1Q84

By: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin - translator, Philip Gabriel - translator

Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett

Length: 46 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - "Q" is for "question mark". A world that bears a question.

Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame's and Tengo's narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell's, 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami's most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.

BONUS AUDIO: Audible interviews the translators of 1Q84, Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel.

©2011 Haruki Murakami (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This imaginative, lengthy novel satisfies as a mystery, fantasy, and humorous coming-of-age tale—all blended with the vagaries of love and loss in a dystopia mired in strange cults and mathematical/musical dreamscapes. One surmises that it's no accident that the book's enigmatic title relates to George Orwell's 1984." (AudioFile)

“Profound . . . A multilayered narrative of loyalty and loss . . . A fully articulated vision of a not-quite-nightmare world . . . A big sprawling novel [that] achieves what is perhaps the primary function of literature: to reimagine, to reframe, the world . . . At the center of [1Q84’s] reality . . . is the question of love, of how we find it and how we hold it, and the small fragile connections that sustain us, even (or especially) despite the odds . . . This is a major development in Murakami’s writing . . . A vision, and an act of the imagination.” (David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times)

“1Q84 is one of those books that disappear in your hands, pulling you into its mysteries with such speed and skill that you don’t even notice as the hours tick by and the mountain of pages quietly shrinks . . . 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. It turned out that this magical novel did not actually alter reality. Even so, its enigmatic glow makes the world seem a little strange long after you turn the last page. Grade: A.” (Rob Brunner, Entertainment Weekly)

Weird & Interesting

This is the first Murakami novel I have read; and while I found it very interesting I don't think I will be reading more from this author. Book was very good but strange. lol

Good Enough I Guess

This book reminded me of several other books designed for the teen audience. It's an interesting and fresh concept but it could have been 20 hours shorter. It's worth the credit I suppose, just so you can say I did it, and you probably won't be sorry but it takes a real effort to stick with it. Again, it's a book designed for a young audience in my opinion.....not a great book by any means, but worth a credit I guess.

A great Haruki Murakami novel!

My first ever book by Haruki Murakami was "A Wild Sheep Chase" which I absolutely loved. This book is on that level to me. It is filled with weirdness and danger, personal relationships of all sorts, religious cults, and other worldliness.

Yes, it is long, but it has to be because the plot is complicated and the relationships take a long time to flesh out. Sometimes it's good to just sink your teeth into a long and strange book. When it's that time I would suggest this. If you like audiobooks then definitely listen because the narration is fantastic. There are three narrators, with two for the main characters. All are good.

I have had this in my Audible library for a long time and don't know why I wanted so long to listen!

grew to love it

What made the experience of listening to 1Q84 the most enjoyable?

The story line was so unique it was hard to listen to at first, but I could not stop, no matter how strange things were in this alternate reality. I really loved how the author anounced the protagonist for each chapter, and how each chapter molded the story a little bit at a time, and they intertwined like the double helix to set up a very nice level of anticipation and surprise.
The readers are among the best I have heard, and I have been listening to Audible for more than 10 years. I started listening at 2X, but slowed to 1X because the natural pace of the readers bring so much to this story. I love how the readers pronounce their words, and do not over dramatize their reading like the tired old British readers and their Shakespearean ways. These readers are as unique as the story line.
The story is almost over and I can feel how the author does not really want to end the story, but has to bring it to an end some how, so it can get published :)

What did you like best about this story?

How unique the story line is. It was so unique that it was difficult to listen to until I dropped my expectations and just absorbed what was being read.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

These narrators are among the best I have ever heard and I have been listening to Audible for more than 10 years now.
Having multiple narrators really helps follow this book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

The story is so unique that a lot would be lost if listened to all at once. It takes time to acclimate to the characters.

Any additional comments?

The story is very simple in retrospect, but complex during the first listen. It could be compared to figuring out the earth rotated around the sun. Simple in hind sight..

Just one flaw: alas, it comes to an end

Would you consider the audio edition of 1Q84 to be better than the print version?

I don't know if it is better, but the voices of the narrators are amazing. They are in themselves something that you fall in love with, and of course, Murakami's story is partially responsible for this,

What did you like best about this story?

The attention of Murakami for the details, which make this fantastic story so realistic.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, never.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No, the narrative is ALWAYS perfect, and tense, and gripping. And now that I've reached the end, I miss it, and I'm considering starting again from the beginning.

Any additional comments?

Sorry if my English isn't perfect, but I'm from Italy.
And compliments again to the narrators that read in such a beautiful way that even those like me who know English as a second language can enjoy listening.

Self aware PoMo thrust is Ugly in Japan too

A disenchanting ride through the selfish hearts of two projectively innocent protagonists. The gender roles reversed with a believable style show how the issues in the story are produced from Japan's Heisei era mindset going forward. The sex is self satisfying if not gratuitous. The climax of the second book is painfully forced seemingly without cause except perhaps a, once again, self aware editor demanding it. The conversation around guns was done surprisingly well. The understanding of western music and history was excellently written into the story.
The localization team did an amazing job. There were parts that I thought the cultural significance would fall through but they pulled it off.

Great book but flat narration

I love the novel, but good God, this narration is flatter than a teenage boy. There's no emotion in it at all.

OK - needed a good editor

It is a good story, as others have said. But on the scale of things, no where near 4 or 5 stars.

About 2/3 of the way through I was losing interest. Any good book or movie needs the right pacing - this one dragged for the last 1/3. The main characters are loners, outcasts, which could be handled in a compelling way, but everything about them was described fairly quickly, so nothing developed, and they were hence boring after a while. A good editor could have shortened the book considerably and make it a much better read.

The writing style has a sparseness that is very nice. But since it is seldom backed up by compelling insights into the world, the sparseness is just that - sparse.

A main character introduced in the last 1/3 is read terribly by the reader: whispering and gravely, I assume for dramatic effect. Perhaps it sounds better in a sound studio with headphones, but I don't know of any audiobook listener that listens in a studio room with headphones. So I was always going back, trying to turn up the volume, until I gave up.

Too odd too long

Really gets weird in the middle. The details that were less fantastical were the bear parts. Otherwise so many things felt unnecessary and too many rough loose ends. After hour 20 I wanted it to end. Not my cup of tea even tho the beginning was so interesting.

A fun read, but I hope it pays off in the end.

So far, I can tell that the writer enjoys music and the sounds of his own thoughts and sex.
The story is interesting however not all that original. I enjoy the characters so far more than the story. At first which is this part one of the listen, I can tell you that I absolutely love the readers of this book. A top notch job by the narrators who do a superlative job in reading this book and adding life to the dialogue. The readers have pleasant voices and really care a great deal for the book as well. The story seems a bit contrived. Like a conscience effort to place sex and violence every so often: Roger Corman style.

The writer takes great effort to draw the characters for us to enjoy, however the English translation sometimes might get in the way, especially when eating is concerned. Japanese eating hamburgers and pizza seemed out of place and I dismissed this as a deliberate effort not to alienate American listeners, when in fact I would enjoy the sounds of the authentic dishes such as Meeso soup etc..

I am enjoying this book so far but I have a feeling that I could write the rest of the book myself based on other stories and news articles about a similar vein. I hope I will be delightfully wrong. :)

See my last entry when I get that far.