Reading “1Q84” by Haruki Murakami

SPOILER ALERT!!! 1Q84 had me going “huh?” half the time and “HUH???” the other half. In the end, I failed to understand the implications behind the story and realized that perhaps it wasn’t meant to be “understood” in the conventional sense. I haven’t read enough Murakami to comment objectively, but I do applaud the remarkable character development in the few books of his that I’ve read, something I also noted in Norwegian Wood. I read a review of 1Q84 comparing the book itself to a dream – while you’re in it, even the most bizarre happenings seem completely normal but when you pause and reflect, it defies every law of physics and logic. And that’s exactly it – you jump into a world that at the same time makes perfect and zero sense. The setting and progression of 1Q84 captivated my mind with an irresistible grasp, and I found myself looking forward to my 30+30-minute subway commute every morning and evening, just so that I could immerse in 1Q84 – like falling back into lucid dreaming. I was triggered by so many questions and eager to continue so that the answers would be revealed (none were revealed, by the way). Air Chrysalis? Little People? Tsubasa? Tamaru? The married mistress? With more and more questions building up in each chapter, it gradually became less important to find the answers (though it’d be nice to have some…) and I instead anticipated the final convergence of 1Q84 and Cat Town. Even with their “reunion”, I think neither Aomame nor Tengo fully understood what happened to themselves, just as the reader can never fully understand the world of 1Q84. And like XXJ hinted, that is the point – not to “understand” but to “experience” 1Q84, as if you are Aomame or Tengo yourself. With that said, 1Q84 was a thoroughly enjoyable read, though not without frustrations and an inevitable sense of helplessness in not finding the answers. After all, “If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.” (Side note: To say that 1Q84 is related to 1984 is like declaring that there are 60 minutes in an hour, so I gotta re-visit Orwell’s 1984, which I read I think 17 or 18 years ago. I don’t recollect many details of 1984, and re-reading it might help me dive further into the mysterious 1Q84, which I intend to re-read…eventually 😉 )

The three volumes of “1Q84” by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, Chinese translation.

Reading “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”

I finished “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera on the bus this morning (could have finished it last night if I realized that the last 25 pages were an incomprehensible epilogue). Yeah, I skipped the epilogue after about two pages because it made no sense to me (it consisted of a lot of references to other works that I haven’t read). But about the book itself, I probably only understood 30% of it. And what I did understand, I understood it superficially. The book had a lot to do with philosophy, religion, and mostly politics of Eastern Europe in the last century. Not having any prior knowledge of events such as the Prague Spring severely hindered my full appreciation of the book, but I finished it anyway as I couldn’t bear leaving it half (un)read. I think another reason that this book was difficult for me to read was that I read it in Chinese. Frankly, it was one of those books that caught my attention at the book store and I bought it without having done any research on its cultural background or author or even considered whether I would have liked to read it. But yes, reading it in Chinese was a little awkward, mainly because a lot of the translated expressions were awkward themselves. The essence of the original text must have been lost in translation, even more so in Chinese. There was one part that I read over and over again and still could not understand, so I found an English translation online and, immediately after reading it, understood what it was all about. This made me realize several things: (1) I need to read more literary works in Chinese because there is a lot of room for improvement; (2) English works need to be read in the original version (except for maybe CS Lewis’ “The Four Loves” – his writing style was so profound that I gave up 1/3 of the way in and in this case, it may be better to try the Chinese version); and (3) thank goodness I was not arrogant/stupid enough to try to French version of Kundera’s work, as I would not have gotten past the second page. I should probably re-read the book in English, but not before I finally tackle “The Great Gatsby” and let Kundera sink into the back of my mind for a bit. The “read more” resolution for 2020 (and for many years prior to this…) is off to a good start – let’s continue to rediscover the joy of reading!

“The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by French-Czech writer Milan Kundera, Chinese translation.