Goodbye to 1Q84

When I start reading a good book, I can be anywhere and totally disappear into the work. It's what I love most about books. It's a method of transport, no technological device can EVER replace. Because it needs your energy to make it work. It requires something of you which I believe is essential to the soul's endurance. Exactly what that is, I can maybe never say and I'm not sure I would ever want to. But inside a book is more than just words. Inside a book is a reflection of yourself, a journey that you can only experience alone and yet with countless others all at once.

I always get kind of sad when I'm getting near the end of a really good book. Because I'm a book nerd and I get really attached. Particularly to books by Murakami. There always seems to be a bit of a void left behind especially with a book this size. It's a little bigger that the Holy Bible but not quite as large as Bill Clinton's autobiography. You get the idea. I had to put it down for a few months a while ago somewhere near the middle. At a certain point it got gruelingly slow, crazy and scarily uncomfortable. Like many of his books, I also started to get a bit unsettled by all the disturbing and outlandish stuff he was asking the reader to accept and to swallow. He really pushes the envelop in 1Q84 in a way he never has since "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle". But I am so glad I came back to it and continued because it is so worth it.

Near the end, you really feel like you have been through some shit with these two people. You really know them, how they think, what they want, who they are, what they need. And yet there is still that mystery of not knowing at all what will happen next. And strange as this world is, it all feels very right. It is a love story. But nobody would ever call Murakami a formulaic romance novelist or a formulaic anything. He is a strange, clever, smart, anti authoritarian, focused, disciplined, and adventurous writer who loves words and stories and tends always towards narratives that delve below the level of the conscious. It's going to be a hard act to follow. I guess I need something lighter to read after this. But that's not necessarily my preference.