I admit I had a preconceived idea about Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84
(2011) before I turned the first page. A literary friend had told me it was a
‘postmodern classic’ (yes, they exist), and that although it did seem a wee bit
long, she was very excited to read it and wanted to share the experience. I
bit.
1000 or so pages later (it seemed like more), I felt like
I’d been bitten right back.
Let’s talk terms for a moment. Postmodernism is a
philosophical position that questions, or dispenses altogether, with traditional
thinking or approaches. In literature, postmodern writers disregard
long-accepted methods, sometimes upending genres and narrative structures.
Postmodern fiction employs permeable boundaries between truth and untruth,
fantasy and reality, and self and society.
In 1Q84 (a play on
Orwell’s 1984 – intertextuality is
another typical feature of postmodern literature) a young woman named Aomame stumbles into a secondary reality
where some things remain the same, like memories, and others are startlingly
different, like the number of moons in the sky. Aomame’s counterpart is Tengo, a struggling writer and teacher at a ‘cram
school’. He and Aomame are connected by their pasts, and are looking for each
other across a gulf of eddying events. A fantastical element is introduced in
the character of Eri, a nymph-like mystery girl, whose novel, The Glass Chrysalis, exposes the
workings of unfriendly magical forces, and excavates the desires and dreams of
its readers (literary themes – yet another characteristic of PoMo Lit!).This novel is an ensemble piece and
all of the characters (there is an elderly woman, a bodyguard, a publisher, a
cop, a spy) are carefully, but somewhat coldly drawn. They are like
acquaintances; I recognize their features, but I don’t feel like I really know
them, and I don’t really care to. They do act passionately; there is a noble vigilantism
and a rescue from abuse, but there is a foggy flatness to events that makes the
characters seem like paper dolls.
The novel’s settings are sparse and minimal: a monk’s cell
of an apartment, an empty playground, and a sterile room in an old people’s
facility. The characters reside only
temporarily in these places. Also,
there is persistent repetition of those moons, and we are reminded again and
again of the fact that the characters are in a different world now - a different
existence.
In spite of all that, I kept reading. I almost felt like I didn’t
have a choice. My friend had started reading the book, but then abandoned it. What kept me reading was stubbornness, curiosity,
and certainly there was a romance that needed resolving, for better or worse,
but that alone was predictable. Even
though I finished the book, I still feel like I am reading it… like I myself
may have fallen into a two-moon world where there are no pictures on walls.
1Q84 doesn’t read like a ‘classic’ to me, but it does have a beguiling
mysteriousness that kept me awake while I was reading it, and for some reason, still keeps me
awake at times.
