Quote Originally Posted by Jimmers View Post
I have been slowly reading 1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, and I cannot get through the rest of Book II. It is such a strange book with a strange plot. I would still like to finish it though, but I'm going to start reading another book for now:
1Q84 is probably Murakami's worst book and best book. It's impossibly pretentious and formulaic yet it is his most sincere and heart-wrought. It is his most romantic book, perhaps most autobiographical and likely most hopeful. It's the simplest of story done well.

I feel most reviews of this book bugger it up with the typical "trend" and "whore" of literary criticism and literary pretense, yet the story is simple, but clothed in the most colorful of outfits. The story itself is very pretentious, crafted to appeal, yet from my reading of it I felt it was an angry pretense, "This is what you want... This is what you will get... May you choke on it..."

I think this latent angry pretense drives the story at a pace that otherwise would have been meandering and turgid, it gave it energy and desperation which are emotions that shakes pretense's britches.

I highly recommend reading this book to the end. It is the simplest possible story.