1Q84

[ted_]

I was wondering if any FOTs have read 1Q84 and, if so, what their thoughts on it are. I'm like 600 pages in and recently overcome with the urge to just give up and read something else. Possibly I've just hit the doldrums, and things will pick up shortly? If anyone has made it to the end (or not), I'd like to hear about it.

[smirky]

I'm a huge Murakami fan and have recently started reading 1Q84 (am about 120 pages) and I must admit it has been underwhelming so far. Many of the chapters seem like fodder and can be tedious to get through. I'll stick with it since it's Murakami and hope it picks up significantly.

[Barry in Ireland]

I got given book 3 of the series for Christmas, having not read the first 2. Gave it a shot regardless, and enjoying it just fine. I switch between reading it as a whodunit and literary fiction from page to page, but I'm hoping the payoff is worth my time. I've only read Never Let Me Go and the running book before this, and they were both top-notch, so have hopes for this one.

Now you know!

[smirky]

Are you thinking of Kazuo Ishiguro? I have only seen the film adaptation of Never Let Me Go. I thought it was a tad bit overwrought and really lacking in any emotional depth.

[Barry in Ireland]

Yes I absolutely am. Man, that sure makes me sound culturally insensitive. Apologies!

[Bryan]

I'm about 150 pages in, and am enjoying it. I think I kind of OD'd on Murakami a few years ago, but since I've had a lengthy hiatus, this one is feeling like a page-turner to me.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the tone sometimes - like the sex stuff with Aomame, which rubs me the wrong way a bit, but I'm giving the book the benefit of the doubt.

[Barry in Ireland]

And I'm done. Man, in hindsight, ploughing through 360-odd pages of the third part of a sci-fi/magic-realist trilogy of which I have read no other parts was ill-advised. Fool me once, etc.

[Bryan]

I'm about halfway through now, and a little mystified as to where it's going to go from here (Aomame has just had her run in with the Leader, which seems to have put the Little People on ice for the moment.)

I've loved it so far. As I said before though, the persistent sexuality in the book strikes me as unusual, and sometimes a little creepy. Is this the first time that Murakami has had explicit sex in his books? I can't remember anything like this in his earlier ones.

[ArchieFromPGH]

How great to find a Murakami thread here! I've read just about everything that Murakami has had translated to English with great zeal and loved most of it. I'm enjoying 1Q84 in fits and starts, but I have to say that it's upped my "creep" rating for Murakami. I have about 200 pages left.

[Bryan]

I finished this a couple of months ago. I'd say the ending was a little anticlimactic. I like inevitable endings when they feature a doomed protagonist, (kind of a spoiler, but not really since it really is inevitable) not so much when they feature a romantic reunion.

My overall reaction: weird. I prefer his hard-boiled mode to his fucked-up fantasy mode.