After dark

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 sentences and chews on [...]

Good ol' Murakami. Every time I read him, I feel my reasons for choosing a book as company over a real person, legitimized again. What is reading, but, a singular form of one-sided communication? An author sends us an encoded message, crafted with precision and a deep empathy arising out of their understanding of the world and humanity at large. And we, in turn, decode it and instantly feel a pull on the invisible umbilical cord linking us to this person we have never met and, possibly, will nev [...]

This really isn’t a novel to be rushed. This is a novel to be savoured and appreciated, and I think this quote here captures a large part of the book: "She reads with great concentration. Her eyes rarely move from the pages of the book- a thick hardback. A bookstore wrapper hides the title from us. Judging from her intent expression, the book might contain challenging subject matter. Far from skimming, she seems to be biting off and chewing it one line at a time.”The words and the language s [...]

Original Review: March 8, 2011A Midwinter Night's Tale"After Dark" is probably the easiest Murakami novel to read. At 201 pages, it's not difficult to finish in one session.It's also close to what you would call "high concept" in the film industry. Its execution is not much more than its conception.All of the action takes place from 11:56pm to 6:52am on a midwinter night, more or less "after dark" when the days are shortest and the nights are longest.Hidden MeaningMurakami's writing is stripped [...]

"Eye's mark the shape of the city"There is something about Murakami that ignites connections in my brain that I don't know what to do with. Such as the scene with the man on a television screen staring into a real room with a girl lying on the bed. He is said to be looking in from the "other side". Murakami uses this same phrase when a main character is looking into a mirror. When she gazes at herself in the mirror she is said to be looking in from the "other side". There are several scenes whic [...]

I wake up. My room bathes in the light of the streetlamp. I’m too tired to look around. I close my eyes again but soon feel in my heart that the darkness I so desire has fled. It hides under my bed, in the corners of the city and of my mind. It refuses to manifest itself in its most majestic and generous form, that of the great blanket that covers the waking world, that of the wide gate that allows passage to the land of dreams. The splashes of darkness only serve to irritate me in their small [...]

1.هل تُدرك معنى أن تقرأ رواية كاملة من 240 صفحة في ليلة واحدة فحسب؟2.لا أحب موراكامي، هذا اعترافٌ يصدم كثيرين ولا أعرف السببومن عجبٍ أني بدأتُ بأشهر أعماله (كافكا على الشاطىء) فكرهتها وكرهتُ القراءة له للأبدبإلحاحٍ من أصدقاءٍ أثق في رأيهم كررتُ المحاولة على مضضفقط لتكون تلك الر [...]

WHY DO I NOT READ MURAKAMI MORE OFTEN?Video review will be up Wednesday :)

A delightful excursion into the mentality and rhythms of night in the city and the perspectives it gives to the meaning of our daytime lives. This 2007 novel contains the essence of Murikami’s weird and wonderful ways in a pure and restrained form. We fly around observing a set of characters as with an invisible camera, neutral and unjudging. Time ticks down explicitly through the night though the pacing of life at night has a timeless quality. The characters actions are muted and reflective, [...]

أنا اللّى أعرفه إن الروايات بتبقى حاجة من اتنين إما الرواية تكون جميلة وبديعة وفيها حاجة حلوة تعجبك وتخليك تكملها للآخر يا إما الرواية تكون سيئة ومتعجبكش أو متفهمهاش وبالتالى متكملهاش أو تكملها لو قادر تصبر عليها وتنتقدها نقد كامل فى النهاية ولكن هنا رواية ممتعة ، ساحرة ، ف [...]

(アフターダーク = Afutā Dāku = After Dark, Haruki MurakamiAfter Dark is a 2004 novel by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Set in metropolitan Tokyo over the course of one night, characters include Mari Asai, a 19-year-old student, who is spending the night reading in a Denny's. There she meets Takahashi Tetsuya, a trombone-playing student who loves Curtis Fuller's "Five Spot After Dark" song on Blues-ette; Takahashi knows Mari's sister Eri, who he was once interested in, and insists that [...]

(My full review of this book is larger than GoodReads' word-count limitations. Find it at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter].)"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 pictures in a magazine, a bundle [...]

Clearly his efforts are becoming more and more of a nuisance--because you must read his entire body of work, you need to trudge through latter stuff, like this one, Verrrry Minor Murakami*. The best thing? The open-endedness in some of the various hallucinations/tableaux. The most irritating? His 1 page-per American reference, and the halo to the Japanese master of All (Crap!) Things USA.*newly discovered lit genre (c.a. 2016)

“It’s true, though: time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night.”I read Murakami’s After Dark exclusively at night time. Capricious as it might sound, I do believe that most of it I read after midnight. Darkness encroaching all around, only a dim desk lamp to illuminate my surroundings. Silence engulfing the atmosphere, sometimes unbearable, often intoxicating. A cup of coffee beside me, a platter of peanuts in front, I relished every moment of this novel. Why? I am capt [...]

ولأننا دائمًا ما نبدأ مع الكُتاب بأعمالهم الأشهر والأكثر نجاحًا ، ولأنها دائمًا ما ترفع سقف توقعاتناولأننا لا نكف عن مقارنتها بباقي أعماله الأخرى مما يسبب خيبة أمل وعدم رضا عن تلك الأعماللم ابدأ مع هاروكي موراكامي بعمله الأشهر ( كافكا على الشاطئ ) ، كان اللقاء الأول مع هذا ال [...]

Another night has passed by and the day is upon us, telling from the light it is still early morning and from our viewpoint we are looking down on a city, we start to float towards a neighbourhood and pick out a house at random. We are now in the back garden of the property where two cats roam and can hear the sound of birds singing in the trees, we move in the direction of a second story window where the curtains are still closed, we enter. The first thing we notice is a man sat up in bed who a [...]

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 ther [...]

It's a clever little tale about night people, dreams (of all kinds), and subtle humor, mixed with grand and interesting detail in the style of so much horror fiction and a brooding (mostly) off-screen terror that lurks in the night.Did I mention it's Japanese? Sure, it should be kinda obvious from such a big name like Murakami, but this is, after all, my first foray into his works. What can I say? I thought it was pretty damn great. I didn't have any expectations, so I just let myself flow with [...]

مرد: به نظرت می‌توانیم به زودی باز همدیگر را ببینیم؟زن: منظورت این است که قرار بگذاریم؟مرد: می‌شود این جوری هم گفتزن: اما چند بار بهم گفته‌اند که شخصیت تاریکی دارممرد: این جور نیست که زندگی‌مان فقط به تاریکی و روشنایی تقسیم شده باشد. یک منطقه‌ی میانی سایه‌دار هم هست. کار عقل [...]

I have a strange relationship with Japan – both of my daughters became fascinated with Japan as children and both learnt Japanese. Then one of them went to Japan as an exchange student and then both of them studied Japanese at university, the other one then going to study at Tokyo University for a year. Now both of them work at a Japanese travel agency . At the same time we also have had a Japanese exchange student stay with us – well, more with my ex-wife. And so my Japanese daughter’s na [...]

Murakami haunts me. His words. The images he uses to convey his message. His characters. Blended together, these elements make for a surreal reading experience that is both fantastic and illusory. On one page you have a straight forward narrative of life during the wee hours of the night in Japan. But on the other page, a journey is taking place. Where this journey will end is anyone's guess. From a sleeping sister to a brothel to a kid that plays in a jazz band to a woman searching for her rela [...]

للمرة الثانية يفقدني هاروكي موراكامي عقلي، بعد روايته "نعاس"علي نفس الخطي نمشي انا و هاروكيهو يكتب و يكتب و انا انسي نومي و عملي و طعامي، افقد عقلي تدريجياو اندمج لاصبح انا بداخل سطوره، تائهة ابحث عن النهاية، بينما خيالي سارحا للبحث عن مغزي السطورحتي نصل للنهاية صدمة الصدمات [...]

هذا الريڤيو كان من أسباب قراءتي للرواية:goo/EbJLTqرواية جميلة، مسك الختام بحق، سأفتقد مورا، صديقي الجديد، وعالمه البديع الغريبسأفتقد رواياته المجنونة بحق، على أمل انتظار ترجمة بقيتها، أو على أمل أكبر منه، أن أتعلم اليابانية، فقط من أجلهيقول:هكذا كان شعوري خلال تلك الفترة، وهو � [...]

Just a comment:Murakami’s "After Dark" is first and foremost a cinematic book. The story takes place in Tokyo, but as Borges once said (to Gabriel Nachmias): "Athens, New York, London—all of them are the same, after dark". By the same token, we may say that After Dark is set during a single night in a post-industrial metropolis. One night is enough time for Murakami, probably because every night is the same in metropolis. Although Borges is not explicitly mentioned in the book, Murakami make [...]

If you opened this book up at any page without first looking at its cover you would still know immediately who the author was. Haruki Murakami has such a distinctive style it could be no one else. This particular book is very short and in my opinion not the best he has written. I loved the way he evokes those dark hours between midnight and dawn but there is less than usual substance to the book and an awful lot of mystery which is never solved. I think I needed a few more chapters and a little [...]

الأدب الياباني عموماً من خلال قرائتي عن أكثر من موضوع هو من النوع المُعقد والملئ بالتساؤلات والاستفسارت التى تحتاج إلي اجابات شافية أول عمل أقرأه للعظيم هاروكي موراكامي وحبيت أبعد عن كافكا علي الشاطئ وقررت البدء بعمل إلي حداً ما مقبول لهاروكي الرواية عُبارة عن دوامة من ال� [...]

Cuando se esconde el Sol y se enciende la Luna, la mayoría de nosotros se apaga, se pierde en el mundo de los sueños. Pero hay otros que tienen como aliado a la noche. Entre el silencio de la oscuridad, encuentran la fuerza para gritar. Buen libro de Murakami. Algo experimental, con una prosa madura y atractiva.

I think this book is great Murakami entrance test. It's short and bit simpler than his other works but in no way worse so if you like this one chances are you will love his more notable works.

Ah me I love Murakami. This is only the fifth book of his I've read but they never disappoint. I started with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which I read when I lived in Japan. Seemed fitting. Followed up with A Wild Sheep Chase, Dance Dance Dance and Underground, a non-fiction book where he collected and told the stories of survivors from the Tokyo Subway gas attack. I have more on my shelf. I plan to read every single book of his.After Dark is definitely one of his more approachable books. It was [...]

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, ea [...]