1Q84 by Haruki Murakami and Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her.

She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

Definitely not his best work, much too long if you ask me. The length robs you of some of the magic in his other books. The story itself it interesting, but not all that satisfying. it was like running a marathon, only to hop in a golf cart for the last mile.

Ultimately, 1q84 reminded me of LOST as a whole. I had great hopes, it was beautifully described, completely enigmatic, and absolutely less complicated than it seemed. There's about a bajillion reviews since the book was so hyped. So in the interest of being short and sweet (unlike the book, jeez) I will say: the characterization was damn good, the storyline, for all it's initial weirdness, was actually pretty pedestrian? I definitely had a, “that's all?” moment toward the end there. I loved certain elements. Tengo's dad, his mistress (what happened to her, that's my great mystery). I loved the stuff about Chekov. There's a lot to like really. It could have been at least 200 pages shorter. I'm going to have to read six or so kids books as palette cleanser, but I'm glad I read it.

2nd short piece that I have read by Haruki Murakami thats available in The New Yorker. I can relate to this one better as I can someone identify with Tengo and his daddy issues. Tengo's father is never given a name, which I understand since he is a selfish and jealous man.

“Going to see his father was a depressing prospect. He had never much liked the man, and his father had no special love for him, either.” With that being stated I could understand the resentment, dislike, and anger that Tengo felt from his father. From the beginning Tengo felt out of place at home thus it trickled down to his every day life.

Tengo's father raised him alone since his mother “died” but Tengo doesn't believe that. Tengo believes that his mother left Tengo and his father and ran off. Based on Tengo's fathers attitude I could understand that, but not taking Tengo? Did the father threaten her? Make her feel as if he was the competent parent?

The final act in this short piece is what makes me give this a 4 star rating instead of 5. I don't like that the father's response was riddles, I don't understand why he could not tell his son the truth about his mother. Did he truly have no heart at all?

This piece is an excerpt from Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84. Unfortunately its over 900 pages so I won't be reading it. I do want to know if Tengo ever finds his mother though.