I finished 1Q84 yesterday.  There were times I loved the book and other times I asked myself,  “Why am I reading this?!”   Oftentimes, my head was spinning while I was trying to keep track of all the details…details that were excruciatingly painful at the beginning of the book. It took me about 300 pages before I was hooked  by the combination of mystery, fantasy and surprising love story of sorts.    Below is a  synopsis of the story.  I have submitted my review to Portland Book Review and the editor will take it from there.

Murakami’s book opens with Aomame walking down an emergency exit on a busy Tokyo expressway.  This unusual exit leads her to a parallel world that is not immediately evident until she notices some strange events, including two moons in the sky.  1984 becomes 1Q84 (with the Q signifying Question).  Aomame is a sports instructor by day but a one night stand, crazed assassin by night. Aomame is financially supported by a reclusive, rich dowager with her own need for revenge.  The story also introduces us to Tengo, a math instructor and part-time fiction writer.  Tengo experiences his own oddities when he works with a 17 year old that runs away from a cult that her parents lead.  Tension and danger builds as Tengo and the 17 year old write and publish a novel that reveals too much for the cult’s comfort.  Mysteriously, Aomame and Tengo are linked from the fifth grade and must meet again to return to 1984.