1Q84

This book was initially published in Japan as three separate novels.  In the United States, however, all three novels were combined and published as one uber lengthy 900+ page novel.  The themes in the story are loneliness, love, banality and illusion.  It was a chore to read because there is quite a bit of repetition.  I chalk this up to the fact that since it was originally three books, you have a bit of synopsis repeated in each subsequent book.  This book could have easily been 300 pages and would have, possibly, been a stronger story.  The general story is that at the age of 10 years old two kids who were essentially outsiders, for various reasons, held hands briefly in a moment of understanding.  By 1984 they have grown up to lead ordinary, lonely lives.

The girl (Aomame) has become a fitness trainer and part-time assassin. The boy (Tengo) has grown up to become a writer and part-time math teacher.  They both are pretty bland people, but they still obsess about that one little hand holding episode from childhood.  Aomame randomly enters a world that is similar to 1984 but not quite the same (there are two moons instead of one) so she names it 1Q84.  She kills a very important cult leader in this new world and has to hide out. The daughter of the cult leader is also hiding out in the same neighborhood with Tengo.  Eventually they find each other and go back to 1984 via the same way she came into 1Q84.  She apparently had to enter this "other" world in order to find her one true hand holding love of her life, Tengo.

The story reunites the two in a very slow, jagged, meandering way with a cast of characters that I couldn't have cared less about.  This makes the book unbearable.  There are long discussions about philosophical questions.  There is a LOT of food description here.  I don't think one meal goes without description.  You read about the chopping and the boiling and the consumption of just about each meal. There are a LOT of breast references too.  Women who think theirs are too small.  Men observing breasts in sweaters. Women who think theirs are too big.  Men picturing women having their breasts suckled. It is unnecessary to the plot and entirely aggravating.  It's obvious this is a male author who is obsessed with breasts. I was over it.  The book was too long and had too much superfluous information. As one reviewer put it, it's pretty much "1000 uneventful pages".  I hated it. It was almost like I was reading Moby Dick all over again!