While the sheer heft of the Orwellian pun-where the Q stands for question (a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of the number nine phonetically “kew”)-has raised his profile in reviews and coverage, 1Q84 stands not as some Infinite Jest masterpiece indicative of the author’s style, but rather as a diluted proportion of surreal to real that makes it more accessible, yet less striking.ġQ84 revolves around the perspectives of two characters that travel to the alternate reality “1Q84.” The world appears identical except for the machinations of the Little People, a group of magical dwarves who speak through the leader of a religious cult, and the presence of an extra moon.

But I want to posit that the original surrealist formula that he so lovingly crafted seems to be fading as the years pass. However, his authorial success is formidable, selling millions of copies worldwide, most recently of his epic novel 1Q84 as well as a continued trend of being predicted as one of the top contenders to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Most all of the novels take place in Japan and yet he has been deemed as “buttery” by some Japanese writers as painting a picture of the country as a sort of American foil. His surrealist writings spanning over two decades deal with lonely protagonists, mysteriously silent women who dress in navy blue, as well as a smattering of autobiographical themes and objects. Haruki Murakami: the Japanese author who has become the darling of disaffected college students in the English-speaking world.

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