After Dark, at its core, is a novel about the duality, but also the interconnectivity, of society, reality, and, most importantly, human nature. Though all of these elements are present in the novel, they operate in the periphery and don’t speak to its essence. There are cats, and American pop music pipes in from every speaker. The exquisite ordinariness of life is juxtaposed seamlessly with the fantastic. Capitalism and consumer culture are omnipresent and viewed with disdain. Lonely, alienated souls try to reconcile their feelings about the stifling nature of Japanese culture and the conformity it demands. Rest assured, these devices aside, After Dark is, for better or worse, quintessential Murakami, with all manner of familiar touchstones finding their way into the story. and 6:52 a.m., and is brief enough to easily be read within such a timeframe. As the chapter breaks and page-headings frequently remind us, the entire story unfolds in a single night, between 11:56 p.m. Second, the novel, rather uniquely, takes place in real time.

At the same time, this collective voice reminds us that we are here merely as observers, and that we are forbidden to intervene in what is occurring before us. Throughout the novel, “we” are able to shift our view and change our focus, in order to better observe the events taking place - just as a TV camera might. Firstly, the narration is conducted in the first-person plural, in an eye-in-the-sky, fourth-wall-breaking manner.

Stylistically speaking, the reader is immediately put off guard by two literary conventions previously unseen in Murakami’s bibliography. For those well versed in Haruki Murakami’s body of work, After Dark, his ninth novel to see translation into English, might best be described as an all-too-familiar gift, presented in new and unusual packaging.

After dark haruki murakami review