1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

3.5 stars

A thoroughly intriguing novel that had me gripped from start to finish, despite its rather sizeable length. The main characters were all likable and fascinating, while the world building was unique and tantalisingly teased over the course of the book.

All the main characters are very solitary, having few friends or relations, and yet they are full of warmth, especially in the depth to which their affection runs when they do care about someone. Their solitude generally has its roots in both past loss and neglectful, or even abusive, childhoods.

The running theme of abusive and violent men, especially towards women, fits in very well with the above. However, even with the other thematic threads of fiction and reality, the novel in hindsight feels a little directionless. While still very enjoyable and well-written, a little more depth and a stronger feeling of direction would have bumped this up to 4 stars for me.

On a less positive note, Murakami seems to have an unfortunate obsession with describing women’s breasts, whether this is from the perspective of male or female characters, and displays some other slightly uncomfortably chauvinistic elements in his storytelling. However, I decided to just roll my eyes at this rather than let it spoil my enjoyment of an otherwise brilliant read, especially in a novel partially about women taking revenge on men who have harmed them.

Much like the fictional novel Air Chrysalis, there are still a fair few things that are left unexplained (**spoilers** Who are the Little People? What world do Tengo and Aomame end up in? What are the mechanics involved in people leaving one world and entering another? Is nurse Adachi somehow Tengo’s mother reborn? **spoilers**). This doesn’t feel unsatisfying, however, and instead leaves the reader to ponder the answers to these things themselves. The lack of answers also adds to the whimsical feeling of half-reality that pervades the novel, and one can almost hear Murakami echoing the words of Tengo’s father: “If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.”