Haruki Murakami

Nineteen-year-old Mari is waiting out the night in an anonymous Denny’s when she meets a young man who insists he knows her older sister, thus setting her on an odyssey through the sleeping city. In the space of a single night, the lives of a diverse cast of Tokyo residents—models, prostitutes, mobsters, and musicians—collide in a world suspended between fantasy and reality. Utterly enchanting and infused with surrealism, After Dark is a thrilling account of the magical hours separating midnight from dawn.


After Dark

Laura

Here, room a brand-new day is beginning. It could be a day like all the others, or it could be a day remarkable enough in many ways to remain in the memory. In either case, for now, for most people, it is a blank sheet of paper.

The crescent moon takes the form of a silent white monolith, a long-lost message floating in the western sky.

It's not as if our lives are divided simply into light and dark. There's a shadowy middle ground. Recognising and understanding the shadows is what a healthy intelligence does. And to acquire a healthy intelligence takes a certain amount of time and effort.

Around us, cause and effect join hands, and synthesis and division maintain their equilibrium. Everything, finally, unfolded in a place resembling a deep, inaccessible fissure. Such places open secret entries into darkness in the interval between midnight and the time the sky glows light. None of our principles has any effort there. No one can predict when or where such abysses will swallow people, or where they will spit them out.

You know what I think? That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive.

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.

"Well, I think there has to be something like reincarnation. Or maybe I should say I'm scared to think there isn't. I can't understand nothingness. I can't understand it and I can't imagine it."

"Nothingness means there's absolutely nothing, so maybe there's no need to understand it or imagine it."

The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you. And once that happens, you've had it: things'll never be the same. All you can do is go on living alone down there in the darkness.

Is action merely the incidental product of thought, or is thought the consequential product of action?

He's got that baby-boomer toughness. Like Mick Jagger being called 'Sir' now—it's that generation, just hangin' in there. He doesn't do a lot of soul searching, but he learns his lesson.

ani jedno z toho nerobím a mala by som začať 

It's my motto for life. 'Walk slowly; drink lots of water.'

She's carrying around so many problems all by herself she can't make any headway, and she's searching for help. She expresses those feelings by hurting herself.

I'm just stumbling around all the time in my own narrow little world.

"Looks like a totally ordinary guy," says Komugi.

"The ordinary-looking ones are the most dangerous," says Kaoru, rubbing her chin. "They carry around a shitload of stress."

It's just the way I'm made: I can't stand by and let a son-of-a-bitch like that pull shit like that.

Our viewpoint camera lingers in here for a while observing the restroom. Mari is no longer here. Neither is anyone else. Music continues to play from the ceiling speaker. A Hall and Oates song now: " I Can't Go for That." A closer look reveals that Maris image is still reflected in the mirror over the sink. The Mari in the mirror is looking from her side into this side. Her sombre gaze seems to be expecting some kind of occurrence. But there is no one on this side. Only her image is left in the Skylark's restroom mirror.

The rooms begins to darken . In the deepening darkness, "I Can't Go for That" continues to play.

The sound of the needle tracing the record groove. The languorous, sensual music of Duke Ellington. Music for the middle of the night.

He is one of those unidentifiable people who inhabit the city at night.

Between the time the last train leaves and the first train arrives, the place changes and it's not the same as in daytime.

Our point of view, as an imaginary camera, picks up and lingers over things like this in the room. We are invisible, anonymous intruders. We look. We listen. We note odours. But we are not physically present in the place, and we leave behind no traces. We follow the same rules, so to speak, as orthodox time travellers. We observe but we do not intervene.

The trombone and me: it was a meeting arranged by destiny.

Of what value is a civilisation that can't toast a piece of bread as ordered?

a book, or should I say a collection of conversations throughout the night, about the struggles of sisterhood

Ioana Kardos

If you don't want to miss something important, grab a cup of tea and enjoy Murakami's gloomy book. Mari is spending the night in the town and interacts with various people while reading her book with great concentration. It got me there, as people engrossed in reading books are my next of kin. While reading, you slowly let it take reins of your mind and guide you to the bizarre events that follow during the night. 
Read full review on: https://booknerdik.wordpress.com/2018...

sgcjm

i am on started readin this book likely one day before i am heading off to seoul and spend a whole month there. so then as i am recalled and have a deep nostalgic sense after i am landed and back to my land it occurred to me about what murakami tryna to conveyed within this book. after dark. it is the first time bein i am havin his short story book. before that i am used to go with his long novel words. but this. maybe universe had it ways on me. these feels real. like what i am been witnessing on my sight eyes of every scenes he delivered in each scenes here. like i told in. i am goin out to seoul for a whole month and then just tryna bein a likely new person and observing how life works there. morning rised up. people rushin back and forth. life seems alluringly goin that fast in the daylight. but then moon up. night welcomin by and then life still had it sense even in those solitude silence midnight. i am mostly back on to my hotel in the hours near like 3.00 am so thats why every scenes that murakamis writin up on that book resonates to me cause i did saw that. diversity kind of peoples. some gettin wasted and walkin stumble in the near of the bridge. and some just happened to get off from work sitting alone like drowning in theirs own mind on the benches. some also just smoke and then head up lookin to the clouds night full of stars. theres them. with many kind background of life but within this silence light of night theirs soul seems like bond in one kind. tryna reachin and seekin somethin to makes them feelin safe and solace. thats why it takes long enough for me to ending up this book cause when i am in seoul i liked to observing and saw how others human there doin on its own life. and in the end of conclusions seems like same as it should. we as a humankind turned up such a diverse in many ways. how we life. how we love. how we got a perception on things. and etc. but in many moments theres also one things we got in common. when night knocked out in our eyes. somehow we found other side of our soul. night brings those feeling where we feels like we became a different person and tryna just resolved all the mumbles sound voice in our head. life its hard. but when night comes. at least we could pretended for a while that life bein kind someway to us.

Prashanth Srivatsa

Probably the most engrossing of Murakami's books and also, at a glance, the most aimless. There are snippets of life sprayed across conversations that is typical of him and there's the surreal, timeless metafiction that attempts to explore the mystery of sleep, again signature Murakami but with lazy execution. After Dark is written in the quiet hours between night and day, for those readers who wish to know what troubled strangers confide in one another that they can't share with their loved ones.

The midnight hour approaches in an almost empty all-night diner. Mari sips her coffee and glances up from a book as a young man, a musician, intrudes on her solitude. Both have missed the last train home. The musician has plans to rehearse with his jazz band all night, Mari is equally unconcerned and content to read, smoke and drink coffee until dawn. They realise they've been acquainted through Eri, Mari's beautiful sister. The musician soon leaves with a promise to return before dawn. Shortly afterwards Mari will be interrupted a second time by a girl from the Alphaville Hotel; a Chinese prostitute has been hurt by a client, the girl has heard Mari speaks fluent Chinese and requests her help. Meanwhile Eri is at home and sleeps a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal; pulse and respiration at the lowest required level. She has been in this soporfic state for two months; Eri has become the classic myth - a sleeping beauty. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00 a faint electrical crackle is perceptible, a hint of life flickers across the TV screen, though the television's plug has been pulled. Murakami, acclaimed master of the surreal, returns with a stunning new novel, where the familiar can become unfamiliar after midnight, even to those that thrive in small hours. With After Dark we journey beyond the twilight. Strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night?

Stef

Steph Zymowski

Classic Murakami! Interesting, fast paced and beautiful!

Maria Otero

Anna Brunner

harper fitzpatrick

laila

3.8/5

“What I felt then was a deep terror. And a kind of hopelessness, a feeling that I could never run away from this thing, no matter how far I went. And this creature, this thing doesn't give a damn that I'm me or you're you. In its presence, all human beings lose their names and their faces. We all turn into signs, into numbers.”

“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.”

Sanat Gersappa

The plot has a few loose ends, but the writing is first class. Reading it is like watching a movie - the language is so graphic.

Isin

Murakami makes "us" swim through the deepest darkness of the night and human conscious. Despite the most cliche opening chapter, reading this book was such an unique experience.

Victoria P

my first murakami book and i really liked it. i enjoyed the almost movie-esque vibe that the book has and how he described the surroundings, i could imagine it almost perfectly. i really liked how he intertwined the events that happened aswell, the characters were interesting and the dialogue was simple but effective

ℰ.

Acho que esse livro é uma mistura de tudo que o Murakami gosta de colocar nas histórias dele. Parece simples à primeira vista, mas ele consegue tocar em alguns pontos bem interessantes de uma maneira sutil.

rach

Beauty in silence, beauty in knowing everyone's asleep and only I am observant, giving me an impression that the world belongs to me. Murakami explores darkness skillfully, the darkness of the city, and inside of his characters. 

After the Dark is referring to how everything is so different in the dark, the city, and the characters Each one of us has a dark side that we want to hide from others. Murakami implies a parallel universe exists which lies on the other side of the mirror. In the parallel universe lies our dull side reflections. At its center are two sisters-- Eri a fashion model slumbering her way into oblivion and Mari a young student whose night led from reading alone at Denny's (cafe/anonymous) toward lives of people who are radically alien to her: Takahashi, jazz trombonist who claims they've met before, Kaoro, "love hotel" manager, her maid staff and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. These night people at haunted by secrets and needs that draw them together powerfully. Seven hours, one night in all these people's lives you get just enough to involve with each of these characters. 

What I loved, even more, was that the main protagonist is a woman which I know is rare for Murakami. This is my second book by him and it won't be the last. His style of writing intrigues me. Surreal, dreamlike, confusing yet really really emotionally charged.

this is the only murakami i’ve finished and loved and i want to believe it’s not just bc this is one of his shortest

I'll probably come back and edit this to make it longer, but originally, I chose this book to get me properly introduced with Haruki Murakami's style of writing. 

I was not disappointed.

The writing itself flowed nicely and made the book a smooth read. Eri's situation was a bit confusing, but either way, I'd highly recommend this to anyone, really, who likes books with character depth and plot.

Omar Fernandez

I ended up walking at 5am and not being able to sleep, so instead of tossing around in bed I finished this novel. It only took a day (and night). And reading about events that take place at 6am in the novel, while it is 6am, just felt right. 

I enjoyed the book and will probably read it again. It being just 200 pages, it left me "unfulfilled". So many unanswered questions. But, Murakami does that a lot. Like I talked about with a friend, Murakami is like a selfish lover, he doesn't care about you being happy and complete at the end. But the journey is so good that you don't care. Or maybe that's why you keep coming back to him?

I'll always wonder how some of the characters are doing. I'm still thinking about it now. I feel like I was roaming the streets in Tokyo just a few hours ago and I don't know if my friends made it home safely.

Two sisters--Eri, a fashion model sleeping her way to oblivion, and Mari, a young student--form the center of a novel that documents a series of encounters in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn.

Olivera Mitić

This was certainly strange.

Okay, so, when it comes to magical realism I came to figure that I only enjoy it if it serves a purpose or adds to the story. The magical realism in here felt like it was in it just to make it more strange. At times it was creepy and bizarre, but the book could have done without it. 

The writing style was so unlike Murakami that I felt somehow cheated on, if you get what I mean. I didn't get what I wanted to get. Instead of his deep, dense profoundness there was only detachment from the characters and random descriptions that, while atmospheric, weren't necessary for the story.

After Dark felt like a kind of experiment Murakami made in order to see whether he can write like someone else. And he succeeded, but it didn't end that well.

3.5/5 stars

Jade Flynn

Looking back this was unquestionably better than Sputnik Sweetheart so I'm convinced I'm going to go down the more magical realism route with Murakami rather than a contemporary one. I enjoyed this but more importantly, I think it has prepared me more for Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because I found myself wanting an even stronger sense of magical realism, which is surprising because I thought I'd prefer to go down the contemporary path, but After Dark has convinced me otherwise. I think Murakami and I are going to have a long relationship over the coming years. Quietly unnerving.

Kath Lau

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I always have a hard time reviewing Murakami's books. I just can't find the right words to express my thoughts. After Dark is eerie, atmospheric, and surreal. It's definitely a fast-read but I took my time with it. I didn't mind the open ending because I had such a wonderful time reading this book. I thought it was one of the best Murakami books.

Anna Leigh

I don't really have anything bad to say about this book but it just wasn't for me. I can 100% see why people love this kind of concept and i appreciate it for what it is but overall I just didn't find myself really enjoying it. I did LOVE the character development in this, like wow that was done to perfection. But yes great concept and a great book for some just not for me unfortunately ☹️

Eyes mark the shape of the city The midnight hour approaches in an almost-empty diner. Mari sips her coffee and reads a book, but soon her solitude is disturbed: a girl has been beaten up at the Alphaville hotel, and needs Mari's help. Meanwhile Mari's beautiful sister Eri lies in a deep, heavy sleep that is 'too perfect, too pure' to be normal; it has lasted for two months. But tonight as the digital clock displays 00:00, a hint of life flickers across the television screen, even though it's plug has been pulled out. Strange nocturnal happenings, or a trick of the night?

Magdalene Lim

Short and sweet, this was a pleasant read. I enjoyed reading about Mari, the protagonist and her somewhat slow-moving story through the night. Her character opens up to the reader as you progress through the book. As for other characters in the book, they are still quite a mystery to me. 

I appreciate this book for its soft spoken feel, as though an observant introvert is speaking to me, if that makes any sense. Haha.

Lewis John Fisher

I didn't intentionally set out to read this at night, but most of my reading of this book came after 11pm, which is coincidentally when this novel starts. Being my second Murakami, I wasn't so taken aback by his particular style, even if it was a lot more relaxed than in Kafka. It does make me miss the halcyon nights of being out late at night, streets abuzz with stories.

After Dark

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