Teresa Wang Mrs. Cutarelli AP Language and Comp 2 June 2014 1Q84 Haruki Murakami An intricate and unbelievable plot, complete with alternate universe, is set in Tokyo, Japan 1984. Main character Aomame (name meaning ‘green peas’), a slender vigilante assassin of sorts and a seemingly emotionally barren woman, is noticing strange and slight incongruences in the world that she knows to be true. A second and more lopsided moon has appeared in the sky. Around the same time, she is put on the trail of the Leader, her most dangerous hit yet. The Leader is the head of a commune/cult that, as far as Aomame knows, rapes and harms the girls within it. Aomame prepares strenuously for this hit. Tengo, math teacher and part-time author, is called in by his editor Komatsu to “touch up” –ghostwrite– for Fuka-Eri’s Air Chrysalis, a brilliant story destined to win Japan’s most prestigious writing contest. Upon meeting the strange, captivating, but dyslexic Fuka-Eri, Tengo realizes that she never wanted this story to be published and was not even capable of typing it up herself in the first place. She insists all of the events in the Air Chrysalis are true and now the Little People that weave the chrysalis are upset with being revealed to the world through the story’s immense publication success. Tengo struggles to edit Air Chrysalis and stick true to its original tones as the world changes around him and he somehow ends up being the charge of beautiful Fuka-Eri. Oh, and have there always been 2 moons in the sky? Aomame and Tengo are set on the track to meet each other as their parallel storylines unite. The reasons for their own emotional difficulties, Aomame’s in particular, are slowly revealed throughout the book and, surprise, they don’t seem to be all that far-fetched. 1Q84 explores the more disturbed, and often more truthful, side of the human mind and experience. Although the plot is seemingly absurd, the truth and the details of everyday life that Murakami incorporates into his story make it extremely believable and relatable. All the little details, like what Tengo does every day for weeks on end or what Aomame eats for constipation, are meticulously jotted down. It’s as if you are the character, you feel the same drudge of life that they feel. Murakami’s ability to stick to portraying life, even at its dullest, and his ability to combine it with a unique and complex plot is what makes this book worth getting sucked 1,000 pages into for. A
Mrs. Cutarelli
AP Language and Comp
2 June 2014
1Q84
Haruki Murakami
An intricate and unbelievable plot, complete with alternate universe, is set in Tokyo, Japan 1984. Main character Aomame (name meaning ‘green peas’), a slender vigilante assassin of sorts and a seemingly emotionally barren woman, is noticing strange and slight incongruences in the world that she knows to be true. A second and more lopsided moon has appeared in the sky. Around the same time, she is put on the trail of the Leader, her most dangerous hit yet. The Leader is the head of a commune/cult that, as far as Aomame knows, rapes and harms the girls within it. Aomame prepares strenuously for this hit.
Tengo, math teacher and part-time author, is called in by his editor Komatsu to “touch up” –ghostwrite– for Fuka-Eri’s Air Chrysalis, a brilliant story destined to win Japan’s most prestigious writing contest. Upon meeting the strange, captivating, but dyslexic Fuka-Eri, Tengo realizes that she never wanted this story to be published and was not even capable of typing it up herself in the first place. She insists all of the events in the Air Chrysalis are true and now the Little People that weave the chrysalis are upset with being revealed to the world through the story’s immense publication success. Tengo struggles to edit Air Chrysalis and stick true to its original tones as the world changes around him and he somehow ends up being the charge of beautiful Fuka-Eri. Oh, and have there always been 2 moons in the sky?
Aomame and Tengo are set on the track to meet each other as their parallel storylines unite. The reasons for their own emotional difficulties, Aomame’s in particular, are slowly revealed throughout the book and, surprise, they don’t seem to be all that far-fetched. 1Q84 explores the more disturbed, and often more truthful, side of the human mind and experience. Although the plot is seemingly absurd, the truth and the details of everyday life that Murakami incorporates into his story make it extremely believable and relatable. All the little details, like what Tengo does every day for weeks on end or what Aomame eats for constipation, are meticulously jotted down. It’s as if you are the character, you feel the same drudge of life that they feel. Murakami’s ability to stick to portraying life, even at its dullest, and his ability to combine it with a unique and complex plot is what makes this book worth getting sucked 1,000 pages into for. A