Once you have read Haruki Murakami, encountering his work again you will find that you immediately know in whose hands you are placed; Murakami's work is unmistakable.
There is of course, always, a quiet and respectful Japanese flavour that is the natural consequence of both a Japanese author and a book originally written in the Japanese Language.
Murakami's art lies in his descriptions of the simple details of the general life of a modern Japanese people juxtaposed against bizarre happenings straight out of a dream sequence, and the simplicity of expression that allows for ease of comprehension when Murakami takes you on a strange wander through his out-of-this-world narrative. Having said this, A Murakami Novel is never predictable.
In Murakami's After Dark we follow the lives of four people: two sisters - Eri and Mari, a jazz musician, and the owner of a whore house. Most of what occurs is not extraordinary, but is in fact quite ordinary. However, there are elements that pull and pluck at the story: an ever-present backdrop has Eri sleeping deeply almost coma-like for two months, and as we read, is still sleeping. As a distraction from the mesmerising nature of the story-line, we, as observers, and the sleeping Eri, are allowed, occasionally, the capability of moving through TV screens to another room, and reflections in mirrors linger on some time after we have left. We also get the feeling in this, one of Murakami's shorter novels, that we are presented with a string of scenes from a movie, in fact Murakami has included techniques to ensure we approach the book this way.
This stepping away from the traditional structure of a novel is typical of Murakami and could see him labeled as a science fiction novelist, certainly it ensures his inclusion as a meta-fiction novelist. It is the anti-structural elements that we love about Murakami's work, along with his engaging, dreamlike presentation of what seem like mundane lives.
From start to finish we are lead willingly and trustingly on a path exploring connections between characters but we ultimately never truly discover what the importance of that connection is. But, if we are so easily allowing non-traditional elements in the structure to occur, we must also allow ourselves to ponder eerie dead ends, and so, we forgive Murakami for leaving us, in a sense, left hanging out on our own, don't we?
It has been said that After Dark is not one of Murakami's best work, however, it may be that the way we interpret After Dark depends on what we personally bring to it, if we are expecting to be spoon-fed we may feel let down, if we bring our own sense of wonder and are prepared to engage it is quite likely we will be delighted.
Haruki Murakami's After Dark was written in 2004 and was translated into English in 2007 by Jay Rubin.
