Synopsis & Review | After Dark by Haruki Murakami & Jay Rubin, Vintage Books, 2008 (originally published in 2004) | Jean-Michel Serres, Composer-pianist (Apfel Café Music): Website

Summary Synopsis

At autumn midnight, in Shibuya, a 19 years old boyish and innocent girl, a student of the University of Foreign Studies, Mari Asai was reading a thick book at Denny’s. Her sister’s ex-classmate Tetsuya Takahashi found her and shared the table with her. Then Kaoru, the manager of a love hotel, Alphaville, got her to speak and help a Chines prostitute girl, Dongli who was ruined and robbed of her belongings.

Simultaneously, Mari’s older sister Eri Asai who had been slept for two months was shut into the room in a TV screen by the Man with No Face, and suffered meaningless violence…

Mari had grown by to come across night people, Takahashi, Kaoru, Korogi and a bartender. In the morning she got back home, got into Eri’s bed…

Book Review

After Dark is Haruki Murakami’s 12th long novel, and an experimental 18 chapters long novel describes occurrences during a midnight by the objective third-person viewpoint. And each part is attached to pictures of a clock, and it shows the passage of time. The original Japanese hardcover edition is 294 paged book. But substantial content or plot of this novel is a novelette, and it isn’t significant story. This novel only describes very very long midnight occurrences during 7 hours. I think this novel is short as a long novel, very long as a story of 6 or 7 hours occurrences. Because there are lots of short chattings and objective descriptions.

This story is the story of to connect, to sync and to exchange symbols, metaphorical meanings or something among three girls (Mari, Eri and Dongli), and between Mari and night people, Eri and Man with No Face, and Dongli and Shirakawa. Each chapter is basically divided by the episodes of Mari Asai, Eri Asai, Kaoru and Shirakawa, each plot progresses simultaneously, and each episode connects directly or indirectly in real or metaphorical meanings. It may signify fragmental connections and information in the internet space. The situation was described by the third-person point like the view of Google Earth and Google Street View.

Mari knew Curtis Fuller's Five Spot After Dark, her most favourite movie is Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, and wore a Boston Red Sox cap (She was given the cap by a friend only, and was not interested in baseball.). These things mean randomness of knowledge in the global culture and the internet. And, Mari’s coming across a Chinese girl Dongli, Shirakawa’s escape imply random encounter of the era of globalization and internet.

Takahashi’s saying “Say your sister is in some other Alphaville kind of space—I don’t know where—and somebody is subjecting her to meaningless violence”, and Mari’s reply “In a metaphorical sense?”. (p.130) ”Aspects of the interrelationship of thought and action” (p. 153) of which Shirakawa considered. They imply the most important theme of this novel. There are proper or accidental connections in physical or metaphorical senses in the world, for better or worse, like a network or the internet. So the contemporary world is moving and changing.

In this novel, Murakami splendidly described the situation, state, atmosphere and communication in the age of network and globalization and the 00’s internet and cellphone era. The era in which people connect through the internet and cellphones, and meet at third places such as family restaurants, convenience stores, fast-food shops and Starbucks café as points of networks. Third places connect things and people from global to local.

Also this novel is a story of experiences of Mari during 7 hours. Mari came across and talked with adult night people, exchanged kindness and tenderness, then she grew up. And it’s profound and beautiful experiences have positive influence on some characters and readers, and give readers good feelings.

This story is beautiful and impressive, it's a precious thing for me, but it's not masterpiece and grand narrative. I think this novel is one of fine works of Murakami.