1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
"1Q84" is a novel by Haruki Murakami that intertwines the lives of two main characters, Tengo Kawana and Aomame, against a backdrop of an alternate reality set in Tokyo during 1984. The narrative begins with Aomame, a fitness trainer and assassin, abruptly leaving a taxi to arrive at an important meeting, while Tengo, an aspiring author, is captivated by a short story written by a young girl named Fuka-Eri. As Aomame embarks on a dangerous mission at the behest of a powerful dowager, she becomes aware of a transformation in her world, which she terms 1Q84, leading her to confront a cult leader with connections to mysterious entities known as the Little People.
Throughout the story, themes of love, choice, and the nature of reality are explored as Tengo and Aomame's paths intertwine across alternate dimensions. Meanwhile, Ushikawa, a private investigator, adds tension by trying to uncover their whereabouts. The plot crescendos as both characters strive to reunite, despite numerous obstacles, ultimately leading them towards a shared escape from their surreal circumstances. Murakami's work blends elements of fantasy, suspense, and romance, inviting readers to consider the complexities of human relationships and the intriguing possibilities of parallel worlds.
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Subject Terms
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
- Born: January 12, 1949
- Birthplace: Kyōto, Japan
First published: 2011
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Magical realism
Time of plot: 1984
Locale: Tokyo, Japan; Asia
Principal Characters
Tengo Kawana, a twenty-nine-year-old unpublished author and teacher
Masami Aomame, a thirty-year-old physical trainer and assassin
Ushikawa, a private investigator hired to find and follow Tengo and Aomame
Komatsu, an eccentric, talented editor for a book publishing company
Eriko Fukada, a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl and the author of Air Chrysalis
Shizue Ogata, the dowager of Willow House, a retired influential businesswoman
Tamaru, Ogata’s experienced bodyguard
The Story
Book 1 of 1Q84 starts by following the seemingly ordinary lives of Tengo and Aomame. Tengo is reading submissions for a literary contest, while Aomame is stuck in a cab in traffic on the freeway. However, what makes this day different is that each character will choose to do something new. Aomame is late for a business meeting, so she absconds from the cab and climbs down an emergency ladder. Tengo reads a mesmerizing but poorly written short story about a group of so-called Little People who are not from our world but can enter it and influence events. He decides to rewrite the story into a novella.
Aomame’s escape down the ladder allows her to get to her appointment on time. Posing as a hotel staff member, she cons her way into a prominent businessman’s room and murders him by stabbing a finely filed ice pick into the back of the man’s brain. She does this for the dowager of Willow House, Shizue Ogata, a successful businesswoman who spends her retirement plotting the deaths of perpetrators of extreme domestic violence. Aomame is unaffected by having killed the man, but she is bothered by the fact that she had not previously noticed that policemen were now carrying new guns and wearing new uniforms. After some research, she determines that nothing is wrong with her memory, and it is the world around her that has changed. This new world she now lives in she names 1Q84. Two months after killing the man in the hotel, Aomame is asked to kill again: Leader, a man named Tomotsu Fukada who is the head of a cult known as Sakigake. Ogata convinces Aomame to kill him after she brings out a young girl called Tsubasa, who, Ogata explains, was raped by Leader.
Meanwhile, Tengo meets with his friend Komatsu, an editor for a publishing company in Tokyo. They agree that there is something special about Air Chrysalis, a novel written by a seventeen-year-old girl Eriko Fukada (Leader’s daughter) who writes under the penname Fuka-Eri. Komatsu believes that a well-written story from a beautiful young girl will make them all lots of money. Tengo meets with Fuka-Eri and her caretaker Professor Ebisuno, and is given permission to rewrite the story. Air Chrysalis is turned in under Fuka-Eri’s name, and it wins the literary contest and immediately goes into print. However, once the book goes into print, an unknown danger comes into Tengo’s life that Fuka-Eri is aware of because of her connection to the Little People.
At the start of Book 2, Aomame decides that she is ready to kill Leader. Ogata and her bodyguard, Tamaru, begin to plan a meeting to give Aomame the opportunity to commit the act. After weeks of waiting, she is called to a hotel in Tokyo to do the job, and upon meeting Leader, Aomame learns that he is not simply a figurehead; he is the leader of Sakigake because he is the only one who can hear the voices of the Little People. He is a conduit of sorts for them into this word, and he is both vested with special powers and wracked with horrible pain for his position.
He knows that Aomame has been sent to kill him, and he welcomes the death as an end to pain. He also knows that Aomame is unafraid to die because of her love for a boy named Tengo Kawana, who she has not seen since she was ten years old. Leader acknowledges that they are in an alternate world and warns Aomame that she cannot stay with Tengo in this world, but they can at least meet. He explains that Aomame must make a choice: spare Leader, which in turn would spare her life and forfeit the life of Tengo, or kill Leader, which would spare Tengo’s life but put her life in great jeopardy. As a storm thunders around them, Aomame drives her ice pick into the back of Leader’s brain.
Meanwhile, Tengo tries to go about his life normally. Fuka-Eri is now living with him after being in hiding for a number of weeks to stay clear of the Little People. Tengo remembers his own feelings for Aomame and recognizing something special in Fuka-Eri, asks her to help him find the girl from his past. One night looking up at the sky, Tengo is seen by Aomame from the balcony of her safe house. However, by the time she goes outside he is gone.
Book 3 begins with a new perspective added to the narrative and focuses on Ushikawa, a small, ugly man who works as a private investigator. He was first hired by Sakigake to watch Tengo after Air Chrysalis was published, but with the death of Leader, he is now tasked with finding Aomame.
Aomame and Tengo try to find one another, but they are repeatedly thwarted. Aomame stays in her safe house apartment waiting for Tengo to show up in the park again, but she does not see him. After hearing about a suspicious, ugly man snooping around Ogata’s place, Aomame sees Ushikawa near her own apartment and follows him home. She finds that he is renting a place in the same apartment building as Tengo, and she informs Tamaru. Tamaru tortures Ushikawa to find out what he knows and then kills him.
Tengo and Aomame finally meet, and together they make their way to the base of the emergency staircase Aomame had first descended. They climb together toward a new and different world.
Bibliography
Anderson, Sam. "Underground Man." New York Times Sunday Magazine 23 Oct. 2011: MM36. Print.
Boyle, William. "Haruki Murakami." Critical Survey of Long Fiction. 4th ed. Pasadena: Salem, 2010. Print.
Rubin, Jay. Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words. London: Random, 2005. Print.
Sisson, Amy. "1Q84." Magill’s Literary Annual 2012. Pasadena: Salem, 2012. Print.
Murakami, Haruki. "Haruki Murakami, The Art of Fiction No. 182." Interview by John Wray. Paris Review 170 (2004). Print.