After Dark (Haruki Murakami)

"Time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night."

What do u do after dark, when the night falls and u know dawn will not be there for hours?

I used to be nocturnal. I enjoyed the quietness, especially at the deeper stage of night when more and more people went to bed and I was still awake. In fact, in my second year of study, I kept the habit of sleeping around 7pm so that I could wake up at 12am to concentrate on whatever tasks I was doing - be it reading or finishing up assignments. When the night was nearly over, I would either grab a quick nap or jog to recharge myself before I started to attend classes with a cup of coffee. All these changed when I got myself a roommate who slept at 10pm.

"The giant digital screens fastened to the sides of buildings fall silent as midnight approaches, but loudspeakers on storefronts keep pumping out exaggerated hip-hop bass lines. A large game centre crammed with young people; wild electronic sounds; a group of college students spilling out from a bar; teenage girls with brilliant bleached hair, healthy legs thrusting out from microminiskirts; dark-suited men racing across diagonal crossings for the last trains to the suburbs. Even at this hour, the karaoke club pitchmen keep shouting for customers. A flashy black station wagon drifts down the street as if taking stock of the district through its blacktinted windows. The car looks like a deep-sea creature with specialised skin and organs. Two young policemen patrol the street with tense expressions, but no one seems to notice them. The district plays by its own rules at a time like this. The season is late autumn. No wind is blowing, but the air carries a chill. The date is just about to change."

Most Asian cities are vibrant and bustling by day and night. The night marks another new beginning, hardly the end of a day. And Murakami has just painted a picture of what it is like as midnight approaches in Tokyo, Japan.

I had meant to read After Dark for quite some time. I was curious with the kind of stories Murakami could weave around with night (and loneliness) as the theme. However, when I finally finished it, I was left puzzled. I must admit, I couldn't seem to find the true meanings of the stories as they were vague and bizarre (especially the part where Eri Asai was imprisoned in the TV set). How does one relate to another is another thing I couldn't comprehend. For example, Shirakawa, other than being the guy who beat up the Chinese prostitute.. the kind of involvement he has with Eri Asai is never clearly conveyed. Maybe the message is there, I just failed to grasp it.

While reading After Dark, I actually listed down every piece of song Murakami mentioned in the book then played them to get a feel of the atmosphere Murakami was trying to create. And one of them is "I can't go for that" by Hall & Oates. Overall, I like Sputnik Sweetheart and Kafka on The Shore better. Having said that, I still like After Dark quite a lot. I love the characters, particularly Mari Asai who is probably representing many young people these day who are aloof, cynical and indulgent in their own way. I know I am one of them. I also like the way he writes - it is always hard to predict how the story will progress (although it remains another question whether u can truly fathom it or not).