Really? I thought 1Q84 was a major disappointment, but then it was the last of his books I've read (so far being Norwegian Wood; South of the Border, West of the Sun; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle; Sputnik Sweetheart; Kafka on the Shore and After Dark, as well as some of his short stories, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running). I thought the ending was anticlimactic and fairly pointless. In fact, it just seemed like the whole plot meandered nowhere - especially with what happened to Ushikawa. And I say this as someone who very much likes Murakami, so I'm capable of putting up with quite a lot of 'meandering'. You make the point that he re-uses the same two characters - everyday quasi-intellectual male and weird woman, and perhaps I simply have grown tired of it. But I'm still going to buy Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage when they translate it...
I really enjoyed 1Q84, and it was the first I read. I think the end, as with a lot of Murakami's stories, relies heavily on personal preference. If I had read it at another time, I probably wouldn't have liked it as much. I think the meandering worked in that story like it did in others - it serves, I guess, to further the universe. In any case, what did you think of the Windup Bird Chronicle? Disclaimer: I have a beer or two in me and I am very tired; this is definitely not as coherent as the post itself.
I loved TWUBC! It was the first of his that I read and it got me hooked on his blend of everyday life and weird, vaguely magical happenings.