>>403One of my favorite anime, Haibane Renmei, was actually directly inspired by the scenery of the town in that book. When I found this out, I had already been reading After the Quake, so I went and picked up Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
I really respect a book that makes me keep grasping at different theories the whole time I'm reading it. And the surreal dreamlike imagery had me captured. It's my favorite book in recent memory.
I started 1Q84 a while back but I set it down around chapter 2 and haven't picked it up in a while. It had a crazy twist near the beginning that blew my mind, so I expect good things from it.