Wow, I simply BLEW through Haruki Murakami’s book “After Dark”…had no idea it was such a relatively SHORT story, but MAN was it good! In fact, after 1Q84, After Dark might be my favorite story from him yet!
After Dark tells the story of a girl named Mari who is nursing a cup of coffee in the wee hours of the night at a Denny’s restaurant. A young trombone player named Takahashi comes in for a meal before his gig, and tells Mari that he recognizes her. They had met years ago when he was on a group date with Mari’s beautiful older sister Eri.
Mari and Eri are polar opposites: Eri has been dazzling since very young and has even modeled and appeared in commercials, while Mari is shy, introverted and bookish. She had only gone on the date because her sister had asked her to, and Takashi remarks how they aren't anything alike. They talk about things for awhile at the Denny's and have a nice enough conversation but he cannot help but feel there is something bothering Mari...
We find out through various conversations that Mari’s sister Eri has fallen under a mysterious malady- one evening she simply said “I’m going to sleep for awhile”, went to bed…and then never woke up again. Even more haunting is that some strange being with a hidden face seems to be materializing and spying on her in the night through the television when no one is around, preying on her and drawing her essence through the screen...
Through her initial meeting with Takahashi, Mari ends up meeting various strange individuals such as Female Former Pro-Wrestler Love Hotel Managers and Chinese Prostitutes while visiting various places only haunted by the night owls.
As Mari ventures into the shady nightlife, the people she meets teaches her about understanding her sister and valuing the bond she shares with her.
I have to say that even though this book was certainly full of “Murakami-isms” (Jazz Records, Cats, Supernatural Powers), this was much more straight-forward than his other books, and even had a nice, thoughtful conclusion to it (a REAL rarity in the books I’ve read!).
I mentioned how short the book was, and perhaps that was an added charm to it: the entire story of After Dark takes place in one evening over the span of about 7 hours (from midnight to 7-ish in the morning) and when I finished reading it, I had that same satisfaction I had after seeing movies like “Before Sunrise” or even “The Breakfast Club”, where entire scenes are simply people talking and learning about each other through one sitting.
Just LOVED this Book!
