Finished Haruki Murakami’s After Dark. gotta say… NOT his best work. decent enough but pale in comparison to “Kafka on the Shore”.
Basically the story follows a few characters in one night in Tokyo. Centrally starting around a mundane and studious girls’ “adventures” in Tokyo’s more seedy underside. Nothing extreme… but more of a …. ACCURATE depiction of what can happen in Tokyo on any given night if you were the middle/lower class drinking type that hangs out with artists/models/ and entertainers. and frequents love hotels.
yes, living in tokyo, i can say the writing VERY accurately depicts one night in tokyo. and Murakami does a GREAT job of describing this world from how a naive student would react if thrust in this environment suddenly.
The personalities, and characters are all decent enough. descriptions are good. details are decent…. and relatively believable cast… though no one stands out… as is typical with Murakami’s work. all a bunch of normal people going about their normal lives, with a small tiny link that connects them. Imagine “crash” the movie… without the drama and action. it is enjoyable and Murakami has a knack for tickling the senses of irony.
now what makes it NOT so great? well… Murakami has gone out on a limb… and i must commend him for his noble effort in this … he often goes on and explicitly tells you WHAT YOU ARE FEELING. phrases like “we are hanging in the middle of the city… as if floating on an unseen pillow… we calmly view the world around us with uncaring eyes”. (the book is often done in the first person perspective …. )
telling me that i’m “calmly” and “uncaring” is a stretch i don’t particularly find … appeasing. It’s a decent attempt to tell a long story and describe complex occurances in a book with a mechanism that’s fast and efficient. it’s not something often attempted, and i wouldn’t have said “bad idea” had i known this before. i was at first curious when i started noticing it “let’s see how this plays out”. my end result? an honest recommendation saying, “stop it. don’t do that again. don’t tell the audience what they are feeling”
let us decide on our own based on the environment you present us.
but hey, someone had to try it right?
so kudos for trying. now stop it.
Again, a decent attempt…. great story and environment and characters… realistic and believable… though a misstep in execution. i’d say a 5/10.
