After Dark by Haruki Murakami

One of the problems with having an extensive "To Be Read" list (mine is over 1600) is that books can stay on the list for so long that you forget why you added them in the first place. It has happened many times. I pick up a book that's on the list and read the description. It doesn't sound like something I would read. How did it get on the list? Did somebody suggest it? Did I read a review?

That's how this book was.

I was afraid from the description that it would be too violent (I'm shying away from violence since the whole American Psycho fiasco) and too dark for me to enjoy. I was wrong.

After Dark takes place in Tokoyo on one night between about midnight and 7AM. The main character is Mari. Mari is a student and a bit anti-social. We meet her in a Denny's when she is approached by Takahashi, a trombonist who once went on a double date with Mari. Mari doesn't recall him but Takahashi recalls that she didn't talk much but swam with abandon. This chance meeting moves the night forward. A manager of a love hotel, Kaoru, asks for Mari's help with a Chinese prostitute who has been beaten and robbed. The people who work in the love hotel are each different and interesting.

The most disturbing parts occur in Eri's room. Eri is sound asleep and The Man with No Face is watching her from her television. The strange events that occur while she sleeps were a little unsettling and I couldn't wait to get past these chapters and into the more solid ones.

I'm glad that I occasionally read something on my list. This was a great book and well worth my time.