Monday, June 01, 2009
Et tu, 1Q?
I almost missed the fact that 1Q84 hit the shelves in Japan last Friday. No, 1Q84 is not [The Obscure Opus], the novel that I wrote and have been yammering about on here. It is Haruki Murakami's latest novel.
The Guardian says this:
Murakami, whom many consider one of the greatest living novelists, had refused to reveal the plot of the two-volume work after criticism that leaked details about his 2002 bestseller, Kafka on the Shore, spoiled its novelty value.The strategy worked and tens of thousands of his Japanese fans were happy to put their faith in the title and author alone. The book's publisher, Shinchosha, said it was forced to increase its first print run by 100,000 to 480,000 copies amid a flood of advance orders.
"The secrecy surrounding the work has made customers desperate to get hold of this book," Toshiaki Uchida, assistant manager of a bookshop in central Tokyo, told the Associated Press.
Judging by the agency's brief review - one of the first to appear - 1Q84 is classic Murakami, It is described as a "complex and surreal narrative" that "shifts back and forth between tales of two characters, a man and a woman, who are searching for each other".
The novel "explores social and emotional issues such as cult religions, violence, family ties and love."
It definitely sounds like vintage Murakami material. I admit, similar in style to books he's written before, but no book of his has been a carbon copy of any of his others, so I can expect something new. If the publication history of his other translations is any indicator of what to expect in terms of release date, we'll be looking at a two to three year wait in English speaking countries. That will require a lot of patience on my part. There are things I can do, however. I haven't read his more mundane novels such as Norwegian Wood, or his nonfiction such as Underground.
What is best about his books, besides the way he effortlessly blends outlandish and surreal events with the mundane is that they are possibly the only books which have characters who I can identify with. His protagonists are usually detached young men happy in a small world of their own that they carved out of a larger world which doesn't make the most sense to them. Along the way, they tend to attract the strangest people and strangest encounters.
I really hope that 1Q84 will not be as disappointing as After Dark. Most of his novels, especially The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore have been smorgasbords of surrealism, philosophical musings, absurd humour, and dreamlike logic. After Dark was only a crumb of low fat rice cake.
I will not spoil the details for myself on what it could be about, but I will keep an eye out for the release date.
See everyone in hell!
