, he begins to doubt her sanity. Her striking conviction and odd personality
though fascinates him and he begins to work on the rewrite in earnest. When he finishes it mysterious forces begin
to move against him and he has to figure out the truth behind the story, the
girl and the events that are enveloping him.
It’s hard to do a
synopsis of this long novel and not give too much of the mystery away. I only lightly touched on the surface of the
story though, so don’t worry about knowing all the twists and turns. I have been a fan of Murakami’s work for a
while, but I tend to be at odds with the American mainstream on his work. His most famous and critically lauded novel
in America, Kafka on the Shore, I absolutely despised and regretted picking up
and reading. I thought it was a juvenile pile of garbage. That said; 1Q84 received
a less than warm welcome in America. I
thought it was a fantastic book though.
Murakami writes engaging and detailed real life dramas that discretely
toy with ideas of alternate and changing realities. His sci-fi elements are very subtle and
sometimes hard to see in the grand scheme of things, but they are there and he
plays with them nicely. The best part of
the story and the depth of detail he pounds into it is when the pieces start to
fall into place. It’s incredibly
satisfying to start being able to figure out how everything in the story is
connected and why. I had wondered if
many of the critics who gave the book a bad review didn’t like it because when
it boils down to it, this is a 900 page love story. A well crafted love story that just happens
to have its background filled with zealot cults, issues of domestic violence,
counter culture and the traumas of the post war recovery.
Murakami isn’t for
everyone though and this is a pretty dense book by most standards. It does give a pretty clear picture into some
aspects of modern reality in Japan and some of the events following World War 2
that have helped shape the modern psyche .
So if you want to spend a long time with a quality story and get a
glimpse of life in Japan outside of anime and manga, here is an interesting view. While you’re at it check out some of his
other works to get even more acquainted to a more realistic Japan, filled with
tweaks to reality. My personal favorite of
his is A Wild Sheep Chase.
No comments:
Post a Comment