Alexey Popov Popov itibaren Madanpura, Rajasthan, הודו
Probably made sense in its time, I guess? Because it doesn't now.
I've always enjoyed Murakami's long fiction, his surreal, serpentine plots, his casts of bizarre characters, the deep histories that his protagonists always find themselves treading in. His short fiction, however, has always felt somewhat dispensable, more like idea generators than self-contained works. After Dark certainly doesn't feel like a Murakami novel, but more so, it doesn't seem like a novel at all. It makes more sense as a novella. Two of the novel's themes are the fleeting knowledge we have of the people we meet, and the strange balance we feel between wanting anonymity and wanting to be known. Thus, we meet some interesting characters at junctions of crisis, but where they go and who they are the next day is left unknown to us. While this fits the ideological framework of the story, it left me feeling unsatisfied, simply because I saw the potential of the story go largely unrealized. It's nowhere near as complex as Kafka on the Shore or The Wind Up Bird Chronicles, but for what it is, After Dark is a short, decent read.