1Q84 — A Magical Love Story

Day 69 / 366

Today I finally finished reading 1Q84 by Murakami. It’s a set of 3 books with a combined 1300 pages, and it took me a long long time to finish it. But in the end, like every other Murakami book, it was worth it.

As I have written before as well, Murakami books have helped me change myself more than any self-help book ever has. Even though these books are fictional stories with Magical Realism in them, something about them speaks to me at a deeper level.

This book is the story of an aspiring writer Tengo trapped in a parallel world with 2 moons and magical beings. And he is trying to find a girl he loved in school when he was 10 years old. The girl, Aomame, is stuck in the same world as well, and she too is trying to search for Tengo. Hidden beneath all the magic and supernatural stuff, is a sweet love story.

What I took away from this book is how two people who have not spoken or even seen each other for twenty years can still be so hopelessly in love with each other. I really like this notion of love. The modern-day love that we have has become so conditional and so materialistic.

Gone are the days without phones or the internet, when the only means of communication between two lovers living far from each other would be the letters they exchanged with each other once a month. We are in the age of dating apps where people go through dozens of people a day, trying to find someone that’s best for them. Who would ever wait for someone else?

I think true love has to be selfless. Your love for someone should not depend on whether you end up with them or not. You love someone because of who they are and how they make you feel. And you express that love for them any chance you get. And if they do not reciprocate it back, it doesn’t bother you.

Sadly, I don't think this generation would ever wait even 20 days for a person, let alone 20 years.