After Dark (edit title)

• Rated 2 stars

“I like Murakami's style, I really do, but I can't say this was his best story. A tad creepy, though. That's always good.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I couldn't put this book down. I don't know what it was about it but it really was interesting. I can't wait to read more from this author.”

• Rated 0 stars

“murakami left me confused for a couple of days again. loved the minimalism and the vagueness of the characters”

• Rated 0 stars

“rip van winkle's tokyo cousin becomes one with a tellie as her insomniac sister impersonates an actor on 6:56 thanks to denny's coffee, a chinese prostitute, a retired lady wrestler and a scarred, jazz loving teen who remains infatuated with sleeping beauty until the sun resurges.”

• Rated 3 stars

“very short; after having read normal novels whose endings have meaning or drama, the blunt ending and the unrelated events leading to the said blunt ending, left me dazed. At every page turn i expected something to happen, something to connect. No. only when i reached about page 230 of the 245 page novel did i realize the author would not be tying everything up.

presented raw. ”

• Rated 3 stars

“Haruki Murakami's After Dark is a short, sleek novel of encounters set it Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn. It is set in a seven-hour period of real-time. The reader follows a skeletal outline of the interactions between six lost souls. It's an intriguing constellation of characters who circle vaguely around one another, but whose trajectories never quite develop into a compelling story. All inconclusive in the end.

There is a speculative edge here: something to do with sleep as a metaphor for inaction, or for the condition of being nothing more than an image, a model, an empty ideal. This element felt undeveloped to me: mere speculation without anything conclusive.

Overall, it creates no great lasting impression, but I still highly recommend reading this novel late at night. There are some passages that hit the mood just right and give a mild case of the metaphysical chills of "after dark". An enjoyable read, but probably the worst Murakami novel yet translated.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Typical Murakami. He relates normal events in an extraordinary way. The audio book was read by Janet Song; she has a great voice for his prose. Quick read and easy for Murakami newcomers.”

• Rated 3 stars

“This book had a surreal quality to it that I found annoying. Reading it I felt like I had fallen into a dream but I wanted to wake up. The writing is good and the story is interesting but the tone of the book I didn't enjoy.”

• Rated 2 stars

“Not as engrossing and moving as his others. Quick read however.”

• Rated 2 stars

“I guess I just didn't get that Japanese style of writing. It seemed like a really forced story. It just didn't flow really well and the story line, was well, interesting? It was just a really strange book.”