Andrew Markham’s Reviews > 1Q84 > Status Update

Komatsu and Tengo meet again at the cafe near Shinjuku Station and Komatsu tells Tengo he has submitted the book to the young writer’s prize, but it needs one last thing fixed after. Tengo reflects more about his time at school and how a teacher who he can’t remember the name of helped him begin to gain his independence from his father.

Aomame spends the morning recovering from a hangover before going to the Willow House the treat the dowager. As she’s giving her a massage, they talk about their love lives and the dowager reflects on hers. Afterwards, Aomame reflects on a childhood friend she played softball and went to college with and how her life has been changed by the relationship.

Tengo continues his chat with the professor and learns more about Fuka-Eri’s history including how at a time she was nearly completely mute. The Professor ends up agreeing to Tengo rewriting the book and discusses whether it might be less fictional than they thought. On his train ride home, Tengo sees a young girl who reminds him of an ostracized classmate of his who he had treated kindly.

Aomame is back at another bar looking for another guy to go home with and is reminiscing about when she first met the dowager of Willow House. Aomame met her when she was teaching a self-defence class largely centred around practicing kicking men in the balls at an exclusive health club. Her daydream is interrupted by Ayumi, a cop, who proposes they act as wingwomen at the bar that night.

Tengo arrives on the train with Fuka-Eri in Futamatao. After a short taxi ride from the station, Fuka-Eri lets them into a rural cottage in the mountains and introduces Tengo to her caretaker, Ebisuno or The Professor. He explains he was family friends/colleagues with Fuka-Eri’s dad who raised her on a commune named Sakigake but was eventually arrested in affiliation with the Lake Motosu shootout.

Aomame is incredulous at the fact that she didn’t remember the police equipment change so she goes to the library. She finds 3 events in the newspapers from the past few months she has no recollection of: a shootout at a lake, a TV and radio licence fee collector stabbing somebody, and a US-Soviet pact to build a moon base. She determines she can’t be wrong, but no longer in 1984 but 1Q84 (Q for question mark).

We learn more about Tengo’s dad and how he would take Tengo to work on Sunday’s collecting TV and radio licence fees door-to-door, to Tengo’s dread. Tengo eventually meets Fuka-Eri at the train station and boards the train with her. On the ride, Tengo learns Fuka-Eri has severe dyslexia meaning she rarely reads or writes and she dictated the manuscript for Air Chysalis to another friend of hers, Azami.

Tengo buys a word processor and begins rewriting the story. He is gripped by the new story and is happy about how it’s going. He gets called by Fuka-Eri and makes plans to take the train to go see whoever it is Fuka-Eri wants on Sunday, in two days.

Aomame goes to a hotel bar to blow off some steam before going home. She gets a few drinks and then hooks up with a stranger also at the bar and then leaves once he’s fallen asleep.

Tengo is awoken in the middle of the night by Komatsu telling him to meet Fuka-Eri at a restaurant the next night. After a sleepless night a day of classes, Tengo gets to the restaurant and learns that Fuka-Eri is perhaps a bit strange. The conversation ends with both of them agreeing to the suggested rewrites as long as Tengo meets somebody mediated by Fuka-Eri.