This was the first Murakami novel I read even though I knew it isn't the wisest thing to start with this work.
The story bubbles slowly along. Depending on the edition you bought, the story which takes places in 1984 develops on around 950 pages. “David Copperfield”by Charles Dickens comes with the same amount of pages, but takes you through his entire life.
Aomame, a sport instructor and self made assassin, finds herself in a new reality with two moons and a more or less religious cult called Sagikage which receives supernatural power from “the little people”.
While she is aware of the new environment Tengo, a maths teacher and part time author, draws slowly into this new world, or at least it takes forever until he realises something is off.
Their lives couldn't be more different yet there are a lot similarities. Aomame gets to know the dowager, an old, merciful Samaritan, who gives women who suffered from domestic violence a new home while at the same time she orders Aomame to kill the men.
Tengo is involved in a complicated situation after ghost writing Air Chrysalis, originally written by Fuka-Eri, a 17-year old girl which grew up in Sagikage but could escape in the young age of ten. When Aomame is assigned with the assassin of the leader of Sagikage, the lives of the two main characters get more and more intertwined.
The development, like I said before, is really slow. The first book (~ 340 pages) gives an overall description of the new world and the characters, you find out why this novel is called 1Q84 and also about the connection between Aomame and Tengo. Nevertheless, it takes the author around 300 pages until it is crystal clear that Aomame and Tengo have some kind of a deep relationship which is the main focus of 1Q84.
During the first book I wasn't really sure what 1Q84 is about, there was no hint whatsoever it would tell the love story of the two main characters.
The last fifty pages of the first book got me, finally the little pieces fell together and everything started to make sense. I got used to Murakami's style of writing but then towards the middle (2nd book) it begins to sag with tedious, insignificant and repetitive descriptions of nearly everything.
For me it didn't felt true any more. The plot comes to a stop and instead the author loses himself in philosophical musings. I overlooked the bad written sex scenes and tried to concentrate on the plot, but it took another 200 pages until it was again enthralling.
The last 370 pages (3rdbook) were the most interesting. The world with the two moons is fascinating, it is full of intrigue, supernatural power and cult rituals which let me cringe. I really loved the third part. Nevertheless Murakami could have done better while describing "the little people". I still have no idea what they are and what they are doing or why they even exist. For me they are just there, a few little umpa-lumpas doing weird stuff during the night.
Over all this novel is a bit too excessive and too repetitive which makes it sloppy. Reflective dialogues and the lack of tension in the first two books makes it wearisome yet I think about reading it a second time quite simply because I have the feeling I missed some things in between the lines.
Do I recommend this novel? Well yes I do, when you are interested in a huge mysterious love-story which takes place in some kind of a fantasy world.
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