Review: After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Today, in January Magazine’s fiction section, David Dalgleish reviews After Dark by Haruki Murakami. Says Dalgleish:

All of After Dark takes place during the course of a single night, starting moments before midnight and ending at dawn. The plot -- or, rather, the series of linked encounters which make up the book, which is more about atmosphere and personality than story -- is kicked off by a random encounter between Mari and Takahashi, a chatty and endearing young musician who remembers meeting her once before and draws her into a long conversation. From this chance meeting, Murakami’s prowling camera follows Mari as she is drawn into various meetings with denizens of Tokyo’s night world: an ex-female wrestler who manages a love hotel, a young woman on the run from a shady past, a Chinese prostitute. In parallel, we witness scenes of Mari’s beautiful and emotionally troubled sister, lost in a deep, ominous sleep and in danger of being swallowed up by an enigmatic nocturnal force, and a superficially normal salaryman who is capable of brutality.

The full review is here.