ikilledit

I just run. I run in a void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void. But as you might expect, an occasional thought will slip into this void. People’s minds can’t be a complete blank. Human beings’ emotions are not strong or consistent enough to sustain a vacuum. What I mean is, the kinds of thoughts and ideas that invade my emotions as I run remain subordinate to that void. Lacking content, they are just random thoughts that gather around that central void.

The thoughts that occur to me while I’m running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky as always. The clouds are mere guests in the sky that pass away and vanish, leaving behind the sky. The sky both exists and doesn’t exist. It has substance and at the same time doesn’t. And we merely accept that vast expanse and drink it in. ~ What I Talk About When I Talk About Running ~ Haruki Murakami

This. Forever this. 

Finished 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. It was beautifully written, surreal, dark, and made me smile throughout. It is not where I would recommend starting with Murakami. There are other works which are a better way to get into his writings.

The book was not perfect. It stalled at various points and there are a number of loose ends that he seems to just drop. These loose ends do not bother me but it is something I noticed, and the reader has to form their own opinion on whether or not this served the story. Also, about 3/4 into the novel a good 150 pages should have been removed. I only forced myself to continue on at this particular moment (stalled like a frakker) because I wanted to find out if the two main characters would get what they had been searching for, but I can see at a specific point in the novel - people giving up because too much time is being spent on character and not enough on plot. Especially at the 650 page mark. 600+ pages in, I think we know enough about the character, so why keep building description (as lovely as it is), it just annoyed me.

Despite a few of these stumbles, the characters he creates are so vivid and life like, you think that you might run into them at a bar late one night. A very beautiful love story in the middle of this very surreal and dark dystopian novel. The allusions to 1984 are not as heavy as you’d expect with the title being what it is.

A very solid read. And I’m glad I picked it up.