Book Review: After Dark isn't mentioned as often as Haruki Murakami's other books, but should be. This book was short, odd, voyeuristic, magical, and never ceased to entertain and absorb. Written in the first person plural, as if a film script or following the ghost of Christmas present, we watch a young woman embarking into life, her beautiful sister who sleeps on in a techno-fairy tale, a young musician who's facing his own life events, and the evil found in the dark twisted mind of a married salaryman. Certain sections of After Dark, such as the discussions between the young woman and the musician, seem all too real, while other sections, some very brief, are Haruki Murakami making magical realism or a modern fable or fairy tale. The structure of the book is a series of moments throughout a night with one or more of our four avatars, where an event occurs, and very little happens, and it all ties together in some dimension that intellectually we don't quite comprehend, but we understand emotionally. In the end that's what I enjoyed most about After Dark: I didn't have to fully understand it to get it -- Haruki Murakami is writing more for your heart and soul than your mind. And the translation by Jay Rubin is smooth and practically transparent; I like when I don't have to think about the translation. His 11th novel, this isn't one of Murakami's larger or more ambitious efforts, full of fantastical creatures and incredible events, but it is modern. Here he had a tale to tell, and he tells it wonderfully. [4 Stars]
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