this book felt like a really well-developed version of his earlier novels - not by content, just by mood. i enjoyed it, though not as much as sputnik sweetheart or kafka on the shore. looking forward to 1Q84! ( )

Twee zussen: een zus is al maanden in een onnatuurlijke slaap verzonken, een zus kan 's nachts juist niet slapen. Zij zit 's nachts in een bar te lezen en ontmoet tal van interessante mensen die ook 's nachts op hun best zijn. ( )

The book sleeve says this is Murakami in a concentrated form. It might be. A tale of one nights incidents in Tokyo, centering around the two sisters Eri and Mari, the book contains all the central Murakami features; strange and eloquent protagonists, jazz, fantastical elements, mystery and parallell universes.

Allthough the book is – of course, considering the author – very well written and beautiful handicraft, it will not be my personal favourite of Murakamis. I was left with a wish to connect a bit more to the caracters instead of – as I thought I did reading this – watching them in a lovely and accurate exposition of art photography. ( )

Interesting. I don't think I truly took time to think about what all the 'weird' things are about (like why Eri's asleep). This book still has that Japanese feel, I felt like I was walking the streets of Tokyo as well as Mari. I would have liked the 'meaning' a bit more fleshed out- I was left with a lot of questions. Beautifully written and translated though. ( )

Alternating stories of Mari who spends the night at a Denny's and a love hotel where she meets several people, and her sister Eri who has been asleep for two months.
A slow, weird, supernatural and beautiful book.
Nothing much happens throughout the book and not a lot is resolved in the end. But it is a sweet, short story that takes place during a single night. ( )

The story telling technique used in this book is rather unusual, but unusual is what I’ve come to expect of Murakami and his writing. We are told right from the beginning that we are only a viewpoint, a camera floating in space, not having the capacity to participate in all that happens. Like camera viewports, we can only see what is within the rectangular frame, and we make up the rest of what we can’t view with our own imaginations.

This book reads much like watching a movie, but gives us the insight of a book. It is very intriguing, to say the least, as it’s not every day that I come across such a story. It’s almost like a study of contrasts, pulling into pieces the workings of a movie while keeping to the formalities of a book, jumping from place to place while still keeping within the same time frame.

This here is a story, I feel, about balance. There is this world, and then there is that other world. They both exist together, feed off each other, and both will cease to exist if any one disappears. There is an endless connection from me to you and back to me again. No matter how insignificant we feel about ourselves, or how far apart we may be, there is this web of connectivity that keeps all things in balance. ( )

Junge Leute, Imbiss, Jazz, Love Hotel Alphaville, chinesische Mafia, dicke Katzen, Essen, ein perverser IT-Typ und eine dauern-schlafende Schönheit - eine Nacht in Tokyo zwischen 23:56 Uhr und Morgengrauen.

Ein ganz nettes Buch. ( )

A tone poem about several teenage characters whose lifes intersect over the course of one night.
Nothing much happens, as the main characters Mari and Takahashi meet, part, meet and part again with the possibility of 'a date' after Mari returns from six months in China, but it is beautifully evoked. For me, the surrealistic passages about Mari's sister, Eri, add little to the story, but help make the unreal mood that is successfully created.

I have read several novels by Murakami so the themes and types of characters are familiar, and whilst this novel has the least narrative drive, it creates a beautifully realised world. ( )

Alienation, a recurring motif in the works of Murakami, is the central theme in this novel set in metropolitan Tokyo over the course of one night. Main characters include Mari, a 19-year-old student, who is spending the night reading in a Denny's. There she meets Takahashi, a trombone-playing student who loves Curtis Fuller's "Five Spot After Dark" song on Blues-ette; Takahashi knows Mari's sister Eri and insists that the group of them have hung out before. Meanwhile, Eri is being watched in her sleep by someone sinister. Eri also suffers from social withdrawal, a condition often referred to as hikikomori. Mari crosses ways with a retired female wrestler, now working as a manager in a love hotel (whom Takahashi knows and referred to Mari), a Chinese prostitute who has been beaten and stripped of everything in this same love hotel, and a sadistic computer expert. The story takes place in a world between reality and dream. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Da... ( )

This being my third Murakami novel, I've learned to look not so much for answers or explanations as much as for allegory and explorations. Reading this book, appropriately enough, in bed over the past few nights, I loved its meditation on anomie, disconnection, and loss of personal identity - three strands of experience that weave together the seemingly disparate characters in the novel, in connections that seem as surprising as a cellphone left in a 7-Eleven milk fridge. And yet these are connections only the reader is privileged to see: a privilege afforded by Murakami's sure hand, as intimate and simultaneously remote as a videographer.

A powerful and evocative read. ( )

It is always such a pleasure to read Murakami! This isn't one of my favorites, but I enjoyed the book a lot anyway. Of the things I liked most about this one are the conversations and how the characters' personalities come through in the dialogue. ( )

After Dark by Haruki Murakami is more of a meditation than a story. There is a plot, but it’s merely there to give the characters a reason to interact. And it’s through those interactions that we get a glimpse of these people of the night. There’s something about the night that allows people to let down their guard, and Murakami’s characters find that, in the night, they can share their true thoughts. Characters discuss their lives and loves, their fears and fantasies. They act on their impulses, and certain aspects of their natures that may be hidden in the day are revealed.

This was my first experience reading Murakami, and I loved the world that he created. His crisp, clear writing is filled with nice details that allow you to really place yourself there with the characters. It’s great descriptive writing. At times, the deep conversations about the meaning of life went on too long for me, but, really, such conversations always seem long and tedious if you’re not actually involved. And nighttime seems to lend itself to such talks, so it feels right. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of one character's (Eri) situation, but I think that’s intentional—and impossible to explain to someone who hasn’t read the book. I’ll just say there’s a touch of the surreal about it (and that’s the bit of the story that has continued to haunt me).

Read my complete review at my blog. ( )

I am still allowing this Murakami work to settle into my mind. It has a different feel than most of his others. and not as compelling, but I find a month after I have finished the novel it is still with me. Perhaps a re-read will allow me to review it. ( )

Brilliant. I read this within a day. Plot's not so hot, but the writing is precise, the atmosphere wonderful, and the characters original. Entrancing. ( )

Minor work from Murakami. Story of shy sister quite sweet and amusing. Rest of it was frankly a bit dull. ( )

Good one.... truly enjoyable lecture.
Still, the ambiguous ending of Murakami's books drives me crazy; won't give this guy another chance...
Every time I close one of these books - I'm still looking for meanings, as the author doesn't give me any explanation nor clue. Hm. Pure fiction... ( )

Posiblemente y hasta la fecha la mejor obra de Murakami que he leído. Su línea argumental y su estructura muy cinematográfica, los personajes del Love Ho y el ambiente nocturno de la ciudad que parece sacado de las pelis de la última horanada de cineastas japoneses hacen sumamente atractivo este título. A destacar los momentos de unión entre los personajes de Mari Asai y el músico o las conversaciones de MAri con la chica que regenta el Alphaville de godardianas resonancias. ( )

When I finished reading this book I was not quite sure I had enjoyed it and was disappointed with Murakami. However, when I discussed this book with a friend and I began to recall all of the aspects of the book that interested and intrigued me, I realized that I truly enjoyed the book. Murakami has written a book that takes the reader on a journey into the lives of some interesting characters and their after dark activities. Definitely a must read for any Murakami fan! ( )

I might have liked this book less if I weren't such a Murakami afficionado - I've read (and I have a copy of) every other work of his that's been published in English.

This book is lighter than his previous novels - it has much more of a flavor of a short story. He doesn't delve too deeply into character's internal feelings - in fact, he stays on the outside, and when he does refer to a character's internal process ("milk is an important substance to him"), you get the sense that this is a conclusion from the available evidence, rather than a statement based on superior, narrator-knowledge of the character's thoughts and feelings. I think that this style is appropriate for what he is trying to do - Murakami explicitly refers to points of view and things we can't see in this work. But if you are used to the richness and internal depth of say, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, you may be taken aback and dislike the work.

The book does remind me of jazz riffs after dark. It's a series of scenes set from nightfall to daybreak, alternating from one character to the next and then back again. The characters are connected in a style familiar to viewers of modern American television shows like Lost or Heroes - seemingly ordinary connections that allow us access to a new set of stories. They are funky, and light - I'd love to hear the book as a piece for the trombone.

I found the book enjoyable. There were points of recognition with Murakami's other works, and you can see him exploring new directions. From his nonfiction, I believe he's the kind of author who is unsatisfied doing one thing over and over, and I know he often prefers the short story to the novel. It's not my favorite of his works, and I'd only recommend it to someone who knew what they were getting into - I appreciate it more for what it tries to do, for the style and structure, than for the enjoyment I got from reading it. ( )

This is a pretty short slice-of-life thing, with some typical Murakami surreality. It follows a group of loosely connected characters over about 7 hours one night in Tokyo, and although the events are fairly dark and strange at times, something about his writing style still made it very relaxing to read. ( )

My third Murakami novel, and for a while I thought it might be one I positively enjoyed. There is some humour here, and I was able to understand some of the cultural references. Murakami deceptively laces his work with Western cultural references, but it is a mistake to think that one can understand his novels without knowing a lot about Japan.

In this book there is a theme that seems to have reference to a Japanese cultural phenomenon where young people wall themselves up in their rooms and become totally uncommunicative - you need to understand that to see what is going on with one of the characters - Eri.

Other themes explored in the book are Murakami's obsession with a kind of dualism, where we have alter egos beyond our control (like the murderer of Kafka's father in "Kafka on the shore") He seems to link this with influence of animal spirits, and I can only suppose that is some kind of reference to japanese mysticism (Shinto perhaps?)

There is also bad sex as usual, with the love hotel theme which divorces sex from love and commitment. At least in this novel we are invited to see that this divorce is directly related to the evils of the attack described therein.

The whole narrative takes place in real time through the course of one night.

The problem with Murakami (other than the difficulty presented to readers not steeped in Japanese culture) is that his books really are trying too hard to be surreal and metaphorical. I read Kafka on the Shore first, and felt it was trying too hard - but now I feel that book was the best of the three I have read!

In this book the surrealism is just tagged on. It doesn't seem to have any reason for being there. The watcher in Eri's room... what is that all about? Frankly, I don't care! If a book requires so much work to interpret, then no two people will interpret it the same. Some people don't mind that, but what I want to know is what the author is telling me.

I don't need to read this book to know what I am thinking myself. A clear message still requires thought from the reader. Do we agree? What can we add? But works that defy understanding and jump around between realism and the surreal - well these are a lot of work for little reward.

Of course Murakami has his supporters, and many people will love the surrealism, the lack of conclusion, the dropped threads, the moral relativism, and of course the little in jokes (room 404 is surely a reference to the HTTP error code for "page not found").

So if you like Murakami or any of the above - read this book. Otherwise your time would be better spent with something else.

The one saving grace - the reason this gets two stars and not one - is that the book is short. Much shorter than "Kafka on the Shore", or the 'Wind up Bird Chronicle". It may be a waste of time reading it - but it won't be such a huge waste of time. ( )

Mijn recensie lees je hier; http://www.pinkbullets.nl/2009/01/boo... ( )

I burned through Haruki Murakami's latest novel, After Dark, in about three sittings. Sometimes described as a distillation of the author's standard oeuvre, I found it to be more like an overture: quick and light in its movement, it suggests Murakami's standard themes without exploring them in much depth. Were I putting together a Murakami syllabus, I might put After Dark at the beginning, to start a conversation that would deepen and expand with novels like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, A Wild Sheep Chase and Kafka on the Shore. As such, it would work well, introducing Murakami's preoccupations with the quester who wanders aimlessly, with the tendency of music to form unexpected alliances between people, and with the lost, escaped or misplaced woman (a sister in this case, although often a romantic partner) who must negotiate dreamlike landscapes of unspecified violence. It would also introduce the typically ambiguous Murakami climax and ending, although in the case of After Dark the resolution seems not so much ambiguous as nonexistent.

Murakami's language in After Dark suggests explicitly a screenplay. Perspectives are described in terms of camera angles, panning and zooming, and the dialogue among characters is sometimes conveyed in script form. In many places the narrator explains in so many words "our" role as a disembodied point of view devoid of ability to alter the course of events. My guess would be that Murakami is commenting, here, on the passiveness of traditional media consumption; one of the main characters, who spends nearly the entire novel in an existentially-motivated hibernation, is a beautiful young model named Eri Asai. One gets the sense that she has been observed, admired and consumed from without until her interior sense of self has completely deteriorated. Now "we" are one more external point of view, observing her but unable to help her. She is forced to negotiate alone the un-world of her deep sleep, and the strange dislocation (literal and metaphorical) at the heart of it. Again and again, in different ways, Murakami brings up the idea of a permeable or impermeable divide - between point of view and subject, between the respectable citizen and the criminal, between public and private, and, of course, between night and day. So in that sense, the semi-screenplay form is quite fitting.

For me, though, it also makes the novel less pleasant to read than other Murakami work. The prose is jerkier, more like a set of stage directions than a flowing narrative, and the dialogue seems insufficiently ingegrated into the prose. It also has that certain flatness of a play read silently; the lines rely on the creative interpretation that actors would give, and without it they seem lacking. In fact, throughout After Dark it kept striking me that this is one novel better-suited to life as a film - preferably directed by Jim Jarmusch or David Lynch. While all the stage directions are clunky to read, the actual images involved are intriguing and effective; to me, telling this story in film form would feel like cutting out the middleman. And Lynch would have to do very little adaptation to fit After Dark into his established oeuvre; as it ends, much like Mulholland Drive or the Twin Peaks pilot, we are unsure if Eri has met with triumph or defeat in her ordeal, or indeed whether the crisis was brought to any kind of breaking point at all. There is a scene where she attempts to communicate her plight to the outside world, and a point at which "we," as her disembodied audience, attempt to warn her of an impending danger. In both cases, the attempts seem completely unsuccessful, yet they form the only semblance of a climax available to the reader, and seem to represent some kind of corner turned. I generally adore this kind of ambiguity, yet Eri's story left me somehow unsatisfied; I wanted greater access to her, more meaty characterization - which, come to think of it, is just what her sister, the other protagonist of the novel, wants as well.

Despite my complaints, After Dark was an enjoyable way to spend a few days of reading, and there were some trademark sparkles of Murakami descriptive prowess. I particularly liked the phrase, in his opening paragraph, that describes Tokyo at night as "sending out new contradictions and collecting the old." As a précis, a Murakami primer or appetizer, it's quite effective, and whets my appetite for more.

http://absorbedinwords.blogspot.com/2... ( )

This is probably the prettiest book in which nothing much actually happens that I have ever read!

I mean that as a good thing, honest. ( )