Murakami’s After Dark worked for me. I feared it going in, as I tend to get really angry at his short stories, as like his novels they are very outlandish, but with out the requirement of holding one’s attention for several hundred pages, I find the short stories too emphemeral. I can’t hold on to them even while reading, let alone after I put the book down.

After Dark, a novella for Murakami at less than two-hundred pages, did keep me (and really, him) linked to the story. But then the shortness of time (it takes place in a single night), and the lack of too much jumping between strange parallel universes (hey, it is still Murakami) kept things tied to reality. No really, it did.

(Oh also, really hate that cover. Wish I would have had the Vintage International paperback to match the rest of my Murakami collection)

I am a huge fan of Murakami. He is currently my favorite contemporary author. I greatly enjoyed After Dark, it is unfortunate that it is so short, but it is fitting for this novella. It details the surreal goings on in the hours between midnight and dawn, focusing in two perspectives on two sisters, Eri and Mari Asai. We follow Mari as she encounters many odd chacters who are up at these hours, and slowly reveals the reason for her sleeplessness. The line of the story that follows Eri is in classic Murakami surreal style, making references to the observers actions and throwing in a bit of the supernatural. As in many Murakami stories it feels like it could turn at any moment into a horror story but never crosses that line, leaving the reader instead with many unanswered questions (often in this story brought to the readers attention and posed directly in the narrative, as if to say I know I left you hanging, but you are just going to have to figure it out for yourself.)

Certainly not my favorite of Murakami’s works, but a quick read that will hold one over until his next (hopefully longer) book.