Delving into the Darkness

I was introduced to the wonderful world of Haruki Murakami by my friends a couple of years ago. I was apprehensive then, but my curiosity got the best of me, and I purchased my first Murakami, 1Q84, way back in 2014. It was a painstakingly long novel, and it was quite a challenge to navigate the narrative. The thing that overwhelmed me about the book is its elements of surrealism. After all, I was one of my primers into the world of magical realism. It was literally a baptism of fire.

Nevertheless, my experience with 1Q84 didn’t stop me from reading his other books. Since then, I have purchased and read some of his notable works, such as Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. It is always a challenge reading his works, but his works keep on getting raving reviews, especially Kafka on the Shore, which I felt wasn’t really the right work for me. The elements of surrealism were too overwhelming. However, I have decided to reread it. In the meantime, I indulged in one of his shorter works, one that I purchased this year. This is also my first Murakami in over a year.

It’s not as if our lives are divided simply into light and dark. There’s shadowy middle ground. Recognizing and understanding the shadows is what a healthy intelligence does. And to acquire a healthy intelligence takes a certain amount of time and effort. I don’t think you have a particularly dark character.

Haruki Murakami, After Dark

So what happens in Tokyo after the sun has set?

After Dark was originally published in 2004 as アフターダーク(Afutā Dāku), and eventually translated into English in 2007. At the heart of the novel is Mari Asai, who was alone on her own corner of a famous cafe when a stranger, well, not totally a stranger, approached her and struck up a conversation with her. Takayashi Tetsuya, the stranger, tried to refresh Mari’s memory of their first encounter a couple of years before. Mari ignored him at first, the same way she was oblivious to everyone who passed by her. But her icy reception didn’t daunt Takayashi’s adamantine resolve, and eventually Mari began answering his questions. What began as an awkward conversation between two seemingly unrelated strangers turned into a wonderful night of adventure, music, and revelations.

Fortunately, After Dark is not as challenging as Murakami’s other works that I have read and mentioned above, or perhaps the magical realist elements were not as pervasive. The story is more straightforward, even though each chapter opens with a clock portraying the passage of time. The story taking place in real time did help in my appreciation of it as well. I had a better grasp of this book than of Murakami’s other notable works. This made me realize how badly mistaken I was in starting my Murakami journey with the complex 1Q84. 18Q4 was riddled with numerous surrealistic themes that I wasn’t fully able to grasp.

This book is relatively shorter compared to the other Murakami works I have read, but the impact was nonetheless the same. But as they say, old habits die hard. In After Dark, Murakami still used his signature surrealism, although it was to a limited extent. Through his signature style, he transported the readers between the land of dreams and reality, the realms of fantasy and reality. Murakami never fails to allude to his background of magical realism, something that I admittedly find confusing at times.

That people’s memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn’t matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They’re all just fuel. Advertising fillers in the newspaper, philosophy books, dirty pictures in a magazine, a bundle of ten-thousand-yen bills: when you feed ’em to the fire, they’re all just paper.

Haruki Murakami, After Dark

In Mari, Murakami was able to portray yet another memorable character. Mari created an escapist reality to run away from the things that are shackling her to the ground. Over the course of the story and through Takahashi, she was finally able to unveil these feelings that had long been kept in the shadows from the eyes of the public. As the night drew closer to morning light, Mari began understanding her feelings toward the issues that hounded her and her existence. The same is true for Takahashi as well.

After Dark is a deviation from Murakami’s usual surrealism-laden storytelling. Murakami worked more on evoking the senses of his readers. By focusing on the central characters, After Dark explores human emotions as the main characters, especially Mari, dealt with both current and past challenges. Mari’s emotional floodgates were slowly opened up as the darkness drew closer to the morning light.

On a darker note, the book dealt with the industry of prostitution that thrives under Tokyo’s blinking lights. At first, I found this a bit absurd and unusual, interjecting a seemingly unrelated topic into a straightforward narrative that has been flowing quite nicely. But in the end, I have surmised that this is a free-flowing story that explores the world between the night and dawn. This interjection is proof that even in the dead of the night, life moves in a constant motion, and it doesn’t stop even when the rest of the world is asleep.

Even at a time like this, the street is bright enough and filled with people coming and going—people with places to go and people with no place to go; people with a purpose and people with no purpose; people trying to hold time back and people trying to urge it forward.

Haruki Murakami, After Dark

After Dark is generally a light read. It deals with a person’s own views and emotions on the current circumstances. It explores the views of the main characters and reflects on how they deal with the circumstances that are before them. There was also a beauty in witnessing how Mari and Takayashi are drawing closer to each other as light slowly began replacing the darkness that had once enveloped their adventures together.

Overall, I enjoyed After Dark, which is kind of a surprise to me considering my history with Murakami’s works. Its numerous facets have combined to give the reader a different feel of Murakami’s genius. It is partly whimsical, partly surreal, and partly romantic, in just the right way. The way Murakami evoked emotions through Mari and Takayashi is just beautiful. Although, as always, Murakami left the narrative hanging in the end, this is perhaps his only work that I have fully appreciated.

But even though I was with my father again, I never felt really secure deep down. I don’t know how to put it exactly, but things were never really settled inside me. I always had this feeling like, I don’t know, like somebody was putting something over on me, like my real father had disappeared forever and, to fill the gap, some other guy was sent to me in his shape.

Haruki Murakami, After Dark
Rating

Not recommended for those who are used to Murakami’s trademark of outlandish storytelling and those who are expecting a wide array of surrealism and fantasy.

Recommended for those who want to be initiated into the world of Haruki Murakami. This is a great starter before taking on his more complex works like 1Q84, Kafka on the Shore, and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. I also recommend the book for those who are seeking light reads.

Book Specs

Author: Haruki Murakami
Translator: Jay Rubin
Publisher: Vintage Books
Publishing Date: April 2008
Number of Pages: 244
Genre: Contemporary, Surrealism, Speculative Fiction

Synopsis

A sleek, gripping novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the spooky hours between midnight and dawn, by an internationally renowned literary phenomenon.

About the Author

Haruki Murakami (村上 春樹) was born on January 12, 1949, in Kyoto, Japan. He was the only child of a Buddhist priest and the daughter of an Osaka merchant. Both taught Japanese literature and encouraged their son’s reading, especially the classic works of great Japanese authors. However, the young Murakami grew up influenced by Western and Russian music and literature, particularly by the hard-boiled detective fiction of Raymond Chandler, and the works of Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He studied Greek drama at Waseda University in Tokyo. While studying there, he met another student, Yoko Takahashi, whom he married in 1971. Rejecting a “company life,” he and his wife opened a jazz café in the suburbs of Tokyo in 1974. With mutual consent, they have decided not to have any children.

It was at the age of 29 that Murakami began writing. His first novel was Hear the Wind Sing, which came from an epiphany while he was watching a baseball game one day in Tokyo. It was published in 1979 as 風の歌を聴け (Kaze no uta o kike). The succeeding year, he published 1973年のピンボール (1973-nen no pinbōru; trans. Pinball, 1973). However, it was his third novel, 羊をめぐる冒険 (Hitsuji o meguru bōken, 1982; trans. A Wild Sheep Chase) that has earned him critical success. This was followed by even more success with the publication of ノルウェイの森 (Noruwei no mori; trans. Norwegian Wood) in 1987. This marked the point of no return for him as his works began gaining nationwide and eventually, international acclaim. His other prominent novels include ねじまき鳥クロニクル (1994–1995, Nejimaki-dori kuronikuru; The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle), 海辺のカフカ (2002, Umibe no Kafuka; trans. Kafka on the Shore), and 1Q84 (2009-2010, Ichi-kyū-hachi-yon). His most recent novel, 街とその不確かな壁 (Machi to sono futashika na kabe; trans. The City and Its Uncertain Walls), was released in 2023.

Murakami has also published short stories and short story collections, essays, and works of nonfiction. For his works, he received various accolades, both within and outside of Japan. Among his wards include the 1979 Gunzo Prize for New Writers for Hear the Wind Sing; the 1982 Noma Literary Prize for A Wild Sheep Chase; the 1985 Tanizaki Prize for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World; and the 19955 Yomiuri Literary Award for The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. He also received the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the 2012 Premio Ignotus, the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, the 2018 America Award in Literature, and the 2022 Prix mondial Cinco Del Duca. In 2023, he was awarded the Premio Princesa de Asturias de las Letras.

Murakami has certainly written his way up to the top echelon of today’s literary world. Because of this fascination with Western literature, he was able to distinguish himself from his contemporary Japanese writers. Aside from writing, Murakami has cemented his reputation as a serious marathon runner and triathlon enthusiast. He even completed an ultramarathon, a 100 kilometer race, in Hokkaido, Japan. He related his experiences in running in his memoir titled What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. He is currently residing in Tokyo.