After Dark
By Haruki Murakami, trans. Jay Rubin
Publication Year: 2007 (originally published in Japanese in 2004)
Type: Fiction
Genre: contemporary, magical realism
Read on 2020-07-20
View additional specs on this book in Muhan’s 2020 Reading Survey ➞
★★☆☆☆
Read this as an audiobook on a couple walks at nighttime when it’s cooler and less people are out. Thought it would be fitting for a book set at nighttime about night people. Didn’t like it though lol.
This is like a John Green novel but with less of a thesis and more annoyingly obvious it’s an oblivious man writing how he thinks young women think/feel/act. Like Natsuo Kirino (specifically Grotesque) but with none of the feminist social commentary. Weirdly like Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist but with none of the charm (takes place in one night and a series of shenanigans ensue). (Yes I’m describing a Haruki Murakami novel!!) It was just very blah. The magical realism also wasn’t really all that meaningful - felt purely decorative on a story that had nothing to say.
