1Q84 Excerpt

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Based on the nine-page excerpt of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 in the most recent issue of The New Yorker, the English translation of which is (finally!) slated for a 25 October release, there's a lot to look forward to. Definitely reads like vintage Murakami -- relatively straightforward declarative prose, overtones of Japan's twentieth-century political and social history (Tengo's father in Manchuria, Soviet invasion thereof), rock references (Tengo's Jeff Beck t-shirt), surrealism (the town of cats, obviously, not to mention the use of cats to advance the story, as in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore), and an overarching mystery upon which the whole plot turns -- at least in this excerpt. I'm very excited.