Tokyo By Night

In Murakami8217;s novels, particular turns in the plot take characters 8212; in varying degrees 8212; to 8220;the other side8221;. Real and dream-like episodes combine not so much to create a composite plot-line, but to evoke a series of moods, a feeling that some truth is slipping away even as the characters sense that they are on the brink of illumination. In After Dark, the very fact that Murakami appears to keep the action so very real and plausible turns out to be most disturbing for those familiar with his books.

The action takes places on a single Tokyo night, between 11.56 pm and 6.52 am. As readers, we are taken to various parts of the town to follow different strands of the story. In an all-night diner in a not particularly safe neighbourhood, 19-year-old Mari is passing the hours with a book and endless cups of coffee. A remote acquaintance, a law student who has made the saddening decision that his passion for music is not matched by his skill, stops by and strikes up a conversation about their common link, her fashion model sister Eri. Eri is at home. When we visit her, we don8217;t know why she has been asleep for so long, but strange things are afoot. Her television screen, which is plugged off, comes to life and beams an image.

Meanwhile, after the musician departs for a music rehearsal, the manager of a hotel nearby comes rushing to Mari. A Chinese woman has been beaten up and deserted, and as the musician told her Mari speaks the language, would she come by and translate? And who8217;s this man caught on the surveillance camera at the hotel, whose office stationery is showing up on the television screen in Eri8217;s room? How does it all connect? Does it, in fact, connect?

Mari, the musician, the manager8230; they are all oddball characters who know that they are out of step with their world. At night, in interaction with each other, they find a notion of normalcy. 8220;Time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night,8221; a bartender tells Mari. And amidst that special passage of time, it is comforting to share secrets with kindred strangers. Though, when the musician tells Mari about the plot of 8220;an old movie8221; called Love Story, which has a happy ending, with Ryan O8217;Neal8217;s arrogant father dying, the reader wonders whether this is an alert from the author that nothing is as trustworthy as it seems.

For the reader, a familiar sense of not knowing everything is strengthened as daylight approaches. It is Murakami8217;s great skill as a storyteller that this disquiet that not all has been made sense of is actually comforting.