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the complete review - fiction

1Q84

by
Murakami Haruki

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

A : nicely built up (if very drawn out) story -- and interesting mix of the substantial and insubstantial

See our review for fuller assessment.

*: review of only volumes one and two (combined)
**: review of only volume three

  Review Consensus:

  No consensus, opinions all over the place; volume two better than volume one

  From the Reviews:

• "The characters of 1Q84, some fearing that free will is an illusion, constantly worry that they have opened Pandora’s box, that time is irreversible and deeds cannot be undone, that there is no way back. The book’s big epiphany is all the more thrilling for being a simple sleight of hand, a shift in perspective that reframes the world." - Dennis Lim, Bookforum
  
  
• "Mr Murakami’s main influence here is not so much Orwell as Philip Pullman (.....) His early works were intensely personal fantasies involving unhappy, virtually disembodied men and suffused with references to Western music and literature. 1Q84 is much longer, but also far more conventional." - The Economist
  
  
• "1Q84 is "a place where questions outnumbered answers," and this is not the kind of book where the long, tangled threads all come together in the end. (...) I finished 1Q84 one fall evening, and when I set it down, baffled and in awe, I couldn't help looking out the window to see if just the usual moon hung there or if a second orb had somehow joined it." - Rob Brunner, Entertainment Weekly
  
  
• "Most readers of Murakami's mega-novel, his longest to date, certainly his most ambitious if not his most finessed, will be brimming with questions as they make their way through it.(...) Yet for all its haphazardness, 1Q84 is an extraordinary feat of sustained imagination, even if it essentially merely extends Murakami's now familiarly surreal and slightly tired fictional formula over a much broader canvas than usual." - Jerome Boyd Maunsell, Evening Standard
  
  
• "In vielerlei Hinsicht ist 1Q84 ein klassischer Murakami-Roman, gemacht aus genau jenen Zutaten, die auch seine bisherigen Romane auszeichnen. Murakami kreiert surreale Bilder mit dem Zweck, das riesige Möglichkeitsspektrum der Wirklichkeit fassbar zu machen. Denn zumeist geht es um die Bewältigung moderner Lebenskrisen, am Ende steht man vor einem klassischen Entwicklungsroman, den man nicht gleich als solchen erkannt hat, weil er in ein fantastisches Gewand gehüllt ist. (...) Murakami (...) hält auch in 1Q84 seine Geschichte zielsicher und elegant in einer magischen Balance, die irgendwo zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit, zwischen Wachheit und Schlaf angesiedelt ist. Dass der Roman über 1000 Seiten hat, fällt da gar nicht weiter auf." - Julia Kospach, Falter
  
  
• "Fantasy liberates Murakami from the conventions that logic and reality impose. When he strikes the right note, he can delight us as much -- well perhaps not quite as much -- as Lewis Carroll’s magic potions and vanishing Cheshire cats. But artifice can be taken to excess so that, rather like in a David Lynch TV series, even the most startling of occurrences is drained of significance. (...) Fans of Murakami will find all their favourite elements here. Sceptics, even as they are swept along, will wonder whether they are being led on a wild goose chase with no conceivably satisfactory ending." - David Pilling, Financial Times
  
  
• "Hat sich die Lektüre gelohnt ? Ja und nein. (...) Weniger mitreißend ist Murakamis Geschlechterkampfkulisse in diesem als apokalyptische Liebesgeschichte angelegten Werk (.....) Hauptthema von 1Q84 ist die Einsamkeit, die Menschen in der Gegenwart empfinden, und die Angst, die aus der Vereinzelung resultiert. (...) Der veritable Schöpfer leerer Gespinste ist also letztlich Murakami selbst, und man kann sich nicht entscheiden, ob man ihn wegen seiner kaltschnäuzigen Kunstfertigkeit verurteilen oder bewundern soll." - Lisette Gebhardt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  
  
• "Der Roman ist, wie gesagt, nach dem Prinzip des „Wohltemperierten Klaviers“ gebaut, und dieses Vorbild legt der Autor auch offen, wenn er Tengo auf die siebzehnjährige Fukaeri treffen lässt, die Bachs Werk als ihre Lieblingsmusik bezeichnet. (...) Pro forma könnte man den Roman einen Krimi nennen, denn es geht darin um Mord, Betrug, Verschleppung, Kindesmissbrauch. Doch Murakami spielt mit den Genrekonventionen, und wenn er auch kein großer Sprachkünstler sein mag, so ist er in formaler Hinsicht zweifellos einer der gewieftesten Erzähler, den wir haben, und 1Q84 ist diesbezüglich sein Meisterwerk." - Andreas Platthaus, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  
  
• "Whatever else about 1Q84, it is maximalist Murakami. With its animal allegories and echoes of folk legends, the references to everything from Alice in Wonderland to the Gnostic thinking of Carl Jung, the novel offers the most complete précis of its author’s lifelong preoccupations and eccentricities. For fans, the more is the merrier; for newcomers, the book may be a few oddities, and a couple of hundred pages, beyond the patience threshold." - Charles Foran, The Globe and Mail
  
  
• "In het eerste deel schuurt Murakami akelig dicht tegen pulp aan, of de boeketreeks. Misschien wil hij een punt maken. Misschien stond zijn vizier nog niet helemaal scherp. Het gevolg is wel, dat moet gezegd, dat het eerste deel soms dodelijk saai kan zijn. (Het tweede deel maakt dat goed: dat jaagt. De beschrijvingen zijn scherper -- al zijn ze niet zo haarfijn als je gewend bent --, de spanning is drukkender, bijna elk hoofdstuk eindigt met een cliffhanger. Bijna ouderwets goed.) " - Joost de Vries, De Groene Amsterdammer
  
  
• "Yes, this is a Haruki Murakami novel, where magical and dreamlike phenomena are deadpanned into existence with the same calm craft that his characters routinely employ in cooking themselves delicious-sounding Japanese meals (.....) Disparate pleasures are each given time to grow rich by the novel's long span, especially a sad, funny and ultimately wrenching portrait of a private detective, who unexpectedly becomes a third focus of third-person narration in the third book." - Steven Poole, The Guardian
  
  
• "Prolific, prolix, prodigious: read the book -- or rather the books -- and pick your preferred epithet. (...) But too many recaps slow the action. Since Murakami does nothing by halves, it makes as much sense to blame him for baggy repetitions as to ask Proust (whom Aomame reads in a safe house) to cut the fancy ornament and crack on with the plot. Yet, in terms of more conventional criteria, he can excel whenever he wants." - Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
  
  
• "1Q84 is driven by outsiders in a culture that prizes conformity. Identity and belonging, the porous membrane separating stories and reality, and a whole host of Murakami icons from talking cats to one-way portals all contribute to this rich and often perplexing mix. But ultimately, 1Q84 is a simple love story that ends on a metaphysical cliff-hanger." - James Urquhart, Independent on Sunday
  
  
• "For all Murakami's metafictional digressions and magical realist flourishes, 1Q84 is at heart a traditional romance. (...) (C)onsidered as a whole, 1Q84 has a range and sophistication that surpasses anything else in his oeuvre. It is, for my money, his most achieved novel; an epic in which form and content are neatly aligned." - David Evans, Independent on Sunday
  
  
• "Murakami uses this novel-inside-a- novel micronarrative to discuss issues ranging from the writing process to cultism. While some of these motifs are a first in Murakami's repertoire of long fiction, he has honed in on many such themes in nonfiction. (...) Given the gravity and previous treatment of Murakami's motifs, readers might imagine 1Q84 to be a slog to get through, but this is not the case, thanks to subtle humor and fresh narrative details. (...) Though the initial sales of 1Q84 have come from name recognition and media buzz, as time passes, it could be received as Murakami's magnum opus, or at least the best novel of 200Q. This novel -- mired in death and fetish, leavened with humor -- may become a mandatory read for anyone trying to get to grips with contemporary Japanese culture." - Matthew Chozick, The Japan Times
  
  
• "Murakami provides a true ending for the majority of the plot lines, at least all three of the major characters, but he again fails to flesh out the mythology of the alternate universe and there are questions that linger after the final page (.....) Even with a whole extra book, Murakami seems to run out of pages toward the end, making the resolution feel rushed. This volume is especially frustrating because Murakami reveals a possible ending -- the way to escape from the alternate universe -- a third of the way through the book. We must wait for loose ends to be tied up before the characters can attempt escape." - Daniel Morales, The Japan Times
  
  
• "The work is not a complete failure, but it could have done with some diligent editing to cut away the fat. As it is, the reader needs a strong stomach to digest it. Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel's spot-on translations ensure the novel slips easily into the Haruki Murakami Western oeuvre, falling somewhere between A Wild Sheep Chase and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle." - Steve Finbow, The Japan Times
  
  
• "Voor wie vandaag nog verlegen zit om een vakantieboek waar je echt je tanden in kunt zetten, is 1q84 een absolute aanrader: spannend maar ook diepzinnig, meeslepend maar toch soms dromerig, makkelijk verteld maar o zo zinderend en intens. Kortom, een weergaloze ode aan het geconcentreerde, zinnelijke leven." - Frank Hellemans, Knack
  
  
• "(A) thrillingly well-plotted story (.....) The novel has one foot firmly in the real world, and the other in the domain of science fiction and illusion, making the novel partially fantasy. Meanwhile, the book is a strong protest against the trampling of free will by domestic violence, cult groups and family backgrounds. Murakami's novel reflects on an understanding of the world today and this time his craft is more refined than ever." - Chung Ah-young, The Korea Times
  
  
• "1Q84's first 600 pages are an imposing display of narrative engineering. Information is dispensed in a controlled, thrifty manner; tropes from high and low culture are handled with easy showmanship; further plotlines and curlicues are effortlessly thrown out. (...) Book 3 came out a year later in Japan, and the eventual happy ending was a feat of audience-tweaking on a Dickensian scale. (...) The collapse of the main plot isn’t the only thing that muffles the book’s large statements about reality, fantasy and Japanese society." - Christopher Tayler, London Review of Books
  
  
• "(T)he truest pleasures of the book may be the most writerly, primarily its epic sense of structure (which functions as something of a fun-house mirror, endlessly reflective) and its many references to history and literature. (...) None of this is to suggest that 1Q84 is perfect; in places, the coincidences line up too neatly, and a plot line involving the "Little People" -- actual beings who may or may not have a spiritual agenda but mostly function here as agents of chaos -- peters out like a neglected thread. But in the end, that's minor stuff in the face of a vision, and an act of the imagination, this profound. 1Q84 is a big, sprawling novel, a shaggy dog story to be sure, but it achieves what is perhaps the primary function of literature: to reimagine, to reframe, the world." - David L. Ulin, The Los Angeles Times
  
  
• "The realisation of motifs and metaphors in real, felt, human ways is profoundly affecting. This isn't to say 1Q84 is without flaws -- rather that it's roomy enough to accommodate them. Fantasy dialogue is usually overly reliant on exposition and when Murakami's characters aren't being themselves, they have a habit of sounding like Dan Brown extras" - Luke Kennard, The National
  
  
• "Die Bedeutung des Romans 1Q84 liegt eventuell tatsächlich nicht in der inhaltlichen, sondern in der kulturmissionarischen Dimension: Murakami schreibt «Weltliteratur», indem seine Romane in Millionenauflagen überall veröffentlicht werden. Er stärkt damit das japanische Ansehen und die Wirtschaft. Dies macht ihn zu einem Global Player, nicht aber zu einem zweiten Dostojewski." - Lisette Gebhardt, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  
  
• "Diese und andere Defekte, die zahllosen Ungereimtheiten, auf die man bei aufmerksamer Lektüre stösst, sind nicht etwa der Schlamperei des Autors geschuldet, sondern seinem Ehrgeiz, Fisch und Fleisch, Fantasy und Realismus in Harmonie zu bringen." - Leopold Federmair, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  
  
• "The paradox of reading 1Q84 is that it’s a "page-turner" that is very easy to put down. We acquired our copy in July and put it down for weeks at a time. It is easy to pick back up again because of Mr. Murakami’s constant repetition of the various aspects of his premise and the slow progression of the novel’s events. (...) It’s also rendered sex grotesque: either ideally romantic, emptily casual, brutally violent or so mystical as to not really be sex at all. There’s little in the way of mixed feelings, which are to many of us the stuff of life. In this way, 1Q84, a novel that strives to contain everything, delivers very little besides an occasionally fun adventure." - Christian Lorentzen, The New York Observer
  
  
• "1Q84 is a vast narrative inquiry into the fantasies that bind its dramatis personae to this world and the ones that loosen them from it. (...) What’s fascinating about 1Q84 is its ambivalence about "the logic of reality" and its wish to plunge the reader into the "far greater power" of Unreality’s unlogic, which has the advantage of revolutionary fervor and reformism. (...) I finished 1Q84 feeling that its spiritual project was heroic and beautiful, that its central conflict involved a pitched battle between realism and unrealism (while being scrupulously fair to both sides), and that, in our own somewhat unreal times, younger readers, unlike me, would have no trouble at all believing in the existence of Little People and replicants. What they may have trouble with is the novel’s absolute faith in the transformative power of love." - Charles Baxter, The New York Review of Books
  
  
• "(S)tupefying (.....) The very thought of Aomame’s situation will pain anyone stuck in the quicksand of 1Q84. You, sucker, will wade through nearly 1,000 uneventful pages (.....) It used to be customary, in a book of this magnitude, to explain unanswered questions and tie up loose ends. Mr. Murakami clearly rejects such petty obligations, and he leaves many of the parallels in 1Q84 cryptic and dead-ended. He perceives, and we receive, and the reception isn’t all that clear." - Janet Maslin, The New York Times
  
  
• "For all its superb moments, 1Q84 feels uncontrolled, erratic and repetitive: it is threadbare where it should be plush, and overstuffed where it should be streamlined. The writing, meanwhile, veers from exquisite to slapdash to simply embarrassing. (...) Still, what troubles me most about 1Q84 isn’t these surface gaffes but the psychological and moral void below. (...) 1Q84 is psychologically unconvincing and morally unsavory, full of lacunas and loose ends, stuffed to the gills with everything but the kitchen sink and a coherent story." - Kathryn Schulz, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "Ook ik verheugde me op 1q84 (...) Des te groter was afgelopen weken de teleurstelling bij het lezen van 1q84. Het tweeluik, dat is genoemd naar de parallelle fantasywereld waarin de twee hoofdpersonen in het jaar 1984 terechtkomen, begint spannend en intrigerend, maar wordt na een paar honderd bladzijden steeds zwaarder belast door onzinnige details, oppervlakkige filosofietjes, gratuite literaire verwijzingen, saaie uitweidingen en andere overbodigheden. (...) Zo samengevat klinkt het allemaal onbenullig en kinderachtig, maar dat is natuurlijk flauw. (...) 1q84, het moet me van het hart, is zonde van de tijd." - Pieter Steinz, NRC Handelsblad
  
  
• "As this bleak fairy tale unfolds, lacking contours except the constant promise of a happy ending, a different kind of music from the usual Murakami riffs seems to assert itself. (...) Murakami, now 62, has ceased being a novelist and has entered the dangerous world of literary phenomenon, a cult figure himself. None of this should affect the book itself, of course, except that the writing sometimes seems half-conscious of its advance noise, believing the hype. In its overblown complexity and constant arch reference points to other works in the author's canon, it can read like a stubborn effort to write the definitive Murakami, the Great Japanese Novel. While there is generally plenty to keep your foot tapping along the way, the result is that too many notes and digressions feel forced or fall flat." - Tim Adams, The Observer
  
  
• "La primera parte de la novela tiende a ser bastante ralentizada, como si de una novela japonesa tradicional se tratara, pero en la segunda parte se remonta, sin perder una cierta morosidad que no decae ni siquiera en los momentos más críticos, y que en lugar de contribuir al realismo de la historia la llena de irrealidad. (...) Hasta ahora me había gustado Murakami, pero es el problema de los escritores demasiado endiosados: acaban creyendo que todo lo que sale de su cerebro es palabra de Dios." - Jesús Ferrero, El País
  
  
• "The condensing of three volumes into a single tome makes for some careless repetition, and casual readers may feel that what actually occurs doesn’t warrant such length. But Murakami’s fans know that his focus has always been on the quiet strangeness of life, the hidden connections between perfect strangers, and the power of the non sequitur to reveal the associative strands that weave our modern world. 1Q84 goes further than any Murakami novel so far, and perhaps further than any novel before it, toward exposing the delicacy of the membranes that separate love from chance encounters, the kind from the wicked, and reality from what people living in the pent-up modern world dream about when they go to sleep under an alien moon." - Publishers Weekly
  
  
• "(W)hile his early novels took their (often perplexing) structure from dream logic, 1Q84 is a book about wanting to wake up. There’s still plenty of weirdness along the way. (...) This is not great writing by conventional literary standards. Murakami isn’t afraid of repetition, outright cliche" - Laura Miller, Salon
  
  
• "1Q84 is a tremendous accomplishment. It does every last blessed thing a masterpiece is supposed to -- and a few things we never even knew to expect." - Andrew Ervin, San Francisco Chronicle
  
  
• "In some respects, 1Q84 is a thrilling journey, though it certainly takes its time to ratchet up the excitement -- it didn’t truly grip me until 450 pages in (.....) I wondered, too, about the quality of the writing, which throughout seems dismayingly thin. (...) It is regrettable to see such a wonderful novelist abandon all but the very broadest effects." - Philip Hensher, The Spectator
  
  
• "Murakami är en effektiv berättare, om än ingen större språkkonstnär. (...) Jag kan inte påstå att 1Q84 är något mästerverk. Men jag gillar den. Den är spännande och underhållande, bitvis rent magisk. Som alla bra sagor väcker den förundran över tillvarons mysterium." - Fabian Kastner, Svenska Dagbladet
  
  
• "There are several different novels intertwining here, creating a disorienting effect that invites giddiness. Those unfamiliar with Murakami would be advised to read some of his earlier work first to acclimatise. For his many devoted fans this will be a heady treat, a nebulous masterpiece with potentially no end (.....) Frequently spectacular, 1Q84 is also too long." - Chris Flynn, Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
• "It's difficult to know what to make of much of this material. Certainly there are moments of extraordinary and disturbing beauty (.....) Likewise the book also boasts sequences of real emotional power, in particular the scenes surrounding the death of Tengo's father. Yet despite such moments, there are many more scenes that seem irrelevant or frustratingly oblique (even the book's connection to its putative forebear, 1984, is tenuous at best). Of course to say this is, at least to some extent, to miss the point." - James Bradley, Sydney Morning Herald
  
  
• "In its early chapters, 1Q84 reads like a cross between two other trendy translated authors, Stieg Larsson and Roberto Bolaño. (...) In its bones, this novel is a thriller. (...) The action-flick style works in tandem with rose-tinted romance. (...) It is possible to enjoy 1Q84 even as the sense grows that a publishing event and a literary event may not be the same thing. Murakami’s riffs and similes end up with a lot of work to do." - Anthony Cummins The Telegraph
  
  
• "(I)t’s an enormously readable (if oppressively slow) novel that offers a narrative experience few other authors could achieve. But it is also a depressing, dark, morally questionable book that suggests the author has lost his way. (...) Murakami has always brought together high and low culture, but the blend in this novel is queasier than it has ever been before. (...) (W)hen, after 900 pages of crepuscular sex scenes alternated with sentimental thoughts about adolescent sexuality, the novel turns out to be a shaggy dog story, it no longer seems a guilty pleasure but instead a tremendous waste of the reader’s time." - Matt Thorne, The Telegraph
  
  
• "Murakami’s new novel, 1Q84, mixes long, tranquillized passages of inaction and reflection with sudden, almost hallucinogenic moments of brutality. The nature and logic of these events are never fully apparent, since, as ever, Murakami prefers to leave the viscera of his story hidden (.....) 1Q84 is a novel about stories enveloping people. For many of its characters, these stem from childhood traumas that have variously dictated and distorted their lives. (...) It is disappointing, then, that the main failures of 1Q84 are rather mechanical." - Ben Jeffery, Times Literary Supplement
  
  
• "Heb ik mij verveeld ? Geen moment, al was de neiging groot om Murakami's dickensiaanse breedsprakigheid cursorisch te consumeren. Niet onvermeld mag nog blijven dat 1q84 ook een komisch boek is." - Jeroen Vullings, Vrij Nederland
  
  
• "Mr. Murakami's infinite patience in revealing the secret connections between Tengo's and Aomame's lives has the benefit of charging quite banal scenes with an aura of unearthly import. But it can also seem stubbornly vague, as many of the novel's most nagging questions are left unanswered. (...) The unpredictability of Mr. Murakami's inventions is constantly offset by the dullness of his prose. One of the most purely negative consequences of his rupture with tradition is his indifference to trying to write with anything approaching beauty. (...) Yet if you can soldier through the prose and some rather tremendous longueurs, you'll find genuine wisdom and emotional depth in 1Q84. Mr. Murakami has gone further here to develop the sensations of loss and isolation than in his previous novels, which seldom went much beyond paranoia and self-pity." - Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
  
  
• "(Y)ou’ll be glad that Knopf decided to bring out the English version as a single massive hardcover: Once you start reading 1Q84, you won’t want to do much else until you’ve finished it. (...) Despite its great length, Murakami’s novel is tightly plotted, without fat, and he knows how to make dialogue, even philosophical dialogue, exciting." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
  
  
• "1Q84, dessen dritter und längster Teil noch der Übersetzung harrt, während von einem vierten gemunkelt wird, ist nicht nur in quantitativer Hinsicht ein Opus Maximum. Der inzwischen einundsechzigjährige Murakami schlägt hier den Bogen über die Generationen hinweg" - Ulrich Baron, Die Welt
  
  
• "Fast ist es, als hätte sich in einer Zeit, in der unablässig die Antiquiertheit von Literatur und gedruckten Büchern beklagt wird, jemand vorgenommen, beweisen zu wollen, wie wirkungsvoll sich so etwas Altmodisches wie ein Roman noch in die Seelen von Menschen eingraben kann. Die Geschichte, mit der Murakami das gelingt, ist hochgradig seltsam." - Peter Praschl, Welt am Sonntag
  
  
• "Diese innere und äußere Leere der Figuren, in deren verborgenem Zentrum gleichwohl eine unmögliche shakespearesche Liebesillusion lodert, hat hohen Wiedererkennungswert für den westlichen Leser. Sie verbreitet die Stimmung steriler Geborgenheit und angeregter Desillusion, die jener zum Verwechseln ähnlich ist, in der es sich in der westlichen Welt im Allgemeinen ganz kommod leben lässt. (...) Das eher grob als subtil angelegte literarische Spiel mit überirdischen Schicksalsmächten und unerklärlichen Kräften parodiert und imitiert auch so die alten weltenordnenden und sinnstiftenden Qualitäten großer Literatur." - Iris Radisch, Die Zeit

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

Note: part one of this review is based on the German translation (by Ursula Gräfe) of volumes one and two of 1Q84 and was written and posted 24 December 2010; the second part of this review -- and some emendations to the first part -- was added 20 October 2011 and is based on the English translation (which includes volume three)

- M.A.Orthofer, 24 December 2010

She felt as though she were blindly groping around in the dark. Ordinary logic and reason didn't function in the 1Q84 world, and she couldn't predict what was going to happen next.

     The story he was writing began with a world where there were two moons in the sky. A world of Little People and air chrysalises. He had borrowed this world from Fuka-Eri's Air Chrysalis but by now it was entirely his own. As he wrote, his mind was living in that world. Even when he lay down his pen and stood up from his desk, his mind remained there. There was a special sensation of his body and his mind beginning to separate, and he could no longer distinguish the real world from the fictional.

       Note: Clearly I was slightly disappointed by volume three, as compared to the first two, and I wonder how much of that has to do with the translations (I read the first two volumes in German, the third as part of the English-language complete edition).
       I think it played a relatively large role.
       In comparing the translations the one sentence that really struck me comes right near the beginning, when Aomame is in the taxi. In German what the driver warns her is:

Die Dinge sind meist nicht das, was sie zu sein scheinen

[Things usually aren't what they appear to be]

       Jay Rubin's translation has it the more absolute:

things are not what they seem

       But that seems far too definite -- and hence too easy -- to me; the atmosphere Murakami creates is exactly one where things usually aren't what they seem, but not always, and its that slight but ever-present sense of uncertainty that adds to the richness of the work.

- M.A.Orthofer, 20 October 2011

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Links:

• Vintage publicity page
• Harvill Secker publicity page
• Shinchosha publicity page
• Belfond publicity page
• DuMont publicity pages for volumes one and two and three
• Norstedts publicity page
• Curtis Brown information page
• Excerpt
• Q & Aat The New Yorker
• Profile in The New York Times Magazine
• Profile in The Guardian
• Article in The Guardian
• How Haruki Murakami's '1Q84' Was Translated Into English - Q & A with Philip Gabriel at The Atlantic
• Six Questions with Jay Rubin at Publishers Weekly

• About.com
• Aftonbladet (Swedish)
• Asahi Shimbun (Japanese)
• Bookforum
• Bookmunch
• Business Standard
• Cleveland Plain Dealer
• counterpunch
• El Cultural (Spanish) (volume three)
• CULTurMAG (German)
• Cutting Edge (Dutch)
• Daily Cardinal
• Do you read me ?
• The Economist
• Entertainment Weekly
• Evening Standard
• Falter (German)
• Fantasy Book Critic
• The Faster Times
• Le Figaro Magazine (French)
• Financial Times
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German)
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German)
• Frontier Psychiatrist
• The Globe and Mail
• Grantland
• De Groene Amsterdammer (Dutch)
• The Guardian
• The Harvard Crimson
• The Huffington Post
• The Independent
• Independent on Sunday (volumes one and two)
• Independent on Sunday (volume three)
• Les inRocks (French)
• The Japan Times (volumes one and two)
• The Japan Times (volume three)
• The Japan Times
• Kansas City Star
• Kirkus Reviews
• Klappentexterin (German)
• Knack (Dutch)
• The Korea Times
• die kritische seite (German)
• Lector-e (Spanish)
• Libération (French)
• Library Journal
• livres-et-lectures.net (French)
• London Review of Books
• Los Angelese Review of Books
• The Los Angeles Times
• Macleans
• Mainichi Shimbun (Japanese)
• Malaysia Star
• Me And My Big Mouth
• The Millions
• Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
• Montreal Mirror
• The National
• National Post
• Néojaponisme
• Neue Zürcher Zeitung (German) (volumes one and two)
• Neue Zürcher Zeitung (German) (volume three)
• New York Daily News
• New York Journal of Books
• The New York Observer
• The New York Review of Books
• The New York Times
• The New York Times Book Review
• NPR
• The Observer
• The Onion
• The Outhouse
• El País (Spanish)
• Philadelphia Inquirer
• The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
• PopMatters
• Die Presse (German)
• Publishers Weekly
• The Quarterly Conversation
• Revista de Letras (Spanish) (volume three)
• Salon
• San Francisco Chronicle
• San Jose Mercury News
• Scotland on Sunday
• Slate (1)
• Slate (2)
• The Spectator
• The Spectator (Seattle University)
• Der Standard (German)
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Straight.com
• Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish)
• Sydney Morning Herald (1)
• Sydney Morning Herald (2)
• taz (German)
• Technique
• The Telegraph (1)
• The Telegraph (2)
• Télérama (French)
• Three Percent
• The Threepenny Review
• Toronto Star
• TVNZ
• The UWM Post
• Vanity Fair
• Vulpes Libris (volumes one and two)
• Vulpes Libris (volume three)
• Wall Street Journal
• The Washington Post
• Die Welt (German)
• Welt am Sonntag (German)
• The Wichita Eagle
• Winnipeg Free Press
• Words and Food
• Yomiuri Shimbun (Japanese)
• You're Beautiful, New York
• Die Zeit (German)

• See the complete review's Murakami Haruki page
• Haruki Murakami - US site

• After Dark
• After the Quake
• Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
• The City and its Uncertain Walls
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
• First Person Singular
• Hear the Wind Sing
• Kafka on the Shore
• Killing Commendatore
• Men Without Women
• Norwegian Wood
• Novelist as a Vocation
• Pinball, 1973
• South of the Border, West of the Sun
• Sputnik Sweetheart
• The Strange Library
• Underground
• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
• Wind/Pinball: see Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973
• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

• A Wild Haruki Chase: Reading Murakami Around the World
• David Karashima explains Who We're Reading When We're Reading Murakami
• Jay Rubin's Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words

• See Index of Japanese literature at the complete review

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About the Author:

       Japanese author Murakami Haruki (村上春樹) was born January 12, 1949. He attended Waseda University. He has written several internationally acclaimed bestsellers and is among the best-known contemporary Japanese writers.

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© 2010-2024 the complete review

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