1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Title:  1Q84

Author: Haruki Murakami

At its most fundamental level, 1Q84 is about the merging of opposites: East and West; science and religion; male and female; and, most importantly, the real and the unreal. This fusion of opposites is evident even in the novel's physical body. The partially transparent dust jacket together creates a complete image. Inside, Murakami's title takes up eight pages, each letter presented as an image and a photographic negative. The novel's central characters are Tengo, a mathematics teacher and budding novelist, and Aomame, a fitness instructor who moonlights as an assassin, killing the husbands of battered women. While their lives seem unconnected at first, Murakami slowly weaves Tengo and Aomame's stories together. Throughout, Murakami draws on Chekhov, Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji, the Christian Bible, Buddhist sutras, and (as the title would imply) George Orwell's 1984, and he does so with a calm understated style other writers can only envy. 1Q84 is, like all Murakami novels, a dense read, but, like all Murakami novels, it's worth the effort.

Review by:  David