After Dark by Haruki Murakami

http://server40136.uk2net.com/~wpowe...1846550478.jpg

This is one of my favorite Haruki Murakami books, certainly my favorite of his short novels, though I do like Sputnik Sweetheart.

A total shift from his usual style (non descript male narrator searches for woman, fetishes for ears, finds cats, really weird sex ensues), this story is told in an almost robot 3rd person that seems to be more like a self-aware satellite that can zoom through walls to any point in the world than a person.

Without any spoilers, the plot basically starts out as a few stories that weave and connect into one that takes place during one night. It mostly revolves around a 19 year old girl who stays awake all night and gets into interesting situations all around Tokyo, a young man who has taken interest in her, a beaten Chinese prostitute and her assailant, and the 19 year old girl's beautiful who is in a mysterious deep sleep, like Sleeping Beautiful, and a mysterious world beyond a television set.

I worship Haruki Murakami. Any fans of his? Anyone read this book?

A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday as she knew I'm a big fan of Murakami's work and have been for just over three years now. I enjoyed After Dark but less so than his longer works. In terms of the shorter stories, I actually preferred it to Sputnik Sweetheart, I think. The change of style, while something that took a little getting used to, was something that I felt he dealt with very well and you'd hardly think it wasn't his usual writing method. I particularly liked how skillfully he wove all the stories into one. I did have a theory about why the sister was asleep and wasn't far off the mark, which was unusual for me and a Murakami book!

Norwegian Wood and the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are still his best. The latter I could seriously do with re-reading.

I've read wind-up bird chronicle and I'm currently reading Kafka on the shore. I'll definately pick up After Dark next, the "total shift from his usual style" has intrigued me.

Sputnik Sweetheart was really great. Sumire is one of my favorite characters of any of his stories.

I just read The Wind Up Bird Chronicles again. I dunno if I was too young the first time I read it, or what, because I wasn't taken by it the first time, but I was enthralled this time. I think it might have just usurped Norwegian Wood as my favorite Murakami.

Kafka on the Shore... I still dunno about that one. I love Nakata's story, but I wasn't taken by Kafka's. Infact, if the entire story was fleshed out more just about Nakata, I'd have loved it a lot more.

That said though, Oshima in Kafka's story is one of the coolest Murakami side characters.

About 100 pages into Kafka on the Shore, and I really like it. But I agree with Rye that Nakata's storyline is much more interesting than Kafka's.