13 February 2008

haruki murakami's after dark.


Another dynamite piece by Murakami. Addictive, each sentence leaves you hungry and I found myself battling to read slower so that his delicious words would last.

after dark
is peculiarly lucid in its depiction of Tokyo's pre-dawn creeping- Denny's, 7-Eleven- Love Ho's (love hotel) are all central to the character's everyday existence- venues of convenience that mold a mentality and sub- culture in this Tokyo neighborhood. A train that strands the people between certain hours- left to exist with these elements...An empty yogurt container, a deep commitment to gingerly examining expiration dates on milk-cartons. Pre-packaged tuna sandwiches and a TV special on ocean creatures...

After finishing this novel on the F-Train home- crammed with commuters- barging through a soft and creamy metropolitan blizzard- I stepped off into a process of sliding down the Slope- through determined Brooklyn fathers- shoving snow into the streets, considering Murakami's perception of sleep in culture. Throughout many of his works he toys with the concepts of character's relationship to sleep, how it shapes their lives and ultimately becomes an element of mystery and control that they have no influence over.

Additionally...Murakami uses cats- physical description- as well as their interactions with the people in his literature to communicate metaphor, and ultimately a layered meaning.

What is most curious to me- is that there are all translations from Japanese. I consider what may have been lost, but also what may have been gained?

4 comments:

Max Abramowitz said...

Can you change the color of the text. Google reader has a white background it is difficult to read.

Max.

Unknown said...

Any better?

When will you be in the office? You are missed.

vadim said...

must read more murakami <3 tell max he shouldn't make you sacrifice your art for his convenience!

Unknown said...

that's Max's style. it's all about max fax :x