After Dark (Vintage International) | 
 enlarge | Author: Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $7.89
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Avg. Customer Rating:  79 reviews
Sales Rank: 18156
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0307278735
Dewey Decimal Number: 895.635
EAN: 9780307278739
ASIN: 0307278735
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081006210455T
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Product Description
A sleek, gripping novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the spooky hours between midnight and dawn, by an internationally renowned literary phenomenon.
Murakami's trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery. Combining the pyrotechnical genius that made Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle international bestsellers, with a surprising infusion of heart, Murakami has produced one of his most enchanting fictions yet.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 74 more reviews...
 First book I've read by this author October 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My dad recommended this to me, and the blurb of the book sounded interesting. Dad said I could possibly read it in one sitting, but with work, and life revolving around me, I find it impossible to do that these days. When I was younger, sure.
What I thought was kinda interesting/weird about After Dark, is that it reads very much like a film. The start of each chapter (a different time in the seven hours that the book is based in) sets up the location, and the people in it, and the surroundings. Very much like a film/screenplay would. I found it a very strange way of reading.
I never really feel like I got to know the characters, the book was that short. Intentionally short, it has been described more of a novella, than of a novel. But intentionally short, that the characters slip away once you have finished reading? It's not a book I managed to lose myself in - it took me a couple of days to read, but it was in short spurts, on the bus, at lunch etc. There's nothing particularly memorable about the book, for me, just the style of writing.
Yes, it may be short and sweet (like myself), but for me, it was the easy relief between two in-depth books (The Mystery Of Mr Y and The Book Thief, which is up next.)
 Mesmerizing September 20, 2008
I think this is the most down-to-earth novel by Mr. Murakami that is published now but with a touch of his earliest novels. I admire his recent novels but I also love his previous ones. This one has that mysterious, voyeuristic, supernatural, surrealist feeling of his recent novels but somehow, the depth, the journey of people of his earlier ones. The story evolves in one moment after midnight. Just one night - and it's mesmerizing as always. The dialogs, the encounters, the mystery, seems natural and flowing very nicely. He is truly a master of this kind of novel.
Superb. September 13, 2008
Hardly anything happens in this slim novel, which is set entirely over one night in Tokyo. But the wisp of a plot is enough. I enjoyed this book primarily because of the dream-like atmosphere that Murakami creates. His spare style has an almost hallucinogenic effect. In lesser hands I might have been frustrated by some of the surrealism, but I floated serenely through Murakami's Tokyo night in one sitting. Excellent!
 Strangers in the night: intriguing and unsettling, but highly inconclusive August 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lost souls in Tokyo.
A girl whose sister decided to go to sleep and still hasn't woken up a few months later. She can't stand sleeping in the next room, so finds ways to stay out all night. Hangs out at Denny's.
A kid in a band who once had a crush on the sister; now intrigued by the girl in Denny's.
A former female wrestler, now manager of a "love hotel" -- where a Chinese prostitute gets beaten up by a frustrated businessman.
The businessman who doesn't like to go home at night either, works all night and occasionally hires prostitutes.
The sleeping sister, who is being watched by a man on the other side of a television screen. At times the sister also appears on the other side of the television screen -- trapped, confused, lost. A metaphor for someone whose identity is bound up in representations: a model?
The enigmatic watcher, who has gotten dirty somehow, and we never know why.
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.
This is the second book I've read by Murakami, and I don't know if this is true of all his works but both translations sound a little odd. Reading him is almost like reading subtitles for a foreign film. It never quite sounds right, but suggests something intriguing behind it all. The Wild Sheep Chase worked for me: odd and twisty, but with intriguing ideas that went somewhere. In this case I'm not sure. I might have to read it again, but first impressions on a first look aren't strong enough to motivate the second read.
 Intriguing, but with too many loose ends. August 9, 2008
First of all, let me say, that I have very much enjoyed the book. However,
just like many other readers I have a hard time explaining what the story is
all about. It has, certainly, very moody character, but leaves so many loose
ends, that it does make one wander if author wrote it as, perhaps, an exercise.
An exercise in a particular screen play like writing style, which would be
another sticky point for some, although quite attractive and appropriate, in
that it seem to help to create the mood of Tokyo after dark. Still, it would
make much more sense for everyone if story was more developed and certainly
Murakami other works show that he is capable of producing complete store, may
be even overwritten, but in this case he clearly took a minimalist approach.
Recommended with reservations.
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