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I read the first two books of 1Q84 by Murakami.
The story takes place in Japan. The reader is introduced to two main characters: Aomame and Tengo. She is a fitness instructor and also a cold-blooded assassin, while he is a math teacher and a young writer. There are many threads that, sooner or later, lead to these two characters and, in the meantime, connect them. They first met in school, in elementary grades, and throughout the story, they search for each other, appearing "accidentally" in the same places, but never actually meeting. They are involved in the story of the Little People, who one day crawled out of a goat's mouth and every night wove an air cocoon. There is also the girl Fukaeri, who released them. Religion, love, death, parallel realities, mysticism, and all that. This is a general overview; it's quite psychedelic.
I didn't like it.
While trying to understand the threads, I lost interest. It's too convoluted, overloaded, and tiring. America is having an increasingly negative influence.
But I still love Murakami. And I still think that his earlier novels were much better. Like "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" or "Norwegian Wood." I could read "Hear the Wind Sing," "Pinball 1973," and "South of the Border, West of the Sun" in one day.
But now, I don't even want to start the third volume.
I'd rather reread Salinger and Miller.
Mortulus, have you happened to read the latest volumes?