Book Review: 1Q84: Book Two

1Q84: Book Two by Haruki Murakami (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. 1184 pp)

Born in 1949 in Japan, Haruki Murakami studied drama at Waseda University. He began writing fiction at the age of 29, inspired to write a novel while watching a baseball game. Murakami earned literary fame with his best-selling novel, Norwegian Wood. In the wake of its success, he earned writing fellowships at Princeton University and Tufts University. Murakami has won the Franz Kafka Prize, the Kiriyama Prize, the Yomiuri Prize, the Jerusalem Prize, and the International Catalunya Prize.

Check out my review of Book One.

Discerning Between Unenviable Options 

Often times, life does not provide a right answer. When pondering between two choices, both have pros and cons. If life was a series of obvious choices, we’d never question whether our lives are headed in the right direction. With Book Two of 1Q84, Haruki Murakami establishes one of life’s classic paradoxes where no obvious answer exists but a decision, nevertheless, must be made.

In Book Two, the reader finds the crux of the 1Q84 storyline. If you recall from my Book One review, main characters Aomame and Tengo have operated on parallel narratives seemingly intertwined in unknown ways.

A Dangerous Mission 

Photo by Marufish

Aomame, the vigilante assassin of violent men, accepts the most difficult assignment of her illegal career. Her organization learns of gross sexual misconduct from The Leader, a figurehead of a secretive, rural cult called Sakigake.

A dangerous mission, Aomame must prepare for failure. Suicide is an option.

“At least once a day she would stand in front of the bathroom mirror and put the muzzle of the loaded gun in her mouth. Feeling the hardness of the metal against the edges of her teeth, she imagined herself pulling the trigger. That was all it would take to end her life. In the next instant, she would have vanished from this world. To the self she saw standing in the mirror, she said, A few important points: not to let my hand shake; to brace for the recoil; not to be afraid; and, most important, not to hesitate” (354).

A closely guarded figurehead, the completion of this mission will result in flight for Aomame. Sakigake is an affluent organization that will stop at nothing to bring retribution for their leader’s death if the mission is successful.

In Between Fact and Fiction 

Meanwhile, Tengo receives further pressure in the wake of Air Chrysalis’ success. For starters, the author, Fuka-Eri, has run away. The longer she is missing, the more intense the scrutiny the publisher will receive and news of Tengo’s involvement as a ghost writer could ruin everything.

Even worse, the fantastical fictional narrative to which Tengo contributed is shifting into reality. He sees two moons in the sky.

“Could this mean, then—Tengo asked himself—that this is the world of the novel? Could I have somehow left the real world and entered the world of Air Chrysalis like Alice falling down the rabbit hole? Or could the real world have been made over so as to match exactly the story of Air Chrysalis? Does this mean that the world that used to be—the familiar world with only one moon—no longer exists anywhere? And could the power of the Little People have something to do with thins in one way or another” (548)?

The world of 1Q84 is becoming more influential.

A Choice 

In the process of completing her assassination attempt on The Leader, Aomame gains a fresh but unpleasant perspective.

Photo by Spreng Ben

For starters, The Leader wants to die. A window into the world for the Little People, The Leader cannot handle life anymore. As a conduit for these fantastical beings, The Leader no longer wants to carry this burden.

Even worse, the Little People are targeting Tengo for his involvement in Air Chrysalis, unknowingly cueing the public to the secretive workings of these mysterious beings.

Aomame faces an exceedingly difficult decision. Kill The Leader and ensure her inevitable death when Sakigake hunts her down and save Tengo, or release The Leader, save her life, and guarantee death for Tengo.

Having formed an irrational bond with Tengo in elementary school, her decision has no right answer.

Right, Wrong, Or Balance 

No matter Aomame’s choice, people will suffer. The ethic of good and evil carries no weight. In fact, The Leader argues,

“’In this world, there is no absolute good, no absolute evil,’ the man said. ‘Good and evil are not fixed, stable entities but are continually trading places. A good may be transformed into an evil in the next second. And vice versa. Such was the way of the world that Dostoevsky depicted in The Brothers Karamazov. The most important thing is to maintain balance between the constantly moving good and evil. If you lean too much in either direction, it becomes difficult to maintain actual morals. Indeed, balance itself is the good. This is what I mean when I say that I must die in order to keep things in balance’” (447).

What would you do in Aomame’s shoes? Is self-preservation worth someone else’s life? Is balance a better question than right and wrong? We all face unending choices every day. While most of our decisions do not possess the same onus, choices are rarely clear.

Book Two progresses the 1Q84 narrative nicely and I eagerly look forward to Book Three.

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5.

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Posted by: Donovan Richards

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Book Review: Waiting for Sunrise

Waiting for Sunrise: A Novel by William Boyd (New York: Harper Collins, 2012. 353 pp)

William Boyd (b. 1952) is a Scottish novelist and screenwriter. In 1983, he was selected as one of Britain’s top twenty young British novelists. Though his novels, An Ice-Cream War, Brazzaville Beach, and The Blue Afternoon, have been shortlisted for many major prizes, he has not garnered much acclaim. On April 11, 2012 Boyd announced he is writing the next James Bond novel, set in the year 1969.

Three Parts Make a Whole

If you’ve ever seen the period-based television show, Downton Abbey, you know how riveting and intentional drama can be. Often enveloped by the lives of those in the fictitious drama, I was delighted to find a First World War period novel. Caught up in the throws of World War I, we see a protagonist go through self-enlightenment, while we wait for the sun to rise in his life.

Waiting for Sunrise is part period piece, part psychological journey, and part war/spy novel. Experimentally written, the switches in topic, tone, and even narrative mode don’t deter from the readability of the novel, but rather enhance it.

The protagonist, Lysander Rief, is warned in the early pages of the book about the dangers of the Austrian capital, Vienna. Even though the city seems like a safe place to explore, below the surface is a giant river of temptation for Lysander.

“‘This place—this Pension Kriwanek—is just like Vienna. You have the world of Frau K on top. So nice and so pleasant, everybody smiling politely, nobody farting or picking their nose. But below the surface the river is flowing, dark and strong.’‘What river?’‘The river of sex’” (27).

Transferring Jobs

Lysander is in danger of going under. As an English actor, he traveled to Vienna to seek treatment from a psychologist named Bensimon. While in the waiting room, he meets two people, one of which, Hettie Bull, becomes his newest lover. He also meets Alwyn Munro, who is a military official at the British consulate. By meeting Alwyn as well as talking with Dr. Bensimon, Lysander becomes interested in the spy world.

In his talks with his therapist, Lysander learns of a theory called “parallelism”, furthering his interest in being a ruthless and ingenious spy hunter.

“‘Let’s say that the world is in essence neutral—flat, empty, bereft of meaning and significance.  It’s us, our imaginations, that make it vivid, fill it with colour, feeling, purpose and emotion. Once we understand this we can shape our world in any way we want. In theory...I hesitate to say this, and I vary rarely make this leap, but I have a feeling Parallelism will cure you, Mr Rief, I really do” (49).

Parallelism, perhaps the largest theme in the novel, closely ties into Lysander’s addictions. As Bensimon suggests, the individual has the ability to change their world for the better, if they so choose. Lysander has the chance to change his addictions, to better his life, and to move away from a life of frivolity and meaningless sex. Through parallelism, Lysander has a chance to make his life work. However, Lysander doesn’t change his addictions, but rather his employ.

Many Realities

What ends up happening in the novel is a collage of espionage and global war, sex and temptation. When World War I breaks out, Rief, instead of fulfilling his theatric aspirations, is called by Munro to transform himself into a spy. Lysander is sent on a mole hunt that takes him all around the world, eventually landing him in London. 

Meanwhile, Lysander falls in love with yet another woman, further entrenching him in the river of sex mentioned in the first few pages of the novel. The theory of parallelism runs rampant in the novel, transforming Lysander into a spy, yet his addiction to and problems with sex still somehow remain. Parallelism isn’t a thorough reality for Rief.

If you’ve ever seen the television series Downton Abbey and would like to read a book that is eerily similar to the First World War depiction therein, William Boyd’s Waiting for Sunrise is about as close as one can get. William Boyd has been asked to write the next James Bond thriller, so that gives you a good idea of the spy narrative within. Even though there’s a lot going on, Waiting for Sunrise combines complicated, intellectual intrigue and adventure to make something worth reading. 

Verdict: 3.5 out of 5
What do you think? Did you read Waiting for Sunrise, and like it? Or were you confused? Have you read Boyd's other novels? Share your thoughts below.
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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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Book Review: Kluge

Kluge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Human Mind by Gary Marcus (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008. 211 pp.)

Gary Marcus is a professor of psychology and the director of the Center for Language and Music at New York University, where he studies language and cognitive development. He is also the author of the book Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning.

The Not-So-Elegant Mind 

I read Marcus’ most recent book, Guitar Zero not long ago, and decided I liked what he had to say about cognitive development, especially in regard to how one learns music. In Kluge, Marcus gives an overview of the human mind, arguing it isn’t as sophisticated as we often claim.

“Where Shakespeare imagined infinite reason, I see something else, what engineers call a ‘kluge.’ A kluge is a clumsy or inelegant—yet surprisingly effective—solution to a problem” (2).

Photo by NASA

Marcus offers the story of Apollo 13 mission control engineer, Ed Smylie, as an example of a well-known kluge. By “MacGuyvering” the scenario, the engineers developed a far from graceful solution in which the astronauts fixed the faulty C02 on board with some items, chief among which were duct tape and a sock.

Marcus continues his thesis by outlining where kluginess and elegance coexist in many places. I’ll sketch out the memory, belief, and choice kluges, my favorite—and most personally enlightening—moments in the novel.

Memory Kluge 

I admit; I’m forgetful. I misplace my keys; I leave my phone in innumerable places, and if it’s raining, a miracle has occurred when I wear a raincoat. My memory is a constant source of disappointment. With contextual memory, neurons don’t always align properly.

“Context exerts its powerful effect—sometimes helping us, sometimes not—in part by ‘priming’ the pump of our memory; when I hear the word doctor, it becomes easier to recognize the word nurse” (24).

Marcus also notes what actually happens rarely matches with when it occurs as a common memory kluge. Generally, the more recent the event, the more vivid the memory. Once events are no more than a few weeks or months removed, the past blurs together. Perhaps more interesting, Marcus states that we rarely forget the things we want to forget and rarely remember the things we want to remember.

“What we remember and what we forget are a function of context, frequency, and recency, not a means of attaining inner peace. It’s possible to imagine a robot that could automatically expunge all unpleasant memories, but we humans are just not built that way” (38).

A Kluge of Beliefs

The elegance and kluginess of the human mind continues through the way we believe things. Marcus argues,

“No matter what we humans think about, we tend to pay more attention to stuff that fits in with our beliefs than stuff that might challenge them. Psychologists call this ‘confirmation bias.’ When we have embraced a theory, large or small, we tend to be better at noticing evidence that supports it than evidence that might run counter to it” (53).

Photo by Bill Ledbetter

Using a pastiche of horoscopes, Marcus illustrates his point.

“You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside” (40).

In reading this statement, you might think, “Gee, the description sounds a lot like me!” But, in reality, Marcus compiled several horoscopes put together by a famed psychologist. The point being, we believe bland generalities to be directly aimed at us even when they aren’t specifically written for us.

Marcus also points to the logical syllogism, a highly evolved way of deductive reasoning. Even when we have little at stake, and when it doesn’t directly affect our ego, our knowledge contaminates our ego. Marcus provides two examples:

“All men are mortal                               All glorks are frum
Socrates was a man.                              Skeezer is a glork.
Therefore, Socrates was mortal.            Therefore, Skeezer is frum “ (60-61).

Both syllogisms follow the same structure, but if you insert new words into the major and minor premises, the argument makes little sense. We train our brains to do the syllogism on the right well, but it doesn’t make sense without our preconceived definitions of words we already know.

Marcus offers one more syllogism to further his point,

“All living things need water.
Roses need water.
Therefore, roses are living things” (61).

We are more apt to believe the argument because it works. Yes, roses need water! But, nonliving things need water too (Marcus offers the example of a car battery). The argument that all X’s need Y, Z’s need Y, therefore Z’s are X’s is logically unsound. According to Marcus, in favor of easier, prior beliefs, we often suspend a careful analysis of what really is.

Choice Kluge 

Lastly, the choice kluge is best illustrated in a a video that Marcus references in the chapter. A psychologist offers a child one marshmallow, offering a second marshmallow if the child maintains self-control until the psychologist returns. The psychologist then leaves the room, and comes back around 15-20 minutes later. During this time, most children eat the marshmallow.

“Giving up after 15 minutes is a choice that could only really make sense under two circumstances: (1) the kids were so hungry that having the marshmallow now could stave off true starvation or (2) their prospects for a long and healthy life were so remote that the 20-minute future versions of themselves, which would get the two marshmallows, simply weren’t worth planning for. Barring these rather remote possibilities, the children who gave in were behaving in an entirely irrational fashion” (70).

We all too often surrender our judgment to the subconscious, or blindly trust our instincts without actually thinking. For this reason, the choices we make are often wrong.

Humanity: One Giant Kluge

Marcus argues humans are really one giant Kluge. He states in the first page of the book that because we are so poorly-yet-elegantly made, we aren’t noble in mind as Shakespeare, the noble bard, would suggest. Kluge is a great read, offering some keen insight into the way the human mind works.

Verdict: 4 out of 5

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Posted by: Andrew Jacobson

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