Ian "Marvin" Graye's Reviews > 1Q84

My Sunken Book Review

My real review, my Sunken Book Review, complete with unreliable Maps and Legends (not to mention Narrators), is here:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...

Only go there if you are a child who likes to be spoiled.

It's like a treasure hunt in a secret room.

Or a pirate ship laden with booty.

The Little People have tried unsuccessfully to sink it without trace.

They managed to sink it, but I have traced it again.


My Superficial Book Review

Have you ever been intoxicated by a book?

I've had so much to think that, now, I still don't know whether I'm slurring my words or swirling my worlds.

Only time will tell. Or Tengo.

This might make me sound like a lunatic, but don't the moons look magnificent tonight?

And, by the way, your hair is beautiful.

It's true, it's not just make believe.

I didn't make it up. Or if I did, I promise to make it up to you.

I know how to tell a phony from the real thing.

I can tell the difference between the medium and the message.

So, well done. We two are one. We, too, are one.




Reading Notes

My reading notes are here:

http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...




A Metafictitious Review That Could Have Been Written in the Land of Questions

"As a story, the work is put together in an exceptionally interesting way and it carries the reader along to the very end, but when it comes to the question of what is an air chrysalis, or who are the Little People, we are left in a pool of mysterious question marks.

"This may well be the author's intention, but many readers are likely to take this lack of clarification as a sign of 'authorial laziness'.

"While this may be fine for a debut work, if the author intends to have a long career as a writer, in the near future she may well need to explain her deliberately cryptic posture."




And Another

"You could pick it apart completely if you wanted to. But the story itself has real power: it draws you in.

"The overall plot is a fantasy, but the descriptive detail is incredibly real. The balance between the two is excellent.

"I don’t know if words like “originality” or “inevitability” fit here, and I suppose I might agree if someone insisted it’s not at that level, but finally, after you work your way through the thing, with all its faults, it leaves a real impression—it gets to you in some strange, inexplicable way that may be a little disturbing."



"If You Can't Understand It Without An Explanation, You Can't Understand It With An Explanation."

"It was probably Chekhov who said that the novelist is not someone who answers questions but someone who asks them."




Haiku for the Land of Q:

Here is an assortment of haiku inspired (or, if lacking inspiration, stimulated) by "1Q84".

Please add your contributions and improvements in the comments.

And don't forget to read the interview at the foot of the haiku.

Yo La Tengo (HaiQ)

Remember your hand,
How it held mine so firmly.
Now we are grown up.

Sonic Youth (HaiQ)

Under the two moons.
Aomame, Tengo, Q.
Fuka-Eri, too.

Television (HaiQ)

My father collects
NHK subscription fees,
So I can teach math.

MGMT (HaiQ)

Come, let us watch the
Oracle spectacular
Sketch birds, moons and cats.

Laura Nyro (HaiQ)

So surry on down.
There'll be lots of time into
Which to disappear.

The Strokes (HaiQ)

A massage table.
I prick the back of your neck.
Your wife will thank me.

Animal Collective (HaiQ)

You should see my house.
There's not much fancy in it,
Just my girls and spouse.

Lou Reed (HaiQ)

This time of year,
You and I should fall in love.
Sleep beneath two moons.

LCD Soundsystem (HaiQ)

Let all your friends know:
Daft Punk, playing at my house,
Little People free.

Blondie (HaiQ)

Twenty-four hours.
Can't stop until we achieve
Exquisite Rapture.

New York Dolls (HaiQ)

Dowager avoids
Personality crisis
Chasing butterflies.

Patti Smith (HaiQ)

I am out of place,
Out of the ordinary,
And now, out of time.

A View from the Window (HaiQ)

Probably pregnant,
A large cat licks its belly,
Shaded by the tree.

New-Fangled Angle (HaiQ)

Tengo's shiny smooth
Instrument achieves frequent
Perfect orgasms.

Ushikawa (HaiQ)

Large misshapen head.
His legs bent like cucumbers.
Unkempt frizzy hair.

Fuka-Eri I (HaiQ)

I could barely move
Eri climbed on top of me
Prompting intercourse.

Kumi Adachi (HaiQ)

The smiley face shirt.
The hooting owl in the woods.
Your thick pubic hair.

Tamaru (HaiQ)

Card carrying gay,
I got a woman pregnant
Once, bang, a bull's eye.

Fuka-Eri II (HaiQ)

Ample breasts revealed
She closed her eyes in rapture
Her lips spoke no words.

Tengo's Recipe I (HaiQ)

Edamame, shrimp
Celery, ginger, mushrooms
Saki, sesame.

Tengo's Recipe II (HaiQ)

Tofu, miso soup,
Cauliflower, rice pilaf,
Green bean, wakame.




Interview:

The Brisbane Airtrain takes many Japanese tourists from the Gold Coast to the Brisbane International Airport.

This is a transcript of a recent conversation with a middle-aged Japanese man between South Bank Station and the Airport during the Brisbane Writers Festival.

The man was wearing an "1Q84" t-shirt, he looked like Murakami, and spoke like Murakami, but he vehemently denied that he was Murakami at the end of the conversation.

He was contradicted by his companion, a quiet but very assertive black cat.

IG: There’s been some suggestion that the character Aomame is similar to Lisbeth Sanders.

HM: That will always happen, because there aren’t many role models for women capable of violence.

IG: Aomame has a particular knack, so to speak, for kicking men in the balls.

HM: Realistically speaking, it’s impossible for women to protect themselves against men without resorting to a kick in the testicles. Most men are bigger and stronger than women. A swift testicle attack is a woman’s only chance.

IG: So it’s a conscious tactic.

HM: A strategy. Mao Zedong said it best. You find your opponent’s weak point and make the first move with a concentrated attack. It’s the only chance a guerilla force has of defeating a regular army.

IG: So, the message is “go for the balls”.

HM: Either that, or make sure you’ve got a gun.

IG: Which is interesting, because later in the book, you give Aomame a gun. Why did you do that?

HM: I wasn’t going to, but her friend Ayumi, the policewoman, said something that suggested the idea to me. She was talking about the Steve McQueen film, “The Getaway”, and she mentioned “a wad of bills and a shotgun”.

IG: And Ayumi says that Aomame looks like Faye Dunaway holding a machine gun.

HM: Yes, but more importantly, Aomame says, “I don’t need a machine gun”.

IG: So I guess she wasn’t just talking about kicking guys in the balls.

HM: That’s right, I had to give her a gun.

IG: Well, Godard says, “All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.”

HM: The idea goes back further than that, to Chekhov.

IG: Really?

HM: Yes, not so much guns and girls, but guns generally.

IG: I think Tamaru gave her the gun.

HM: Yes, but he also quoted Chekhov, “Once a gun appears in a story, it has to be fired.”

IG: So the gun…

HM: Stop, I’m sorry, that would be a spoiler.

IG: Um, Tamaru is quite an interesting character. He’s the one who suggests that Aomame should read Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time”.

HM: She was supposed to be in hiding for three months.

IG: So she had plenty of time on her hands.

HM: Yes, someone once said that, unless you’ve been in jail or had to hide out for a long time, you can’t read the whole of Proust.

IG: Is Proust still relevant to modern readers? How do you relate to his work?

HM: Very relevant, with one qualification. It feels like I’m experiencing someone else’s dream. Like we’re simultaneously sharing feelings. But I can’t really grasp what it means to be simultaneous. Our feelings seem extremely close, but in reality there’s a considerable gap between us.

IG: Many critics say the same about your novels.

HM: They do.

IG: How do you react to these comments?

HM: I send them a box of madeleines.

IG: Good one. This interview wouldn’t be complete without a plug for GoodReads. Do you realize you’re very popular with Good Readers?

HM: I’m very popular with most readers.

IG: Ha ha. But not Paul Bryant.

HM: Him, the one who would be a parodist!

IG: You’ve got to admit he is pretty funny.

HM: He’s no funnier than his raw material, and I am his raw material.

IG: How do you think you should respond to readers like Paul?

HM: I parody them.

IG: Really?

HM: Yes, I’ve parodied him in “1Q84”.

IG: His review of “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”?

HM: Yes, tell me what you think of this, I can even recite it by heart:

"Tengo had been all but lost in the work for some time when he looked up to find it was nearly three o’clock. Come to think of it, he hadn’t eaten lunch. He went to the kitchen, put a kettle on to boil, and ground some coffee beans. He ate a few crackers with cheese, followed those with an apple, and when the water boiled, made coffee. Drinking this from a large mug, he distracted himself with thoughts of sex with his older girlfriend. Ordinarily, he would have been doing it with her right about now. He pictured the things that he would be doing, and the things that she would be doing. He closed his eyes, turned his face against the ceiling, and released a deep sigh heavy with suggestion and possibility."“

IG: No. Nobody would think Paul Bryant wrote that.

HM: I would love to argue the point, but I’m afraid this is my stop and I’ve got to get off.

Black Cat: Miaow, too (this is a Meowlingual translation of something that sounded like "Nyaa-Nyaa").





Paul Bryant's Review of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle"

...is here:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Go there, read it, like it and return.