Sunday, December 11, 2011

After Dark - Haruki Murakami

Every time I think I have read all Murakami books that are available to me, I discover another one that I missed. Somehow this book was one of those that had gotten away from me, and I hadn't previously read it, so finishing up the Haruki Murakami Challenge by reading it was perfect. I was able to read this book quite a bit faster than any of his others - I'm not sure if it was the length in general (just under 200 pages), or the specific writing style/language choices (and I realize these are both heavily influenced by the translator), or if the writing was more compact and less dense than in one of his longer books. I am a "night person," I feel alive at night and I prefer to be out and about in cities when it's dark outside, because I like the energy caused by the electric lights that keep the dark at bay - if that makes any sense - so it was easy for me to imagine the events in this book as they took place, and made the characters stand out against the setting in my mind. I very much enjoyed this book, I think it will live in my head for a long time. Highly recommended.

In other Murakami-related news, I believe I will be receiving a copy of 1Q84 from Santa Claus/St. Nicholas/Pere Noel/Ded Moroz/Sinterklaas etc. this year, and I really looking forward to that!

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