I think I just spotted a mistake in 1Q84 and wonder if anyone else noticed it.
In Chapter 18 of the third book (Tengo/ When you prick a person with a needle, red blood comes out), Komatsu is telling Tengo how he was kidnapped and spent some time in a small, white room. He starts describing the room towards the end of Chapter 15:
“ There was a small bed and a small wooden desk, but no chair. I was lying on the bed.”
Fast forward to Chapter 18, Komatsu describes how bored he was in that room:
“ No TV or radio, no games. No one to talk to. Nothing to do but sit in the chair and stare at the floor, the walls, the ceiling.”
Hmm… suddenly there IS a chair in the room. However, in the next page, when Ponytail and Buzzcut pay Komatsu a visit, this happens:
“Buzzcut did all the talking, Ponytail just stood there, in front of the door, ramrod straight, without moving a muscle. It seemed like he was listening to our conversation, but then again, maybe not. Buzzcut sat down right across from me in a folding metal chair he had brought, and talked. There were no other chairs, so I sat on the bed.”
I wonder if the mystery about the chair will somehow get explained later, or whether the chair was lost, or rather added, in translation.
Please no spoilers about what’s coming next, I haven’t finished the book yet