Armchair Audie Post 3

1Q84
Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin, Philip Gabriel [Trans.]
Read by Alison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett
(Audible, Inc./ Brilliance Audio)
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers

At just under 47 hours of audio this audiobook is the biggest feat I have ever taken on. What makes this worth the while is that it was amazing. This story and the narrators really make it worth the time and have an ability to really bring the reader into the story. I found very few spots, if at all that my mind would wander even slightly from the story.
The story is entertaining as well as thought provoking. With the switching of perspectives and narrators the pacing of the story is impressive and even though I left it to last to listen to for these Armchair Audie posts I was really worried that I was not going to make it through the book in time, but the fact that I really looked forward to getting back into the story, says a lot about the audio I think. I only left myself a little over one week to listen to the whole thing and even with the bad timing on my part, I think that the enjoyment I had listening to it for several hours each day can say more than anything else about how well put together it is, especially for it's size.

There was a moment or two this week that I wanted to really put this one as the best nominated in this category and should win. It was difficult choosing between this audio and the one that I eventually ended up picking of the audio I think will eventually win in this category. (also to be announced in the next post---stay tuned!)