Book Review: After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Joana .
Jun 15, 2012
5 min read

Updated: Jan 13, 2021

As the title foretells, in After Dark, Murakami explores the lives of different characters in Tokyo, after the sunsets, and all seems still under the night sky, in a single night, in real-time. The story is centred by the two sisters (Eri and Mari) and how their relationship fell out; then there are the love-hotel manager and her staff manager, and the Chinese prostitute with the abusive businessman.

I picked out this book during my earlier years with Murakami. His writing style was too exotic to me! Having started my journey into the "Murkami World" with Norweigian Wood and that didn't end well (for me ie) . I obviously did not comprehend this new type of story presentation. So I thought "this is a make-it or break-it sorta deal! If he'll ace this short story, then I'm absolutely not wasting my time!". Non-surprisingly, I hated the book! I ended all relations with Murakami and his books; I discouraged anyone who attempted reading Murakami from taking up such a horrific feat.

In this world, there are things you can only do alone, and things you can only do with somebody else. It's important to combine the two in just the right amount.

A couple of years later, I wanted to give this book another chance. So I attempted reading After Dark again, but this time with no expectations in the back of my mind at all! Absorbing words, characters, the settings, the dialogue and rise of events as they come. It was only then that I realised that back then (during my first read), unfortunately, I was not ready for Murakami or his literary approach to storytelling. This reflected in my complete rejection of his obscure methodology in writing.

Undoubtedly, (back then) I was merely on the outlook for a typical story (this time) set in Japan, with an ordinary flow of events leading to a typical plot with the appropriate character development and a satisfactory finale drawing a smile on my face. This is not the case with Murakami, no. Not his books. If one were looking for the "typical", kindly look elsewhere. This land is foreign to all that is "ordinary", especially in this book!

But what seems like a reasonable distance to one person might feel too far to somebody else.

Murakami's writing style is best described as if you're walking on clouds in a unearthly dream. Then you'd wake up and keep walking on a cosy pathway, daydreaming to get you somewhere... but you'd never arrive at your destination. Nothing makes sense, but that's the whole sense behind it! You're in a world where the norm is unreal and the surreal imaginative thought is your living reality. A trademark for Murakami's work, and Murakami alone!

Murakami is setting an observant approach to the different characters taking part in this story. He kept a watching eye. A camera lens was set on a stage where the characters deliver their respective dialogues, and the imagery vividly delineated for the reader to have a front-seat experience in it all.

Time moves in it special way in the middle of the night.

As much as I am falling in love with Murakami's writings, the majority of his work remains illogical and disjointed no matter how many times I attempt piecing the puzzles together. In turn, this has become Murakami's toxic effect on me. I loved it, but I'm not sure why. I hate it, but I can't live without it! Murakami's stories in general, no matter how "simple", they're always intellectually intriguing, keeping my emotions in a serene jumble! Makes no sense if you ask me... hence the "toxic effect"... Not many (authors) have this effect on me (if any at all), and I'm afraid that this, later on, shaped my literary choices and approach to text analysis. If anything, I am most thankful to Murakami and his genius!

I do feel that I’ve managed to make something I could maybe call my world…over time…little by little. And when I’m inside it, to some extent, I feel kind of relieved. But the very fact I felt I had to make such a world probably means that I’m a weak person, that I bruise easily, don’t you think? And in the eyes of society at large, that world of mine is a puny little thing. It’s like a cardboard house: a puff of wind might carry it off somewhere.

Short Analysis:

Book cover: (3 stars)
- I see a shot through the blurry looking glass at the front of the love-hotel. It doesn't give much of an idea for anyone who'd choose to pick a book "based on the cover". Smart... I like it

Writing style: (4 stars)
- I would have to say that this is not the easiest read for those who aren't familiar with Murakami. Albeit, it's a unique style that I believe only he could master! To set the observant lens on all characters and keep the reader aware of it and his surroundings isn't an easy, let alone a common, feat.

Story content: (4.5 stars)
- Murakami looks at the lives of his characters on a single night in Tokyo through a camera lens. He explores different themes of duality, connection, the night and surrealism in this short story and he excels at it! After Dark tells the stories of each character following no chronological order. Once Eri takes you back to her days in kindergarten, then we are with Takahashi during the time when his mother and his father was in jail.
- The narration of the story took upon on a new level of brilliance! The narrator infused a lot of metaphors and similes throughout the story. In one instance, the narrator was comparing the new morning with a blank sheet of paper to be filled with dreams.

Plot: (3.5 stars)
- The story runs in the present-tense for all the characters. There is no "real" plot if one would think about it. However, Murakami chose to explore a number of themes with his characters through a cinematic lens. Murakami set out to observe the physical factors, emotional and interpersonal relations with a monotonous sound

Ending: (3.5 stars)
- It was abrupt for this 200-paged book. It is not within Murakami's nature to satisfy the reader's thirst for closure, yet for the current setting, the grounds were more favourable for a legitimate resolution.
- When all that might be obscure becomes less so, the man with no face remains a mystery throughout. We do not get any information about him, what kind of a person he might be, what his past might have been like, what his future might be...
- Another signature touch of Murakami's, the red-herrings and incomplete stories within the story, the enigmatic characters and imagery...
- Albeit, when Mari started to reconcile with her sister, Eri started awakening from her deep slumber

Final Rating: 3.17 stars /5

I would read it again, and recommend it... but just not anyone (I think I've made a valid point for why it's highly likely that not many, especially those who are not familiar with Murakami's work, wouldn't appreciate this work).