Book Review: After Dark

Downloaded on my Kindle. I got bored with David Brooks' The Road to Character (found in the bookcase of our co-op's basement for free) which was too much like a lecture, so I stopped and downloaded this short Haraki Murakami novel. I was intrigued by the premise of a group of interconnected characters floating around Tokyo's night world. I thought it would be about underworld intrigue and there is an element of that with a Chinese prostitute getting beaten up by a john, an otherwise "normal" business man. But the bulk of the story concerns a teenage girl meeting a musician at an all-night Denny's and sharing their sense of alienation in typical cryptic Murakami fashion. The girl's sister sleeps all day and night and the guy feels rootless. They reach out to each other and to the staff at a "love hotel" where couples shack up for a quick roll in the sheets. Something sweet and charming about it despite the unsavory atmosphere.