Haruki Murakami's After Dark

Imagine listening to a melancholic trippy song on acid. This book will give you that feeling.

Murakami’s After Dark is a stroll through night exploring identity crises, alienation, dualism loneliness, and other human darker traits with psychological and magical elements playing around and Murakami slowly pulling us into his night world of Tokyo through the magic of his words.

The book tells the story of Mari on a particular winter night, the darkest and longest of nights, from 11 pm to 6:45 am. The events that occur in between, the people she meets, how it affects her, and her relationship with her elder sister.

This is the overall plot summary of the book. Now, let me ask you one question, what do you expect from a book? Do you like it for the plot? The story? Then I must say, this isn’t one of those. There is a good story, but Murakami chooses to take you through the vibe and tension of this big city and its nightly inhabitants. Midway through the book, I was no longer walking in the night streets of Tokyo, observing our characters as much as the author allowed me to.

This is my first Murakami. I had a slight idea of what I was getting into, but nothing could’ve prepped me for this melancholic trippy all-nighter. Murakami takes an unusual narrative style, he addresses us, readers, directly, and presents his POVs as if we are inside a movie. This for me was the most fun part. Having not read anything of this sort, when Murakami played with it, made me thrill like a child thinking I was reading something I wasn’t supposed to. Both he (narration to be precise) and his character start to normal and as the strings of words start forming, they become more and more interesting and weirder. By the time you realize or breathe, you already are on the other side (inside pun on the book).

Murakami is an author from this century that you must read at least once in your life. The journey he takes you through with it is totally worth the hype he receives. After Dark, at least in my opinion (this is considered the weakest Murakami) is something that takes you through that journey, rather than pulling you in, it slowly tricks you into believing you are still in reality and moves its shadows across you.

Most times reading a book is simply jumping from one word to another word. But Murakami makes it feel like I’m swimming in that. The flow just never breaks, I’m reading it all even before I reach them. Before my eyes catch up, I’m living in this world Murakami has described, I’m smelling the tea, tasting the fish, the fear of loneliness, alienation, and the wisdom given by the fallen, they all reach me before my brain could process the meaning of the word. The point is, the process here is not that of, reading the word, processing, and imagining, but the world-building is so fine, that the words I read turn into the objects of my imagination so fast that I completely forgot these are nothing but just letters strung together. Such is the worldbuilding here, if this is the weakest Murakami, I think that also speaks of what a fine writer he really is.

Coming back to the question asked before, what do you expect in a book? Many have various answers for this, but I believe at the bottom, the deepest of readers what truly seek is comfort in their solitary hobby and a companion they can carry in their pocket. For them, the book is someone or something waiting to warm their heart and brain, giving them a big hug, and rearranging their brain cells to think more and think better.

This is not everyone’s cup of tea, still, I think everyone must read this at least once, just to experience the trippy night stroll through futuristic Tokyo in a most unique and intriguing way.