Haruki Murakami is a Japanese author who was nominated and favourite for the Nobel Prize in Literature this year but was beaten out by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Fans of Murakami’s work such as ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘After Dark’, and ‘IQ84’ may be disappointed by this result as Murakami has been a favourite to win the prize for many years and many critics and fans thought that this was his year to win. However, for new fans of Murakami and people new to his works this may not be as big of an issue.

‘After Dark’ is my first experience of Murakami and whilst there is a variety of differing reviews with some claiming to love it and praise the novel for its use of ‘leitmotifs’ (Quarterly Conversation), enjoying the familiar themes Murakami uses in his texts; and others bashing it for being too ‘tedious’ and ‘incorrigible’ (The Millions); I personally was indifferent, neither loving it nor loathing it, I simply read it.

I initially found ‘After Dark’ interesting due to the use of an omnipresent narrator and the use of a birds eye view which pulls the reader in and out of the novel with the narrator. This technique follows the tradition of ‘Goodbye to Berlin’ by Christopher Isherwood that starts, “I am a camera with it’s shutter open’.

The clear influences from Isherwood and other self proclaimed influences like Raymond Carver, Kurt Vonnegut, and Richard Brautigan show that Murakami is strongly influenced by western literature. Murakami once stated “I am an outcast of the Japanese literary world”. This may be due to his tendency to mirror or allude to popular Western writers and include references to western culture, ‘Denny’s’, ‘Boston Red Sox’.

Murakami also uses references of the Jazz and ‘easy listening’ genre of music with mentions of artists such as Percy Faith, and Curtis Fuller; the main character Takahashi plays the trombone due to listening to ‘Five Spot After Dark’. The Jazz references are allusions to Murakami’s past as a Jazz bar owner and it has been said that his love for the ‘easy listening’ genre is why he writes his books to be ‘easy reading’.

In a previous interview Murakami stated that when he writes he tries to think of himself as a tinker, “I’d like to be a perfect tinker. So I have to write good sentences- honest and beautiful and strong sentences”. As a novice reader of Murakami’s work I cannot say in full confidence whether he has achieved that but I can say that ‘After Dark’ has some very good imagery through the words and the voice of the narrator.

Midnight is approaching and while the peak of activity has passed, the basal metabolism that maintains life continues undiminished, producing the basso continuo of the city’s moan, a monotonous sound that neither rises or falls but is pregnant with foreboding.

Also, the story transgressed boundaries between reality and dream which was enjoyable and I thought that having the chapters begin with an image of a clock depicting the passage of time throughout the night was clever and reminded me of the graphic novel ‘Watchmen’.

However, once I’d gotten over the interest of reading a style of writing I’d never read before, I found it irritating as a reader who enjoys getting engrossed in the character’s life without being too involved myself and by being addressed constantly through the narrator I found it difficult to get past my irritation and continue reading and if what other critics say about Murakami’s work being similar in style and structure I may not be rushing to read another one.

So even though Murakami didn’t win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He can take solace in the fact that his novels are widely enjoyed and critically acclaimed, ‘After Dark’ wasn’t the worst book I’ve read but certainly not the best and that there’s a good chance he may win the prize next year.