About this title: "After Dark" is a short, sleek novel that features various encounters set in the witching hours of Tokyo between midnight and dawn, and is every bit as gripping as Murakami's masterworks "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" and "Kafka on the Shore."
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780307265838ISBN:0307265838
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780307265838ISBN:0307265838
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Good. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners. Spine has wear at edges. Dust jacket has some wear. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780307278739ISBN:0307278735
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. good clean pages fast shipping delivery with confimation number. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 244 p. Contains: Illustrations. Vintage International (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780739489062ISBN:0739489062
Description: Good+ with no dust jacket; Light cover wear, mild edge wear. Binding tight, text clean. A Little Store that's BIG on Service. 0739489062; 14671. 191 pages; D-2-14-09. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008-04-29
ISBN-13:9780307278739ISBN:0307278735
Description: Good. Paperback ARC book with plain cover and publisher stickers. Save some $$$. Perfectly Good Reading Copy. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780739489062ISBN:0739489062
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 191 pgs in vg reading condition w/slight wear on edges; cover has slight wear on edges, no crease in spine. read more
Description: Good. B001AX0BL4 Paperback with moderate shelf-wear, rubbing, fraying, tears, fading, chipping, creasing and bumping to the cover, edges, corners, and spine. The spine is slightly cocked. Inside pages are free from underlining, note taking, and/or highlighting. Book is in stock and ready to ship same or next business day. ELIGIBLE FOR! Buy with confidence! Please leave feedback after your purchase. It helps other buyers know we are a responsible and reliable seller. Thank you! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780307278739ISBN:0307278735
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Anchor Pub
Date Published: 2008-04-29
ISBN-13:9780307278739ISBN:0307278735
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780307278739. read more
"I have read 9 of Murakami's novels and to be honest, I've loved every single one, although, perhaps not instantly.
This is one that took me a little while to really get into. It is set during one night in Tokyo. Mari, the main character, is a quiet and intelligent girl who is, for reasons not yet revealed to us, sitting in an all night eatery, reading a book. Kaoru is a young guy in a band, who knows of Mari through her sister.
The book follows the actions of Mari. Her only interactions in the book are with Kaoru and with the owner and staff of a love hotel, and a Chinese prostitute. Mari connects all of the people together, but we rarely see other characters interacting.
The book also follows Mari's sister Eri, who is sound asleep. When the chapter is focusing on Eri, the narration changes and explains to the reader that "We are point of view only"
The whole novel is narrated in a way that gives the reader a vague feeling of voyeurism which is both uncomfortable and strangely enthralling.
As the previous review has stated, there is no resolution to the story, only the information which we have recieved.
Although it took me a while to get into, I actually loved it. The characters are enigmatic and interesting and the novel seems to take us through a Tokyo night like a very quiet and disjointed guided tour.
I would recomend it to people who have read other Murakami novels and know the kind of thing to expect!"
"As with Murakami's other books, I am not sure what to take away from this novel of Tokyo nightlife. Two characters out of the cast of the novel interact and the rest simply exist in the same night. It is obscure and unsettling to read -- don't expect resolution."
"After Dark is the first book by Haruki Murakami that I've read. I was warned by many that I would not enjoy it. But they're all delusional and wrong.
After Dark isn't a traditional novel. It isn't a plot driven story and in fact, not much actually happens. After Dark takes place in Tokyo over a period of seven hours. It begins with Mari Asai, sitting and reading her book in a Denny's in the middle of the night. An old acquaintance sees her and reacquaints himself. The boy, Takahashi, eats at Mari's table and volunteers information about himself. He is going to a late-night practice down the street - he plays the trombone. It is her fateful meeting with Takahashi that sets off a chain of events. Without meeting Takahashi, Mari would have stayed at the Denny's until morning, reading her book and ordering food or coffee every couple of hours to justify her presence. Instead she has ended up at a love-hotel trying to save a prostitute. But this isn't the "mystery" part of the story. The actual mystery in the story is right in front of you from the beginning, presented in the most bizarre way.
Reading this book felt like a dream. Murakami often addresses the reader directly, "we." He narrates part of the story as though the reader and writer are both a camera viewing the scene. It pulls you into the plot - confusing you at first - but like any dream, you just go with it. The place it took me was unexpected.
A flaw that I found with the novel was the conversations between characters. Often the dialogue between Mari and Takahashi lacked a human feel to it. It felt like he attempted to shove too much information into pieces of the dialogue. The ending of the story also left me a little worried. The revenge of the abused prostitute was never realized and thereby left out. Did someone punish the man that did such horrible things to her? Will Mari ever see Takahashi again? Does he even really like her? The note of hope that the book ends on left me only partly convinced.
I'm told that this book is not indicative of Murakami's style - that this book was "experimental." I look forward to reading more of him because this book, though it had its flaws, was a worthwhile read. It felt like a hallucination."
"I found this one really compelling--I find Murakami generally fascinating. His odd slant on contemporary culture--both Japanese and American, or maybe really world culture--is fascinating, unsettling and strangling satisfying. It begins with an encounter in Denny's (Murakami is fascinated with American pop culture) between two college students, a girl who's quietly reading in order to avoid going home and a guy who's off to practice with the band where he plans trombone-in a old warehouse they can use only at night. They begin talking about chicken salad-his favorite at Denny's. She's skeptical-chickens are abused and full of hormones; he's surprised at her health concerns since she's smoking. These two-Mari and Takahashi--are the focus of the narrator's commentary at different times during the night, basically between midnight and dawn in Tokyo. We learn that Mari is studying Chinese, has a scholarship to study in China, and that her beautiful sister-with whom she's been compared unfavorably all her life-has been sleeping for weeks, apparently healthy but avoiding the world. Takahashi loves music, but has decided to concentrate seriously on his law studies so that he can get a pretty good job at a pretty good company and live in a pretty good house with a pretty good family in a-well you get the idea. They encounter each other and talk several times during the night, getting to know one another and relating to each other with increasing authenticity. In the meantime we encounter a Chinese prostitute who's been raped and beaten in the Alphaville "love hotel", and the seemingly respectable computer expert (who lives in a pretty good neighborhood with a pretty good family) who's responsible, and we meet those who work at Alphaville at night. It's a simple story really-increasingly real people navigating an increasingly unreal world."
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