Kirthika Vijayakumar

Masami Aomame had to climb down precarious emergency stairs at the Metropolitan Expressway to enter 1Q84. But all I had to do was open the book to be transported to the bizarre world with two moons. The epic romance trilogy is spread across 1318 pages and with every chapter, the plot gains pace. It is utterly captivating and can quickly sequester an imaginative mind. The author borrows strands from Chekov’s Sakhalin Island and George Orwell’s 1984 and cleverly weaves them into his own story, adding depth and richness to the narrative. I also thoroughly enjoyed the elaborate descriptions of meals - they reminded me of scenes from Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories. As I reread these portions, a warm, fuzzy feeling grew in my heart and I caught myself in a big, childish grin. There are references to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dostoevsky, rock duo Sonny and Cher, Carl Jung, Macbeth, Marcel Proust’s seven-volume In Search of Lost Time, and Leoš Janáček’s Sinfonietta. Alternate worlds, a story inside the story that slowly transforms to reality, cats, crows, eroticism, philosophy - this genre-defying book is packed with suspense and as the story progresses, the line demarcating imagination and reality fades. There are some loose ends that sticklers for closure might find bothersome. Nevertheless, 1Q84 is an exceptional work of fiction by one of the most prolific and imaginative writers of our time.