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Avg. Customer Rating:(based on 80 reviews) Sales Rank: 7013 Category: Book
Author:Haruki Murakami Publisher:Vintage Studio:Vintage Manufacturer:Vintage Label:Vintage Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published) Media: Paperback Number Of Items: 1 Pages: 256 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6 Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.9
Product Description A sleek, gripping novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the spooky hours between midnight and dawn, by an internationally renowned literary phenomenon.
Murakami's trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. Combining the pyrotechnical genius that made Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle international bestsellers, with a surprising infusion of heart, Murakami has produced one of his most enchanting fictions yet.
Five Spot After Dark December 26, 2008 "After Dark" was first published in Japan in 2004, and was translated into English by Jay Rubin in 2008.
The book opens up in an `amusement district'- an area dedicated to gaming centres, karaoke clubs and bars. It's approaching midnight and - while plenty of others are enjoying themselves loudly - Mari Asai is sitting alone in a Denny's Restaurant. She's apparently missed the last train home - almost deliberately, by the looks of things - although she still occasionally glances towards her watch. She doesn't appear to be expecting any company either - she's buried in a book, nursing a coffee and occasionally lighting a cigarette and buried in a book. (Mari lights a lot of cigarettes, but she doesn't do much smoking...they tend to burn themselves out in the ashtray.) However, Mari isn't left alone for long, however - she's joined by a lanky young man called Tetsuya Takahashi. The pair had met a couple of years before at a swimming pool - a friend of Takahashi's was dating Mari's glamourous and beautiful sister, Eri.
Takahashi and Eri had been in class together for a year, but they never spoke - she never gave him the time of day. By the sounds of things, he and Mari didn't speak much on the date either - despite being Japanese, Mari spent most of her time speaking Chinese. The pair communicate a little better this time round, though Takahashi initially won't give his name. However, when he finally leaves for band practice, Takahashi leaves his mobile number and promises to be back around 5am...despite Mari's apparent coolness towards him. Nevertheless, Mari doesn't get left alone for too long - she's soon joined by Koaru, who works at a nearby `love hotel' called the Alphaville. (They tend to be `Big in Japan'). Koaru is obviously an acquaintance of Takahashi's - though she's a little circumspect about how they met. She has a problem, though - there's a Chinese girl at her hotel, "in a mess", and Takahashi has told her that Mari is fluent in Chinese. Koaru wants to find out what happened - but she needs someone who can translate for her...
Meanwhile Eri is at home in a very deep sleep - so deep and pure, it's just not normal. She's in for a very strange night, though - despite being unplugged, her tv comes on at midnight. The picture, when it finally settles, shows a large empty room - most likely, an office or a classroom. There's only one person in the room - a man, sitting on the room's only chair, apparently deep in thought. Where most people would be happy enough to meet a television star, this is one you'd really rather avoid.
The book's events take place over a single night, with Mari and Eri proving to be the two key characters...though I did enjoy Mari's story more. (Takahashi and Koaru proved two very likeable supporting characters - I finished the book hoping that Mari kept in touch with both. However, there are one or two others who aren't quite so agreeable). Eri's story was a little strange, a little like something that might have been used for `The Twilight Zone'. It was a little frustrating that there was no real explanation of what was happening to her, or what man in the television set wanted...but "After Dark" is a short, easily read and enjoyable book overall.
Japan after dark--sexual, violent and urgent December 1, 2008 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have a love/hate relationship with Japanese authors. Like many that I have read before, Murakami is very visual and incorporates the sense of helpless- and hopelessness that both intrigues and unnerves me. I enjoyed the slow courtship that the main character unwittingly steps into. The imagery of a big Japanese city that gives itself over to desolate darkness is appealing. I want to wander those streets, but with a knife, as it seems no place for the faint of heart. Some sections were hard for me to understand, and I felt that there were some unresolved issues, but I chock that up to my American sensibilities which want my protagonists to fight until they overthrow the evil. Recommended if you like to peer into the Japanese underbelly.
First book I've read by this author October 1, 2008 0 out of 2 found this review helpful
My dad recommended this to me, and the blurb of the book sounded interesting. Dad said I could possibly read it in one sitting, but with work, and life revolving around me, I find it impossible to do that these days. When I was younger, sure.
What I thought was kinda interesting/weird about After Dark, is that it reads very much like a film. The start of each chapter (a different time in the seven hours that the book is based in) sets up the location, and the people in it, and the surroundings. Very much like a film/screenplay would. I found it a very strange way of reading.
I never really feel like I got to know the characters, the book was that short. Intentionally short, it has been described more of a novella, than of a novel. But intentionally short, that the characters slip away once you have finished reading? It's not a book I managed to lose myself in - it took me a couple of days to read, but it was in short spurts, on the bus, at lunch etc. There's nothing particularly memorable about the book, for me, just the style of writing.
Yes, it may be short and sweet (like myself), but for me, it was the easy relief between two in-depth books (The Mystery Of Mr Y and The Book Thief, which is up next.)
Mesmerizing September 20, 2008 I think this is the most down-to-earth novel by Mr. Murakami that is published now but with a touch of his earliest novels. I admire his recent novels but I also love his previous ones. This one has that mysterious, voyeuristic, supernatural, surrealist feeling of his recent novels but somehow, the depth, the journey of people of his earlier ones. The story evolves in one moment after midnight. Just one night - and it's mesmerizing as always. The dialogs, the encounters, the mystery, seems natural and flowing very nicely. He is truly a master of this kind of novel.
Superb. September 13, 2008 Hardly anything happens in this slim novel, which is set entirely over one night in Tokyo. But the wisp of a plot is enough. I enjoyed this book primarily because of the dream-like atmosphere that Murakami creates. His spare style has an almost hallucinogenic effect. In lesser hands I might have been frustrated by some of the surrealism, but I floated serenely through Murakami's Tokyo night in one sitting. Excellent!
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