After Dark | eNotes Essentials

Haruki Murakami’s After Dark is a story about a handful of people in varying stages of loss. Their lives are intertwined in strange ways as they intersect for a few minutes here and there, visiting with one another in the course of one night, between dawn and dusk. In their conversations with one another, secrets unfold. When it is time to part, it appears that most of them avoid going home because of loneliness, bad memories, or a reluctance to face their thoughts.

The subconscious, the landscape of dreams, is a very conspicuous ingredient in Murakami’s writing. Therefore, like many of Murakami’s novels, the overall feel of After Dark is very dreamlike. In one sequence, a young woman sleeps and the narrator watches, trying to enter the woman’s dreams. In another sequence, a young Chinese prostitute is caught in a nightmare-like reality from which she believes she cannot escape.

Murakami presents his characters in the moment, revealing very little about their pasts. Much of the story is told as if the reader is eavesdropping on conversations, picking up pieces of information about the characters from what they decide to share with one another. When the author presents a character who is alone, it is as if the narrator is eavesdropping, speculating about the character’s actions and wondering about his or her thoughts, leaving the reader only half filled-in about what is happening.

By the end of the story, readers feel as if they just met some interesting people but are left guessing about who the characters are and what their story is all about, just like a sleeper suddenly awakened, trying to retain the hazy remnants of a dream.