Hardcover, 191 pages
English language
Published Aug. 8, 2007 by Knopf.
In After Dark—a gripping novel of late night encounters—Murakami’s trademark humor and psychological insight are distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery.
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.
Zvlastni knizka. Pasaze s Eri me prisly az jako takova literarni masturbace. Jinak celkem kompaktni, nechava cloveka premyslet. Na druhou stranu su rad, ze to mam za sebou :)
This is such a beautiful, short novella. I went into it with no expectations, and I'm glad I didn't.
The whole story takes place over the course of seven hours, from midnight to 7 am, and follows a small cast of characters over the course of the night. The experiences that most of the characters had reflect a strong sense of community and care that I remember coming across late at night while I was in university. Of course, there are bleak moments here, but the weight of them are kept at bay by the humanism of the characters.
The story does have surreal moments, but they don't predominate, and they add a lot to the story. Late at night, things don't always feel right, and the surreal really feeds into that.
One component of the story that does a lot of work is the point of …
This is such a beautiful, short novella. I went into it with no expectations, and I'm glad I didn't.
The whole story takes place over the course of seven hours, from midnight to 7 am, and follows a small cast of characters over the course of the night. The experiences that most of the characters had reflect a strong sense of community and care that I remember coming across late at night while I was in university. Of course, there are bleak moments here, but the weight of them are kept at bay by the humanism of the characters.
The story does have surreal moments, but they don't predominate, and they add a lot to the story. Late at night, things don't always feel right, and the surreal really feeds into that.
One component of the story that does a lot of work is the point of view. For one, the narrator and the point of view have nearly anthropomorphic characteristics. At the same time, the whole story is told in the present tense. The narrator learns about occurrences at the same time we do, and it offers a sort of meta-commentary. In some ways, it reads almost more like a screen play than a novel. The PoV's voice adds to the sense of strangeness and wonder.
My only regret was that the book is so short--but I also think it was as long as it has to be.
