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Author Haruki Murakami of "1Q84" |
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
What is ``1Q84''? Prominent Japanese contemporary writer Haruki Murakami's new and highly-anticipated two-volume novel, ``1Q84'' evoked lots of speculation over its title before being published.
``1Q84'' possibly alludes to George Orwell's ``Nineteen Eighty-Four,'' which has inspired many authors. The pronunciation of Japanese number "nine" is kyu, corresponding to the letter "Q."
In the book ``1Q84,'' Q comes from the word ``question'' asked by Aomame, the female protagonist, who discovers a new world between where she exists in reality, and in 1984 and where she used to be in the past.
The book comes five years after ``After Dark,'' creating a buzz both in Japan and overseas.
Recently topping the best-seller list in major bookstores after being released late August in Korea, the novel is a thrillingly well-plotted story, revolving around two protagonists ― Aomame and Tengo.
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Haruki Murakami; Translated by Yang Yoon-ok from Japanese to Korean; Munhakdongne: two volumes 655 pp., 597 pp. each, 14,800 won each |
Aomame is officially a sports trainer but is really a secret serial killer involved with a religious cult. Tengo is a university entrance-exam math prep instructor who also writes novels. Portrayed as passive, often ignored by people, not that successful and managing to find leisure time for sexual intrigue, Tengo is asked by a publishing company's editor to secretly rewrite a 17-year-old girl's submission for the sought-after Akutagawa Prize.
He reworks the girl's surreal mystery novel about a commune of ``little people,'' a girl and a blind goat. The author uses this novel-inside-a- novel to discuss issues about cult behavior.
The origin of the commune comes from an organization formed by intelligent left-wing people engaged in the student movement of the 1960s and '70s. The organization emerged from student activities and split into a self-sufficient community and political group, which then became a religious cult.
The story is intentionally tied to the Aum Shinrikyo cult's 1995 sarin gas attack in a Tokyo subway. Murakami argues it reveals the failures of mainstream Japanese society and in a similar line explores the psychological interior of an Aum-like cult group.
``I had long wanted to write a near-past novel similar to George Orwell's futuristic novel `Nineteen Eighty-Four.' Other reasons behind the book were incidents involving Aum Supreme Truth cult members. I wrote `Underground' published in 1997 after interviewing more than 60 victims of Aum's sarin gas attack in 1995 on the Tokyo subway system and `The Place That Was Promised' published in 2001 after interviewing eight Aum followers. Even after that, I attended as many hearings at the Tokyo district and high courts as I could,'' Murakimi was quoted as saying in the local publisher's press release.
The two protagonists don't seem to have something in common at first while living in the same time zone in Tokyo in 1984. But later, the characters spontaneously converge through a connection from their bizarre experiences and memories.
The book is also a love story since a boy and girl find a link to each other in their teens and although they live separately for some 20 years, they continue to harbor their love.
But the story focuses on the religious cult group and the ``little people'' to discover the incidents and people around the cult.
The novel has one foot firmly in the real world, and the other in the domain of science fiction and illusion, making the novel partially fantasy.
Meanwhile, the book is a strong protest against the trampling of free will by domestic violence, cult groups and family backgrounds.
Murakami's novel reflects on an understanding of the world today and this time his craft is more refined than ever.
Subtle humor and fresh narrative details reign in sophisticated but simple sentences that avoid pretension, and the characters' intonation, gestures and facial expressions are described with extreme precision.
In ``1Q84,'' the boundaries of the author's world and reality are blurred, leaving a lot of puzzles open to interpretation by readers. Vivid details and sharp wit combined with the violent circularity of 20th-century history are revisited through the raw portrayal of each character.
chungay@koreatimes.co.kr |
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