Murakami Haruki: After Dark

[saliotthomas]

Just finished After dark and wasn't to much taken by it.I liked certain parts,like the big woman of the Alphaville hotel,but the rest was like watching a new wave japanese movie.A bit like something by Jim jarmush.Even the writing is very cinematographic,with camera angles,the description of the attitudes and expressions of the characteres,some of the music too.

A very good book but not in my line,maybe the urban atmosphere didn't help. ***00

 

[Stewart]

After my disappointment about four or five years back with Murakami's Dance Dance Dance, this was the book I picked up recently in the thinking that I would finally give him a second chance. I've had The Wind-Up Bird Chroniclei on the shelf for years but I'll be damned if I'm reading that until I'm hardcore into Murakami. After Dark does have, to its benefit, the brevity that will let me sample his style again and see whether I like it now.

 

[Cocko]

The most interesting thing I've found in reading Murakami's work is the way in which reoccurring themes penetrate all his works. I've read eight of his books and individually they are good, but as a body of work they are great. This is a nice juxtaposition with his surreal storytelling approach. He has been pretty consistent with these themes, from the fiction of After Dark to the non-fiction of Underground and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

As I side note, I know there isn't much talk of non-fiction on this site, but I would say that Underground is the best non-fiction book I've ever read.

 

[titania7]

I haven't yet read Murakami; however, I just got four of his books from the library. Having read some of the opinions here regarding his work, I don't know whether to think I'll like him or not.

Stewart--
I've read that Dance Dance Dance can be appreciated infinitely more if one has read A Wild Sheep Chase first. I don't know whether this is the case or not; but, to be on the safe side, I believe A Wild Sheep Chase will be my first pick. Naturally, I will post my thoughts on it here as soon as I read it. It's supposed to be a tale of "enchantment and suspense." Hmmm....we'll see.

Thomas,
After Dark is not one of the Murakami books I have on hand. Perhaps this a good thing!

Titania

"A woman must have money and a room of her own
if she is to write fiction."
~Virginia Woolf

 

[DreamQueen]

After my disappointment about four or five years back with Murakami's Dance Dance Dance, this was the book I picked up recently in the thinking that I would finally give him a second chance. I've had The Wind-Up Bird Chroniclei on the shelf for years but I'll be damned if I'm reading that until I'm hardcore into Murakami. After Dark does have, to its benefit, the brevity that will let me sample his style again and see whether I like it now.

I haven't read After Dark yet but I have read a fair bit of Murakami and the universal trend seems to be: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and Norwegian Wood are his best whereas all the hardcore Murakami fans I know (plus the people on this Murakami site I frequent) love these and think After Dark is crap. I guess the point is, maybe After Dark isn't the way to find out whether you want to read more of his stuff?

 

[Cocko]

For the record, I really liked After Dark, to be honest I've yet to read one of his books that I don't hold in high regard. That said, I haven't read Dance, Dance, Dance!

I agree with DreamQueen that The Wind-up Bird Chronicle is the pick of his fiction, but that is due to the complexity of narrative, while works like Sputnik Sweetheart, Norwegian Wood and After Dark appeal on a more personal level, they are relationship pieces. Chronicle was the first Muralami I read, and in hindsight I would have preferred to start with something a bit more straightforward like After Dark to get in his grove before the onslaught that is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Actually, I am about to hit 100 books in my reading log that I started back in 2006 and I've decided that I am going to re-read five of the best. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle will be one of them because I feel many aspects are lost from my single reading.

In order this is how I've ranked the novels I've read thus far:

10: Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche
9.5: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
9.0: After Dark
9.0: Sputnik Sweetheart
9.0: Norwegian Wood
8.5: Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World
8.0: Hear the Wind Sing
7.0: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

I know they are high rankings... Along with Peter Carey and John Steinbeck, Murakami is high on my key authors list.

 

[cuchulain]

I haven't read After Dark yet but I have read a fair bit of Murakami and the universal trend seems to be: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, and Norwegian Wood are his best whereas all the hardcore Murakami fans I know (plus the people on this Murakami site I frequent) love these and think After Dark is crap. I guess the point is, maybe After Dark isn't the way to find out whether you want to read more of his stuff?

As mentioned before, I don't think After Dark is one of his best. Dance Dance Dance and Norwegian Wood are my favorites. Wild Sheep Chase is excellent, and, yes, should be read prior to Dance Dance Dance. Liked Sputnik Sweetheart and Hard Boiled (his most detached novel) as well. I think the only novel I haven't read yet by HM is Wind-Up Bird.

One of my favorite authors ever, and generally a joy to read. He actually writes page turners. Rare among literary authors these days.

 

[Cocko]

One of my favorite authors ever, and generally a joy to read. He actually writes page turners. Rare among literary authors these days.

I absolutely agree, I was a little concerned about reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle as my first Murakami because of its length... I only ever read one book at a time and I always finish what I start. But from memory I think I read it in a little over a week.

 

[Jacek]

I'm a huge Murakami fan and After Dark is among my favorites of his. In fact, it's the first book I am going to try reading in Japanese; I've been studying the language for two years and am ready to start working my way through it in the original! I have the Japanese copy on my shelf but still need to acquire an English one for reference, since I read a library copy.

 

[Daniel del Real]

It must be great to read Murakami in japanese, since there are a lot of version which are edited in their english translations. I really envy you.
I would catalogue After Dark in the middle of his works regarding literary quality. It is very good, but it's truth that is not that deep as previous novels, more oriented towards cinema angles. It hasn't the depth in human relationships from Sputnik Sweetheart and South of the Border, West of the Sun or the vast imagination of Wind up Bird Chronicle or Kafka on the Shore, that for me, this last one is my favorite.
However After Dark is a really entertaining and obscure short novel, always enjoyable to read.

 

[duygutekgul]

After Dark is the third Murakami book I've read and I had the sense of "I didn't get it" after I finished it. I liked the narration - especially the dialogues - and the characterisation of course, but I think I don't enjoy books that don't offer a solution - in the traditional sense.

 

[duygutekgul]

PS: There's something I managed to "get": I think he's done a little parody of crime novels.

 

[Daniel del Real]

After Dark is the third Murakami book I've read and I had the sense of "I didn't get it" after I finished it. I liked the narration - especially the dialogues - and the characterisation of course, but I think I don't enjoy books that don't offer a solution - in the traditional sense.

Many of Murakami's novel have and ending like this. I'm curious to know which ones were the two novels you've read from Murakami and if you enjoyed them or not. I bet one is Norwegian Wood

 

[duygutekgul]

Yes, one is Norwegian Wood, and the other is Kafka on the Shore. I greatly enjoyed both of them, but I can see how they're different.
I'm looking forward to reading the Wind-up Bird Chronicle in the summer holiday - see how that ends!

 

[Daniel del Real]

Yes, one is Norwegian Wood, and the other is Kafka on the Shore. I greatly enjoyed both of them, but I can see how they're different.
I'm looking forward to reading the Wind-up Bird Chronicle in the summer holiday - see how that ends!

Wind-up Bird goes more like Kafka on the Shore than to Norwegian Wood. A fantastic book in all senses, I'm sure you'll like it.
If you want a more typical narration you can try South of the Border, West of the Sun.

 

[sirena]

In my opinion this is a story about ?ordinary? people's delusion of their separateness from evil, ?the world of criminals?, by ?a high and thick wall?, and it has, in their opinion, nothing to do with them whatsoever. Author suggests there is no ?wall? and if there was, after all, it?d be of some kind thin material. So, if you leaned on them, you?d sink to the other side. Or, maybe, it?s already in you, but you haven?t noticed yet.

There?s also a problem of people?s alienation from one another, even with ?your own flesh and blood?.

As I understood it, to solve these problems we need to make ourselves aware of life around us and ?reconnect? with other people.

 

[gonfler]

I didn't like it.

Maybe if it were a short film, I would like it. His words were, as saliotthomas said, very cinematographic. I would have appreciate the images Murakami evoked in the novel. But...

I just didn't appreciate it that much. I find it too adolescent. The writer impresses me as someone who watches too much MTV, reads too many "critically-acclaimed" books, and watches to many arthouse films but doesn't really have much experience with people.

Intelligent but inexperienced character who was bullied at school and envies the pretty sister. Too boring. Too trite.

A love hotel maid who compares something from Blade Runner, Kant, and Van Gogh to daily occurrences and discusses it with others... No thanks. Not that I'm profiling all maids to be ignorant but if we have, at least, an idea what Korogi's background is like, it would have been more palatable.

Years back, I tried reading Wild Sheep Chase because it was required for the class but I stopped halfway. It bored me. I find him trying to hard to be "intellectual" or maybe postmodern with the plethora of pop culture references but it feels empty. He doesn't give me much reading satisfaction as Akutagawa, Mishima, Tanizaki, Abe, and Yoshimoto do.

I think he would make a good director/cinematographer though... The visual descriptions were stunning.

 

[Stiffelio]

I am a fan of Murakami and I enjoyed this curious novel but I wouldn't place it amongst his best. To a certain extent, this is Murakami's most experimental novel so far, in that he seems to set out on a deliberate structure and style: the events narrated occur during the course of one night and each entry is marked by a clock showing the precise time; he utilizes an omniscient first person plural narrator and the story is mostly told in the present tense. Some of the themes tackled by Murakami in After Dark are the effect that chance may or may not have on a given life, and the multiple realities, real or peeceived, involving the typical, emotionally marooned Murakamian characters. I had the feeling the book would have worked better as a long story than as a novel. It's a perfectly crafted story, if only a bit cold and distant. ***00+

 

[Milagros]

This was my first contact with his literature and - well - I'm addicted to his work