1Q84: What was the Point?

I've finally made it to the end of Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, and after 1200 pages and no real answers, I'm struggling to see the point of the whole endeavor. The book was alright, but why it was dragged out to that length is beyond me; perhaps it was only done so that it could be classed as an epic. There are some great ideas in it, but they're only loosely explored, and too much time is given over to plot instead of surrealism. In the third book it becomes excrutiating as the chapters are alternately focused on three different characters, and nearly every single thing that you read has already been covered. It's difficult to feel any tension when you know exactly what is going to happen. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle fit in way more in half the number of pages, and it's so much better for it. One of the main problems for me is that the book is more plot-driven than his usual work: where Bird Chronicle is a piece of mad surrealism that you can happily get to the end of without answers and draw your own conclusions, or just be beautifully lost in everything that happens, 1Q84 is instead a sci-fi-thriller without much of a pay-off. If it had been balls-out surrealism the lack of closure would be fine, but the style of the book means that you expect more from the ending. It's like the loose ends are too loose to be satisfying, but not loose enough that you can get lost in their meandering paths. I read somewhere that Murakami initially stopped the novel after its second book, but returned to it a few months later to write a third, and I personally would have preferred it to end at the conclusion of Book Two. I'm sad because I love Murakami, and I will definitely re-read the other novels of his that have previously bamboozled me, but I don't think I'll pick up 1Q84 again. Luckily, I've still got about ten books in his back catalogue to get through.

And, while I'm at it, Murakami's boob obsession is bizarre, and absolutely cringey to read. You can barely get five pages through 1Q84 before Aomame, the main female character, is talking about her tits, or somebody else's, constantly saying "if only my breasts could be a little bigger". I found it very odd that Murakami went on about boobs so much when I've never noticed it in any of his other books. I don't know why it wasn't all cut in translation. And while they were at it, they could have cut another five-hundred pages and I probably would have loved 1Q84. It seems like a missed opportunity to me, and I'm upset :-(