After Dark

by Haruki Murakami

book data

5,567 ratings, 3.47 average rating, 1,019 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		12%
4		36%
3		38%
2		10%
1		1%

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published

May 8th 2007 (first published 2004) by Knopf

binding

Hardcover, 208 pages

characters

Mari, Eri, Kaoru, Takahashi

isbn

0307265838 (isbn13: 9780307265838)

description

A short, sleek novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami’s ma

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07/17/07

Daniel rated it:

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: people who like thinking about feelings.

Murakami is not a great author for passive readers. If your main interest in fiction is plot and story, and especially if you tend to be the sort of reader who plows straight through a book and then thinks about it only after you're done, "After Dark" is going to be unsatisfying.

To me, Murakami is a great author for teaching you how to read (forgive me) proactively. He works a lot with impressions and mood, so that it's most rewarding when the reader stops after every few...more

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06/22/07

Jason Pettus rated it:

Read in November, 2007

(My full review of this book is larger than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find it at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

"You know what I think?" she says. "That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn't matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They're all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pi...more

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01/09/09

selena rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, popular-culture

Read in January, 2009

After Dark is the first book by Haruki Murakami that I’ve read. I was warned by many that I would not enjoy it. But they’re all delusional and wrong.

After Dark isn’t a traditional novel. It isn’t a plot driven story and in fact, not much actually happens. After Dark takes place in Tokyo over a period of seven hours. It begins with Mari Asai, sitting and reading her book in a Denny’s in the middle of the night. An old acquaintance sees her and reacquaints himself. The boy, T...more After Dark is the first book by Haruki Murakami that I’ve read. I was warned by many that I would not enjoy it. But they’re all delusional and wrong.

After Dark isn’t a traditional novel. It isn’t a plot driven story and in fact, not much actually happens. After Dark takes place in Tokyo over a period of seven hours. It begins with Mari Asai, sitting and reading her book in a Denny’s in the middle of the night. An old acquaintance sees her and reacquaints himself. The boy, Takahashi, eats at Mari’s table and volunteers information about himself. He is going to a late-night practice down the street - he plays the trombone. It is her fateful meeting with Takahashi that sets off a chain of events. Without meeting Takahashi, Mari would have stayed at the Denny’s until morning, reading her book and ordering food or coffee every couple of hours to justify her presence. Instead she has ended up at a love-hotel trying to save a prostitute. But this isn’t the “mystery” part of the story. The actual mystery in the story is right in front of you from the beginning, presented in the most bizarre way.

Reading this book felt like a dream. Murakami often addresses the reader directly, “we.” He narrates part of the story as though the reader and writer are both a camera viewing the scene. It pulls you into the plot - confusing you at first - but like any dream, you just go with it. The place it took me was unexpected.

A flaw that I found with the novel was the conversations between characters. Often the dialogue between Mari and Takahashi lacked a human feel to it. It felt like he attempted to shove too much information into pieces of the dialogue. The ending of the story also left me a little worried. The revenge of the abused prostitute was never realized and thereby left out. Did someone punish the man that did such horrible things to her? Will Mari ever see Takahashi again? Does he even really like her? The note of hope that the book ends on left me only partly convinced.

I’m told that this book is not indicative of Murakami’s style - that this book was “experimental.” I look forward to reading more of him because this book, though it had its flaws, was a worthwhile read. It felt like a hallucination.(less)

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05/21/08

Terri rated it:

bookshelves: 2008

Read in May, 2008

I find myself thinking about Murakami's books long after I've read them. Murakami compares writing to jazz music and with his writing it is true. Just as I find myself humming memorable bits from songs like Take Five, I also come back again and again to passages of Murakami's novels and short stories. I don't always recognize the deeper meaning in his works right away, but like a piece of music his writing continues to work on me over time.

After Dark takes place in Tokyo between the ...more I find myself thinking about Murakami's books long after I've read them. Murakami compares writing to jazz music and with his writing it is true. Just as I find myself humming memorable bits from songs like Take Five, I also come back again and again to passages of Murakami's novels and short stories. I don't always recognize the deeper meaning in his works right away, but like a piece of music his writing continues to work on me over time.

After Dark takes place in Tokyo between the "witching" hours of midnight and dawn. The nighttime setting lends itself to the loneliness and alienation of the characters. We are never drawn too close to these characters, but instead we watch and listen, along with the narrator, as though through a camera as it zooms in or out and then pans around at times giving us mere glimpses of the wider setting. The story is told in scenes of dialogue between six characters within segments of sequential time. Mari is a 19 year old university freshman who perceives herself as plain and dull, especially compared to her beautiful older sister Eri. Mari has for some reason, known only to her, decided to stay up all night reading at a Denny's. She is joined several times throughout the night by Tetsuya, a young jazz musician. Mari is unexpectedly drawn into the lives of a large female ex-wrestler who now manages a "love hotel," a Chinese prostitute, and two women with mysterious backgrounds who hide under cover of night and transient jobs.

These scenes are interrupted occasionally as we, the camera, look in on Mari's older sister Eri who sleeps. Her sleep is reminiscent of that deep and complete slumber of Sleeping Beauty. Several months previous to the night our story takes place, Eri announces to her family that she is "going to sleep for awhile"; she has not woken since. On this particular night she is watched by something or someone menacing. Eri has withdrawn completely and may or may not find her way back. We are not sure if she is being controlled by the menacing presence or if her continued slumber is by choice. The scenes with Eri are eerie and unexplained.

Much in this short novel is left unexplained. In one of the more magical scenes, an image of a man wavers, his outline bends, quality fades, static rises. Murakami's story is very much like the image of this man. We can't always see clearly what it is that the author is showing us. I don't think this is an accident or poor writing. I believe Murakami does this intentionally and the reader must look for meaning in a less cognitive way. As the author says through his character Tetsuya:

"You send the music deep enough into your heart so that it makes your body undergo a kind of a physical shift, and simultaneously the listener's body also undergoes the same kind of physical shift. It's giving birth to that kind of shared state."

Murakami's works are very much a shared state. Not everyone will find his writing to their liking, but those who can resonate with the author will find themselves coming back for more.(less)

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01/11/08

Amichai Oz rated it:

Read in February, 2008

I didn't like the book very much. It read like something he tossed off, like it was a book between books, like a book to satisfy a contractual obligation: the literary equivalent of a B-sides collection, or maybe a greatest hits collection, only not very good.

There wasn't anything very compelling about the characters. They were wooden, and not very fleshed out, like vaguely romanticized caricatures.

The narrative suffered--I'm guessing--because of the translation; there ...more I didn't like the book very much. It read like something he tossed off, like it was a book between books, like a book to satisfy a contractual obligation: the literary equivalent of a B-sides collection, or maybe a greatest hits collection, only not very good.

There wasn't anything very compelling about the characters. They were wooden, and not very fleshed out, like vaguely romanticized caricatures.

The narrative suffered--I'm guessing--because of the translation; there were details here and there that sort of pulled me out of the story to wonder how true they were: the main girl, a book-reading, chain-smoking, Godard-loving 19 year old, hangs out at Denny's--in Japan, although plausible, is it likely? It doesn't matter because every time it came up, I'd wonder the same thing; also, the girl wears a baseball cap (which I buy b/c baseball is huge in Japan), but it's a Red Sox cap (which I don't buy, b/c, even though baseball is huge in Japan, they have THEIR OWN TEAMS). How hard would that have been...to give her a cap w/ a Japanese team's logo? It's bad translating, unless Murakami wrote it in the original, too, which would speak more about his cultural and financial opportunism (how will this sell in the States, perhaps?) than the affected "disaffected teenager" he was creating.

The translation may also have something to do with the fact that the novel reads like a poorly written, adolescent's graphic novel, particular the psuedo-romance that sort-of blossoms between two late-teens characters. The dialog is bad enough in some instances that it pulled me from the story to consider its plausibility...

Here's some sample thought-dialog, by the book-reader's intellectually opposite and inferior older sister:

For some reason, a different kind of reality has taken the place of my normal reality. Wherever it might have been brought from, whoever might have carried me here, I have been left shut up entirely alone in this strange, dusty, viewless room with no exit. Could I have lost my mind and, as a result, been sent to some kind of institution? After all, who gets to bring her own bed along when she enters the hospital? And besides this simply doesn't look like a hospital room. Neither does it look like a prison cell. It's just a big, empty room.

Who in the world talks like this? Who in the world thinks like this? The book expects us to buy it, however. But in complete sentences? In complete paragraphs? And, let's not forget that the thinker of these thoughts is young, at most in her early twenties. As the narrative clearly establishes, she is poorly-schooled, and actually so pretty she's a model which caused her to further neglect her studies. And yet, you want me to believe she can think like this after just waking up in what is apparently a place she does not recognize? I know it's set in Japan, and I know the stereotypes about disciplined schooling in Japan, but c'mon...it reads entirely disingenuous.

It's cold, and it sounds like a paper: Could I have lost my mind and, as a result, been sent to some kind of institution? Yeah, the grammar asylum.

There was an interesting device employed by the narrative: first-person camera narration, with tracking, zooms, close-ups, and phrases like "We turn the camera..." and "We pull in to see..." Maybe that's second person camera...I don't know...(less)

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07/11/07

Yulia rated it:

bookshelves: by-and-of-japan

Read in January, 2006

Ah, Murakami, why couldn't you have tried harder? Couldn't you have completed this work? Or if it wasn't possible within the always-confining time-frame of 24 hours in the life of these characters, couldn't you have dropped that idea? The story's ending on a note of hope came off as forced, while the admiration for the sleeping beauty by her bookish younger sister was oddly (and not quite intentionally, I can only hope) incestuous. Meanwhile, the plot-line of the salary man who seeks to esca...more

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06/02/08

Elizabeth rated it:

(review of isbn 0307278735)

Read in May, 2008

As I Murakami fanatic, I feel justified in saying, Eh. I suppose he's the master of fashioning a career resting on two or three great novels (Kafka... Windup...) and then keeping his name in the news by producing plenty of light as air oughtta-be-short stories padded so thick with fat margins and linespaces that make your eyes vibrate that they actually seem like 244 -page books, in fact are 244 pages for that matter. According to my calculations this is about 40 - 45,000 words. Call me bitter, ...more

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02/13/08

Dean rated it:

Read in February, 2008

recommends it for: Aislinn, Lindsay, Liz, Elena, Tamara

I believe that the power of Murakami's work is in it's ability to make the regular irregular. After reading this book I was speaking with someone about how his books generally belong in a genre that I find hard to define. I almost want to consider his work some kind of Science Fiction because they can at times seem to be so fantastically strange...But the truth is they aren't really Science Fiction...I don't claim to be able to define his genre, but I feel that in his work, in particular this ...more I believe that the power of Murakami's work is in it's ability to make the regular irregular. After reading this book I was speaking with someone about how his books generally belong in a genre that I find hard to define. I almost want to consider his work some kind of Science Fiction because they can at times seem to be so fantastically strange...But the truth is they aren't really Science Fiction...I don't claim to be able to define his genre, but I feel that in his work, in particular this book, Murakami weaves a story of regular people, people with nothing special about them other than the fact that they are the subjects of the stories he is telling...but it is in that regular, 'nothing special about them' way that they become much more interesting than even the most out of the ordinary characters we can imagine...their regularity is exactly what makes them intensely interesting...However, for myself, it is also the possibility that these characters may be a reflection of many of the people who read Murakami's stories that makes them much more exciting...thus creating a sense that our own, not extremely out of the ordinary lives may in fact be a much more interesting adventure than we had previously imagined...the possibility that the mundane and the 'normal' and the regular are in fact not what they appear to be...Hence the power of his work seems to lie in the feeling that as strange and fantastical or as mundane and regular as his stories may seem they all rest on a precipice of believability...there is always, to myself anyways, a possibility that what he is describing is not completely out of the realm of what may be possible...This is not Murakami's strangest story, but it comes highly recommended from someone who has read all of his books. Anyone who has read his stories will know that there are two 'basic' types, the 'Norwegian Wood' type and the 'Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' type. This story falls into the 'Norwegian Wood' type, meaning it is strange, but not dramatically so. I highly recommend it and I believe that some might find the narrative perspective quite interesting, it's a bit on the unusual side, but very interesting and mysterious.(less)

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11/22/07

Alisa rated it:

bookshelves: 2007, airplanereads

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: those who have not yet read a novel that includes text-messaging in its pages. trippy.

There was one part in this book that I really liked. A girl is sitting at a Denny's, reading, and this "stray mutt" of a man walks in and plants himself in the seat across from her, asking if she isn't so-and-so's sister. She's quiet and -- get this -- she "looks at him with eyes that could be looking at an overgrown bush in the corner of a garden."

That's good stuff.

This seems to be something Murakami does, actually~ he compares the way one character loo...more

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07/10/08

y rated it:

ugh. what a boring read: another "beautiful" but lost japanese girl + confused sister + dude on a motorcycle... all going nowhere a little slowly, which is the point, i suppose. i don't even care that my copy is signed by mr. murakami... the signature didn't make the book any more interesting.

i read somewhere murakami has just come out with a book of short stories about marathon running (he's a marathoner??) and what he thinks of whilst running. my guesses? jazz, recor...more

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02/10/08

Heather rated it:

i have really enjoyed murakami books in the past, so i was quite looking forward to reading this one. after dark feels more like a long short story than a novel. you're never really told what's going on in a murakami book, and this story is no exception. but, if you are willing to go along for the ride, then it's a fun, quick read. it felt more like a friend was telling me about a movie they had written rather than it felt like i was reading a novel. hard to explain, but if you read this bo...more

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10/24/08

Susan rated it:

Read in October, 2008

I found this one really compelling--I find Murakami generally fascinating. His odd slant on contemporary culture--both Japanese and American, or maybe really world culture--is fascinating, unsettling and strangling satisfying.
It begins with an encounter in Denny’s (Murakami is fascinated with American pop culture) between two college students, a girl who’s quietly reading in order to avoid going home and a guy who’s off to practice with the band where he plans trombone—in a old war...more

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07/31/08

tadpole rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, cpl

Read in August, 2008

'After Dark' is the first work that I have read by Murakami. I enjoy his writing style, which seems to me to be an examination of the micrososm that is a human being. This is something that I often have trouble keeping in mind, as it is sometimes hard to remember that the guy in front of you at the grocery store with a cart full of items that waits until the very last moment to start writing his check is someone that also has hopes, dreams, etc.

However, there seems to be an esoteric ...more 'After Dark' is the first work that I have read by Murakami. I enjoy his writing style, which seems to me to be an examination of the micrososm that is a human being. This is something that I often have trouble keeping in mind, as it is sometimes hard to remember that the guy in front of you at the grocery store with a cart full of items that waits until the very last moment to start writing his check is someone that also has hopes, dreams, etc.

However, there seems to be an esoteric thing going on with this novel that I didn't quite "get". There is a girl in a coma-like state who seems to be a vessel for the negative events that occur, and there are a few material items that tie together all of the social interactions that occur throughout the night, but I had trouble drawing any kind of clear conclusions about the story.

Murakami seems to outline the differences of social interactions late at night versus those that occur during the day. This is something that I have previously pondered, the fact that a certain kindredness seems to arise when interacting with someone late at night. At times in my life when I was able to keep later hours, I remember having the occasional brief chat with a gas station attendant, random guy in Denny's, etc, that seemed somewhat meaningful at the time and would probably not have occurred during the day. Why is this? An esoteric answer may be that as there are more people out and about during the day, too much psychic energy is buzzing about and that creates walls that block empathy between humans. The more straightforward answer could be that there are less people out at night, and the folks that are night people are possibly more attuned to the whole "brotherhood of mankind" thing. Maybe we were all just hopped up on the coffee or the booze, who nows? I feel as if Murakami touches on all of this as well, be he also kind of skates around the subject and never provides a clear picture.

One additional little stylistic kudo: the book takes place over the course of a single night, and each chapter name is the time that the chapter begins. This is represented as a clockface at the beginning of each chapter with the hands pointing to the time. I'm a total sucker for that type of cleverness. (less)

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03/27/08

Tony rated it:

(review of isbn 0307278735)

bookshelves: awesome-books, books-that-scared-me

Read in May, 2008

Haruki Murakami explores that special time of day between midnight and morning. He does so with a nice flow of descriptive prose and dialogue that makes you feel like you haven't slept for a day.

The book revolves around a girl who's hanging out in the city at night because she can't sleep, a man who beats a prostitute and steals her belongings, and the girl's sleeping sister in a nearby suburb. All these storylines intertwine in a sense, but also hold up on their own. The chapters...more

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10/03/07

Michael B rated it:

bookshelves: quickreads

Read in October, 2007

I found myself trying not to compare and be disappointed with After Dark because it wasn't Norwegian Wood... But then I got over it and compared the crap out of it. I thought Norwegian Wood was an absolutely brilliant piece of work, and if it so happens that an author's achieved brilliance has become the standard by which I gauge his other work, then I consider myself hopeful. That said, Norwegian Wood is somewhat of an anomaly in Murakami's bibliography, and After Dark seems to fit more into ...more

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07/16/07

Larissa rated it:

bookshelves: 2007, in-translation, vicarious-travel

Read in November, 2007

I started this book at 3:30 on an insomniatic Friday night and finished it on the subway on the way to work on Tuesday. It was a rather apropos reading schedule considering the format of After Dark which begins around midnight and ends around 7 AM.

It's a simple and sufficiently enjoyable book--one that I'm sure hardcore fans and mild appreciators can both agree is 'Minor Murakami.' But it brings up an interesting conflict that I think is implicit in Murakami's writing, namely that h...more I started this book at 3:30 on an insomniatic Friday night and finished it on the subway on the way to work on Tuesday. It was a rather apropos reading schedule considering the format of After Dark which begins around midnight and ends around 7 AM.

It's a simple and sufficiently enjoyable book--one that I'm sure hardcore fans and mild appreciators can both agree is 'Minor Murakami.' But it brings up an interesting conflict that I think is implicit in Murakami's writing, namely that his ideas often outstrip his prose. And while I found After Dark to be a little cutesy and gimmicky and perhaps beneath what Murakami is capable of, I do think that it's subject matter is far better suited to his writing style than say--and I know I'm about to wholly alienate a good 58% of you--The Wind-Up Bird Chronical, which was so sprawling and large that by the time I got to the end of it I was perhaps, impressed at the expanse of the novel, but not terribly sure of why any of it actually mattered.

It's not to say that Murakami can't write about larger, more involved, more resonant topics. I hear, for instance, that his essays about the Kobe earthquake and the posion gas attacks in the Tokyo subway are quite good. And I was strangely moved after reading Hardboiled Wonderland. But even in the case of the latter, we're dealing with unicorns, and time travel, and secret subway tunnels, and then finally, something larger, something more tangible in the midst of all of his fantasies. And I suppose I trust more in his ability to deal with a Big Idea like the vulnerability of memory than I do in his ability to render accountability for Japan's role in mainland China massacres and its actions in Manchuria.

I read Murakami for his 'pop sensibility,' for his aging jazz aficiandos and Beatles fan self-stand ins and his fondness for mysticizing the darker, more hidden worlds within urban settings. I like his quirkiness. I like the fact that he conned The New Yorker into publishing a story about a talking monkey.

I like, truth be told, Sputnik Sweetheart best, which I realize does not make me his 'ideal reader.'

(less)

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06/18/07

sandy rated it:

Read in June, 2007

I have always had mixed feelings about Murakami. He has a very unique style, which I appreciate, but sometimes it leaves the realm of reality a bit too far behind. There was definitely elements of that in this book. It has the patented Murakami darkness, the modern day angst, classically done by the Russians and Germans. The ending was abrupt, as with many of his novellas, but at the same time, how else can they end? But this one actually ties together nicely, I think, though still leaves ...more

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07/23/07

Rob rated it:

Read in May, 2007

I read this book during two Borders sessions (sitting in one of their chairs and reading a book that they still own) the week it came out. This was my least favorite Murakami book so far. His descriptions were lacking some of their normal fire, and the book attempts to put the reader in the position of someone watching a drama unfold on a television screen, in a way that did not work for me.

The character arc was typical for Murakami--characters who don't do much themselves have s...more

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02/06/08

Britta rated it:

bookshelves: lame-books

Read in January, 2007

This book, in my humble opinion, is simply unreadable. I could not bring myself to finish it, and I love Haruki Murakami. I don't know if the cinematic style was just something he was experimenting with or if it marks a new movement in writing, but whatever the case it makes me want to puke in my own mouth.

Please, please, please read Murakami. Read The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, or if you're looking for something shorter, The Elephant Vanishes (Stories), or A Wild Sheep Chase, or Har...more

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02/19/08

Mike Philbin rated it:

It's half a novel!

Not only is it only 200 pages long (very short for some of my favourite Murakami novels) but also the story seems to be the first half of a bigger book.

Didn't Murakami do this with his first novel Norwegian Wood? Wasn't that released in two halves? Anyway, I really look forward to the follow-up (or the last half) of the AFTER DARK story when Harvill Press decide to pay a translator (hopefully Philip Gabriel) to put the follow-on into the English langua...more

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quotes from this book

"Korogi: So once you're dead there's just nothing? Mari: Basically... Korogi: I get so scared when I start thinking about this stuff. I can hardly breathe, and my whole body wants to shrink into a corner. It's so much easier to just believe in reincarnation." More quotes...