After Dark (2004) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Mari Asai: A nineteen year old Japanese girl. She is fluent in Chinese.
• Tetsuya Takahashi: A trombone player and a law student. A former acquaintance of Mari's and meets her at Denny's
• Eri Asai: Mari Asai's older sister. She is 21 years old and used to modeling. She is more beautiful than Mari.
• Korugi: Another maid at the Alphaville
• Kaoru: Manager of the Alphaville "love hotel". She was a former wrestler.
• Komugi: maid at the alphaville
• Guo Dongli: A Chinese prostitute.
• Shirakawa: A man who does computer work at a company at night when the building is empty.

Quotes edit see section history

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• “"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 of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed 'em to the fire, they're all just paper. The fire isn't thinking, 'Oh, this is Kant,' or 'Oh, this is the Yomiuri evening edition,'...while it burns. To the fire, they're nothing but scraps of paper. It's the exact same thing. Important memories, not-so-important memories, totally useless memories: there's no distinction--they're all just fuel."”

  Korogi

• “He shakes his head. "I don't mind if you forgot my name. It's about as ordinary as a name can be. Even I feel like forgetting it sometimes. It's not that easy,though, to forget your own name. Other people's names? even ones I have to remember? I'm always forgetting."”

  Takahashi

• “"What I want to say is probably something like this: any single human being, no matter what kind of a person he or she maybe, is all caught up in the tentacles of this animal like a giant octopus, and is getting sucked into the...darkness. You can put any kind of spin on it you like,but you end up with the same unbearable spectacle."”

  Takahashi

• “‎"The ordinary-looking ones are the most dangerous"”

• “Three a.m. This is the darkest part of the night - and the hardest part.”

  Takahashi

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• 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.”

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

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• 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.”

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• “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.

  Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers

• “It’s not as if our lives are divided simply into light and dark. There’s a shadowy middle ground. Recognizing and understanding the shadows is what a healthy intelligence does. And to acquire a healthy intelligence takes a certain amount of time and effort. I don’t think you have a particularly dark character.”

  Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers

• Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed ’em to the fire, they’re all just paper. The fire isn’t thinking, ‘Oh, this is Kant,’ or ‘Oh, this is the Yomiuri evening edition,’ or ‘Nice tits,’ while it burns. To the fire, they’re nothing but scraps of paper. It’s the exact same thing. Important memories, not-so-important memories, totally useless memories: there’s no distinction—they’re all just fuel.”

  Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers

• Tell you the truth, I’ve had sex with lots of guys, but I think I did it mostly out of fear. I was scared not to have somebody putting his arms around me, so I could never say no. That’s all. Nothing good ever came of sex like that. All it does is grind down the meaning of life a piece at a time.

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• Many people go on mumbling the old words, but in the light of the newly revealed sun, the meanings of words are shifting rapidly and are being renewed. Even supposing that most of the new meanings are temporary things that will persist only through sundown that day, we will be spending time and moving forward with them.

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• All information gives way to nothingness, all sense of place is withdrawn, all meaning is dismantled, and the two worlds are divided, leaving behind a silence lacking all sensation.

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• “It’s true, though: time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night,” the bartender says, loudly striking a book match and lighting a cigarette. “You can’t fight it.”

  Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Tokyo, Japan
• Alphaville
• Mali

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

List the series to which this book belongs.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Haruki Murakami (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Jay Rubin (Translator)
2. Lourdes Porta (Translator)
3. Théodore Morita (Translator)
4. Ursula Graefe (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PL856.U673A6613
• Dewey: 895.635

Notes for Parents edit see section history

This book contains scenes involving violence and sex, with a large section of the plot set in a love hotel.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Foreign Language Fiction › Japanese
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Japanese

More Books Like This edit see section history