“If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation."
- 1Q84

What most surprised me about 1Q84 is that I actually liked reading it! I have read enough Murakami that as I was reading the book I knew that he was not going to explain anything and yet I did not feel frustrated. I have developed a taste for his writing. In Murakami’s novels, it is futile to look for resolutions or explanations or logic or reason. You’re supposed to just enjoy the experience. The above quote perfectly captures this. There were so many things he left unanswered in the book and I should feel frustrated but really I am not. I just enjoyed the experience. I loved being lulled into a sense of wonder and mystery, not knowing what was to come, what made sense, and what did not. Reading this book felt like sitting by the fireplace listening to fairy tales.

This book is written in a style very similar to his Kafka on the shore. The two protagonists take turns narrating chapters and gradually their stories come closer to each other. I’m surprised to see just how easy it is to create a page-turner using this technique. Every chapter’s end, however mundane, turns into a cliffhanger as you have to wait a few dozen pages to know what comes next.

The one thing I do not particularly like about his writing is the pacing. Even in the final parts of the book, when the story is drawing to a climax, he takes his time expanding out every single thought that Tengo and Aomame are having.

Paradoxically though, I love how he spends a lot of time on each character, unearthing their innermost trivial thoughts. The true personality of a character is only revealed through these small gestures; things they do when they’re alone and not even aware that they’re doing something.

This is a gentle book about people facing circumstances beyond their understanding or control. Sure, there are gods, and two moons, and Shakespearean witches, and parallel universes, and weird sex, but underneath all this chaos the story is simple. It is the story of two people forgiving their past, going through catharsis and finding acceptance, and eventually each other. The story that is the only human story there is. Perhaps this is why the book is so endearing to read; because everything else is so murky and incomprehensible we are forced to focus on the basics, on the people. We are relieved of responsibilities to explain, understand, and rationalize and instead are completely free to just feel.