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jo's Reviews > 1Q84
1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3)
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i'm 100 pages from the end but i won't finish this. i've been assaulted enough. oh why why why do we let books assault us so? because they show themselves to us in sheep's clothing, and we trust them. this fuzzy, sweet muzzled sheep cannot possibly brutalize me -- can it? can it?
this book is relentlessly brutal. the narrative is stretched to its stretchable maximum. there is no good reason for this. i suppose that, if you are a murakami fan and like to hear the sound of his voice, there will be some pleasure (even intense pleasure) for you in his enormous wordiness, but the rest of us wish he had exercised some restraint.
there are many long and wordy novels. i have read my share. but the words, even those contained in lengthy and boring passages, make sense. i have been waiting for the meaning of this book to show itself to me. i have been willing to read 800 pages of it. so take it from me: there is no meaning. there is no depth. this is an entirely undeveloped love story/religious cult story/crime story passing itself off as a deep book about time, reality, truth, good and evil. the truth of the matter is, murakami has nothing to say about any of these things. i think he has nothing to say about anything worth 5 mins of my time. it's taken me more than a week to figure it out. woe is me.
you should read this book only if you find pleasure in murakami's voice. there is nothing else in it. nothing goes anywhere. funny looking characters are funny looking for no reason and moons multiply in the sky for no reason either.
add to this the insult of the awfully bad sex that spreads itself all over this book like sticky semen (thanks m. for the image). most of the sex scenes are, you guessed it, meaningless. one or two are violently disturbing and gratuitously exploitative.
i disagree with the people who say murakami cannot write. oh he can write. he just doesn't have anything important to say. his only contribution to the reader's imagination is his own vision of things -- their slowness, their bizarreness, their extremely slow unraveling. unfortunately, this vision is pretty much valueless. you won't learn anything from this book. it will leave you depleted and empty, or at least as empty or full as you were when you started reading it -- that is, if this lengthy rumination about the pretend meaning of things doesn't yank your soul from you. my soul is just about all yanked. i'm abandoning this book to save my soul.
this book is relentlessly brutal. the narrative is stretched to its stretchable maximum. there is no good reason for this. i suppose that, if you are a murakami fan and like to hear the sound of his voice, there will be some pleasure (even intense pleasure) for you in his enormous wordiness, but the rest of us wish he had exercised some restraint.
there are many long and wordy novels. i have read my share. but the words, even those contained in lengthy and boring passages, make sense. i have been waiting for the meaning of this book to show itself to me. i have been willing to read 800 pages of it. so take it from me: there is no meaning. there is no depth. this is an entirely undeveloped love story/religious cult story/crime story passing itself off as a deep book about time, reality, truth, good and evil. the truth of the matter is, murakami has nothing to say about any of these things. i think he has nothing to say about anything worth 5 mins of my time. it's taken me more than a week to figure it out. woe is me.
you should read this book only if you find pleasure in murakami's voice. there is nothing else in it. nothing goes anywhere. funny looking characters are funny looking for no reason and moons multiply in the sky for no reason either.
add to this the insult of the awfully bad sex that spreads itself all over this book like sticky semen (thanks m. for the image). most of the sex scenes are, you guessed it, meaningless. one or two are violently disturbing and gratuitously exploitative.
i disagree with the people who say murakami cannot write. oh he can write. he just doesn't have anything important to say. his only contribution to the reader's imagination is his own vision of things -- their slowness, their bizarreness, their extremely slow unraveling. unfortunately, this vision is pretty much valueless. you won't learn anything from this book. it will leave you depleted and empty, or at least as empty or full as you were when you started reading it -- that is, if this lengthy rumination about the pretend meaning of things doesn't yank your soul from you. my soul is just about all yanked. i'm abandoning this book to save my soul.
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Reading Progress
January 11, 2012
–
Started Reading
January 11, 2012
– Shelved
January 11, 2012
–
2.01%
"i'm well into this book. another 2 or 3 years and i should be done with it."
page
19
January 13, 2012
–
9.53%
"this is going to cause me to fail my reading challenge! oh no!!!!!"
page
90
January 22, 2012
–
52.97%
"hit very unpleasant scene. may have soured book and author for me. i don't want to continue, even."
page
500
January 28, 2012
– Shelved as:
east-south-east-asia
January 28, 2012
–
Finished Reading
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Jan 28, 2012 08:39AM
You could say that this book might have been aptly called "Rode Hard, Put Up Wet."
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Woah. So I'm at a crossroads where I need to buy the book or abandon it. I don't buy books lightly. I am now scared.
rashida: want me to send you my copy?
Oh I am SO glad to read this! I was a third through and put it down to read other books and yesterday decided I better force myself to read the rest and it felt like I was paying frickin' penance! I rarely abandon books but if this really doesn't change at any point in the book then I presume that 1/3 of the book is more than enough.
hi tee. i actually really liked the first third. there was promise, you know? the problem is that the promise is never delivered. read some other reviews by people who gave this book one star. there are some poignant comments on the book's style. it must be what got you. the style in itself didn't bother me. just the overall bullshitness. :)
Never read this book and no intention to read it, but I loved your review! Brava!
Yeah, I hear you. The thing is; I've liked the first third well enough but couldn't bear to read another million pages with the same tone and pace. Even if it sped up, or got deeper here and there, it'd be a blessing but it doesn't really seem like it does. If I reach 90 years old and have read all the good books in the world, I might come back to this and finish it off. Until then, toooo many other books to read!
too many EXCELLENT books to read all right, tee!thank you elena! did i mention the whales? this book is big on whale research and preservation.
So I guess this won't make your Top Ten of 2012?
depends how many i read! :)
"i think he has nothing to say about anything worth 5 mins of my time." yay for jo's one-star reviews!!! Pile on the Murakami disdain, jo - I'm all ears. I admire you for taking this monster on though. I can't believe you made it through 800 pp.
Hey Jo, whales?! Great! If you tell me from what to what page I'll go to the bookstore and read them there.... By the way, I might get the money this week from my whale book I did almost a year ago. Still no publication date though. But when the book comes out I'll send you a copy ...IN ITALIANO!!!!!!!
hahahahah i was joking elena. NO WHALES ANYWHERE!!! glad to hear, though, that you might get the money for your work. always nice when that happens. :) i can't wait to get the copy IN ITALIANO. my mom will read it when she comes to visit. hahahahaha. jakaem: do you have any feelings one way or the other about this man?
No way, you were joking??!!!!!!!! Sei grande, you totally got me!!!!!!!! Yes, whenever I see the book out, I'll send you a copy. This one does talk about whales, ahahahahah! And maybe when you have it right there in your face, you'll read a couple of pages....
i'll read what it takes to admire the dexterity and beauty of your translation. then i'm gonna go read the original and scoff, "elena put it MUCH BETTER!"
Che grande amica, ahahahah! Sei troppo buona. Spero davvero di mandartelo presto!!!!!
jo wrote: "jakaem: do you have any feelings one way or the other about this man?"
Hard-Boiled Wonderland & The End of the World
I stuck that one out but it was half the length. I simply could not do 800 pages of it. Somewhere Paul Bryant has posted an extremely funny parody of Murakami. I will try to find that for you.
ETA: Here it is.
Just one point: the two moons are in the sky for one character, but not the other, because she's a fictional character created by the other, not by the author, although ... oh hell! :)
hi philipc. hmmm, actually there are two moons in the sky for two characters -- tengo and aomake. we are not told what fuka-eri sees but it's quite likely she sees two moons too, since she put it in the book and the book is, as she says, entirely her experience.
I'm listening to this book right now (42 hours long in case you were wondering). I'm on disk 33 or 38 and I'm so bored! You were the first 1 star I saw given to this book. I'm going to finish it (eventually) but I guess all the people who gave 5 stars are already fans. Great review! It made me laugh!
thank you nicole! clearly, i didn't get it. clearly, you didn't either. so glad for all the folks who got joy out of this book! :)
I received this book from my brother-in-law who picked it up for my birthday gift last year. I tried THREE times to read this book, out of some kind of twisted obligation. Finally, I gave up.
i hope your BIL is not a GR friend!
Did you use Sheep on purpose? if not you are in the murakami world
no. i am in the murakami world. now will you tell me what you mean? :)
Perfect review - and I'm so glad someone else finally picked up and commented on the terrible sex! No one else has seemed bothered by it.
Totally agree with this revie. This book is not worth the time you put into reading it. I read it to the end just because i had already read too far and wanted to check the "read" box?
i just re-read the review and am quite appalled by my certitude and absolutism. i guess i was pissed! but yeah, appalling sex. ugh.
I think that's what I find so fascinating about Murakami's writing. He's a stunning visualist, but you're right. In this book, it seems as though he has nothing to say. I didn't know how to handle that in the first books of his that I read, but I've slowly come to enjoy it, if not love it.His descriptions draw me in more than any other writer and it is perhaps that he uses so much extraneous detail. The length was unnecessary, true, but by the end of it, I felt like I'd been on some long, strange journey that I still didn't understand.
Many people didn't like that he never explained why a second moon appeared or what the Little People were really there for, but I feel like it makes it more mysterious and up for interpretation.
thank you for your thoughts, allyson.
I strongly disagree with you when you say he has nothing important to say. I believe that the author does this tedious- style writing for more than just length. I believe this is for adding complexity to the reader. I also believe many scenes can be taken differently. The author wrote in this style to take you on a ride. I must admit, at times I was completely exhausted. I also found the sex scenes to be very odd and just flat out cheesy. I find this style of wrinting to be more of an art and creativity. We as readers are used to receiving information and events instantly. Page after page we expect events to fly past us with great action. This book, I believe, was designed to do the complete opposite. I find his wordiness at times to be completely superfluous. This did require me to look up meanings and "attempt" to decipher many references in this book. There are also many animal references and character allegories in this book. This gave the book an extra sense of depth and made this book to me genuinely surreal.
what you write makes a lot of sense, ethan. i have grown as a reader since reading this book, and i would not say now the things i said here. also, i think i was just frustrated, you know? but you are right -- an experienced and skillful writer doesn't fill up a book with pointless verbiage. there is always a method to the madness. thank you for your comments.
TOO LATE, THE LITTLE PEOPLE GOT IT NOW
HO HO!
HO HO!
rubbish, he's a genius
Tony wrote: "rubbish, he's a genius"dude you don't get to say that unless you tell us why. you didn't even write a review.
Kurt wrote: "jo wrote: "i just re-read the review and am quite appalled by my certitude and absolutism. i guess i was pissed! but yeah, appalling sex. ugh."When i think of how much of this book I read, and wh..."
hahahahaha
I agree with you, jo! The begging was really promising. I had many expectations from Murakami. But after 800 pages I am unable to read anymore. I feel that the promise was never delivered and it is just not worth any of my time.
I totally get what you are saying. This book is sooooooooo frustrating!! I'm considering giving up reading it but i have to know what happens in the end. I'll skip some parts to get to it. *sigh*
Perfectly said. Wish I would’ve had the sense to abandon it as soon as I realized it was a total troll of a book.
Alex wrote: "Perfectly said. Wish I would’ve had the sense to abandon it as soon as I realized it was a total troll of a book."LOL at troll! You are going to read 2 and 3 right? ;)
