This book is weird as it is brilliant. The motifs of typical Murakami novels means that you won't even have to see who wrote it after a while - if there's Alienation, Insomnia, Cyclic Realities and Dream States - It's a Murakami. After Dark is no exception - with its weird dream state realities - this novella becomes almost sublime in its explanation of the insomniac.
Characters:
Mari Asai is my favourite character. Purely because she has a brilliant sense of the night and fits right into Murakami's motif of Insomnia. She's a 19 year old student who is found in a coffee shop at midnight. It seems odd - but with Murakami's winding path of weird, it isn't actually the strangest thing that could happen.
Themes:
My favourite theme in the book is sleep. There's so much language in the book that seems to romanticise the dream state and make sleep seem like something not only sublime - but impossible to actually achieve - or distinguish from being awake. Again, Murakami's language choices for this theme make it 3D, linking it to every single part of the book.
Storyline:
The storyline - I will admit, is hard to follow, but it doesn't mean it's not intriguing. The amazement that is left in the reader after reading the book is that they can remember very little of what happens in the story - as they are constantly between dreams and reality.
Verdict:
I give this book 9.
100% for characters: All the characters just seem to fit in Murakami's strange world
100% for themes: Murakami is the king of themes to do with sleep. He could've wrote Inception
100% for storyline: The storyline is deliberately simple, and that makes the themes shine through. A brilliant Murakami trait.
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