You'll know it's Murakami from the very first page
350506
If you're already a Murakami fan, you will likely love the book as much as I did. The style is unmistakable and, as always, beautiful in its deceptive simplicity. Although there's nothing magical (a la Wild Sheep Chase or Kafka on the Shore), there's plenty of dark and spooky to go around. It's not a perfect book, but it's a welcome return from the self-indulgent 1Q84.
3006735
It's so hard to live up to your early masterworks. "Wind up Bird Chronicle" was a brilliancy, and many of his books that came afterwards while still fun to read where always a bit of a let down in comparison.

With "After Dark" Murakami returns to his masterful form. This book is short but each line is near perfect--there is no literary flab. Murakami's writing has been honed to a fine edge. The characters are recognizably Murakami, but still unique and wonderful and you not only want to spend the night in their company, you want to follow them through the upcoming days as well. Alas, like the night in the book, it ends too soon. Yet we feel we have stayed up with them throughout and when its over an ethereal barb remains in the reader.

I look forward to his next book and I'm glad to see Murakami back in top form.
422402
Wow. Just...wow. I finished this novel about 10 minutes ago and I'm only now able to put it down and enter the real world again. This is one of the best novels, if not THE best, I have ever had the pleasure to read. Many people here say it, and they are all right: Murakami is a genius. Everything about this work was perfect or near perfect. It has amazing insights into the problems of existance that are as profound as any philosophical text, yet it doesn't (as so many so-called Postmodern novels do) sacrafice plot to do this. Rather, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle has, quite possibly, the best plot in any contemporary novel. No one except a psychic schizophrenic could predict what will happen next. And yet is all fits together beautifully. It reads as a literary representaion of the chaotic order of current philosophical thought. Amazing, amazing book. I haven't encountered an author who shocked me this much since Nabokov and Lolita. I know I'm rambling right now, but I can't help it. READ THIS BOOK. It will change every perspective you have on life. I know it did mine.
2690771
H. Murakami is brillant.  His prose is excellent and knowing this is a translation from Japanese into English makes it even better.  The characters are all well written and the way he brings Aomame and Tengo together, the little people and the widow.  The two moons, the ending, brillant.  I couldn't put it down, I had tocontinue reading!!!
1258728
Murakami is really an excellent storyteller. With a vivid imagination and subtle touches of fantasy, both in characters and in situations, he knows how to grab the attention and interest of the reader.
684526
This, out of the many many Murakami books I have read, connected with me the most. Murakami's works tend to be like variations on a theme. Sometimes different elements of the theme pop out at you.....I have read other reviews that compared this book to Norwegian Wood, and in some ways that is an apt comparison. Both are stories that take place more or less in reality, without any mystical elements, or dream logic. That said, I feel that this is the most balanced book he has written. I think anyone can read this and connect to a point in their past where they had a connection with someone that inexplicably faded over time or was suddenly severed...but from time to time is still on their mind. The book is deeply rooted in examining your past and the way you interact with the world. It made a lot of sense to me. I loved it, though would probably not recommend it to most of my friends. If you have a taste for melancholy, self examination, isolation, and nostalgia...then this might be a good book for you.
2404248
It is rare to find an author who perfectly encapsulates in art one's perception of a place or time.  Murakami does that for me with Japan, where I lived for 2 years.  He portrays that strange country as utterly lacking in inspiration, brutally crushing to any spirit of individuality, and full of cruel and meaningless obligations imposed from above.  It is, in my view, unerringly accurate and perceptive, while deeply sad as I knew many people like those here but who would never be capable of articulating their ennui.  These stories perfectly blend mundane detail with horrific violence and nihilism, in a mother who decides she longer needs to sleep to a man who has quit his job as a legal clerk walking in his backyard.  The reality behind these characters and scenes - so black and yet so apparently normal - are believable to anyone who has lived and worked in Japan, though certainly not to tourists or other casual observers.  As such, I believe that Murakami has done for modern Japan what Balzac and Zola did for 19th C France:  the quality is that high, as is the irony and humor that permeates his work.  I loved it, but it takes a strong stomach.
Highly recommended.
2069217
WOW. The author guides you through a complex plot with great literary skill. Many of the characters are fascinating and the plot is interwoven with their individual stories. If you simply read the account of Lieutenant Mamiya and the chucked the rest of the book, it would be worth it. But read the whole thing, for  Mr. Murakami is a master storyteller. I know this is one book I'll read again and gain completely new insights as I do.
3168015
This has to be one of my all time favorite books ever have read. I haven't read a lot of books lately, and that's ONLY because none ever kept my interest as well as Murakami has. I finished this 400 page book in 2 1/2 days!! The translation from the original jps version is excellent down to the core. If you never imagined what kind of life it would have been if born from a Coin Locker back in those days (sadly enough woman did do that when they didn't want their child), this book is sure to give you a run for your money. It is like a Psychotic and gothic book at the same time. Giving you dark images that almost seem *impossible* not to imagine and make you think some off the wall thoughts. A person, like me/you can get inspired to do/for many things. One of his best if not #1.
1497084
Either you are a fan of Murakami or you are not. I love his strange novels. This is the long awaited release of his first 2 novels. They did not disappoint.
3764844
I read this because I love Murakami. I had never heard of the Tokyo gas attacks, and now am frankly pretty surprised it had never come up in the US.

Anyhow, Murakami mostly stays out of his subjects' ways in the first portion of the book. He lets survivors speak for themselves and neither he nor the translator make many intrusions, unless it's to clarify some detail (usually the translator notes are for people like me who don't have any background knowledge about the attacks).

It's really interesting to see how people viewed the same situation differently--there are several times when one survivor will describe a person that later tells their own story of the event, and both are pretty different. Despite this being a really cool perspective, it can get a tiny bit repetitive, but it's worth it to stick it out and finish the book.

The last section of the book is Murakami's reflections on what the gas attacks meant in the broader context of Japanese society and interviews with ex and current Aum members. During this, he waxes philosophical about his own complex relationship with his home country. As a western fan who has never visited Japan I found this fascinating. It's easy to pick up on themes feeling isolated or like something is wrong in your society (or the way you relate to it) in his other books, but it was very interesting to see him speak directly about these thoughts.

He's more intrustive in the Aum section, which I actually appreciate--his anger at the naive beleifs that led to so many deaths is palpable, and most of his interviewees don't shrink back from it.

Overall, a really good read if you're interested in Japan, terrorism, cults or just Haruki Murakami.
224933
I have read all of Murakami's novels. His understanding of people and his poetry and skill somehow continue to grow.  A  story which can make you see a different world.
1814163
I really enjoyed this novel, and I think its one of Murakamis more accessible works.  If you haven't tried reading Murakami before, this would be a great place to start.  Although the novel is 400 pages, the book is designed in a small format, so it's really more like 200 pages (very different from 1Q84, which was a doorstop of a novel). As you would expect with any Murikami novel, there are some surreal elements here, but they are quite minimal (unlike Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) and not at all difficult to assimilate into the narrative.  Most of the story is straightforward, and I was surprised that the plot is actually pretty suspenseful at times.  The novel raises many questions and doesnt answer all of them.  Im still wondering about the ending and that's the sign of a good novel for me.
4533739
Reading Murakami is a very different and marvelous `chore'. 1Q84 is, despite of its 900 plus pages, a gripping story that I could not put down - probably the best novel I've read in about a year. Incredible and indescribable. Highly recommended. Storytelling from a master storyteller. WOW.
2787931
Dear fellow Amazon readers, if you have not already done so, treat yourself to this Haruki Murakami masterwork at once.
1185498
"After Dark" is Murakamis ode to the night. The author creates a new reality within Tokyo where he spent the most of his life. Here, Tokyo appears as a blend of cultural backgrounds and a sad testament to the homogeneity of modern-day countries. Throughout the novel, the topic of duality arises in not only the city, which seems to be a mixture of western cultures, but also as the characters who live and act in completely different ways from each other. The author hovers above the city and captures the characters lives in a unique and revealing way, as if through lens of a camera. Just before midnight he zooms in on a nineteen-year-old Mari Asai who sits alone at Dennys waiting for the night to pass. A chain of unexpected visitors approach her and slowly drag her into a mysterious crime-drama that has taken place earlier at the love-hotel down the road. Throughout the duration of a single night, Murakamis masterpiece succeeds in creating a window into the lives of people we get to know so well. Our presence stays unnoticed during their dialogs and deep personal talks, and we quietly follow them through the dark streets all the way to the dawn.
754871
No need to extoll this masterpiece, just some hints
on how a lowbrow sci-fi-trophic type like me became a
Murakami addict and loved it.  Basically, start with
Hard Boiled Wonderland and work backwards, then forwards.
By the time you get to this gem, you'll appreciate
the rock-garden clarity of a single supernatural
moment embedded in the best of assimilible
Americanisms - the hardboiled detective-by-default
(The Long Goodbye) who has almost succeeded in expunging
his own self, as he investigates the mysterious
unreachable waif-woman (Raise High the Roof Beam
Carpenters), and the more mysterious, more unreachable
wonder-woman who is her unintentional yet supremely
sophisticated lover (The Lyre of Orpheus).