Information of the Book
Haruki Murakami’s 12th long novel, but this content is a novelette in fact.
Form, Style & Structure
An experimental 18 chapters long novel describes occurrences during midnight by the objective third-person viewpoint. And each part is attached to pictures of a clock, and it shows the passage of time. Each chapter is basically divided by the episodes of Mari Asai, Eri Asai, Kaoru and Shirakawa.
The original Japanese hardcover edition is 294 paged book. But substantial content or plot of this novel is a novelette, and it isn’t the grand narrative. This novel only describes very long midnight occurrences during 7 hours.
Each plot progresses simultaneously and each plot and episode connect directly or indirectly in real or metaphorical meanings. It may signify fragmental connections and information in the internet space.
Characters
Mari Asai (1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18) – A boyish, quiet, plain and innocent girl with grey parka, blue jeans, yellow sneaker, varsity jacket, black-rimmed glasses, brown leather shoulder bag, Boston Red Sox cap and short black hair. A freshman of the University of Foreign Studies can speak Chinese and would study abroad in China. She couldn’t adapt to primary schools, so she went to a school for Chinese kids in Yokohama, so she can speak Chinese. She was going to study abroad in Beijing as an exchange student next Monday from the time of this story, until next June.
Eri Asai (2, 4, 8, 10, 11, 14, 16, 18) – The older sister of Mari. A beautiful, dainty, nervous and long black-haired girl and a university student of a private university studied sociology, and she was already modeling for magazines in middle school. She had a contrastive personality to Mari. Somehow she slept all the time in her bed for 2 months. It wasn’t a medical disorder, she sometimes used a toilet, ate meals and took a shower.
Tetsuya Takahashi (1, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 17) – An ex-classmate of Eri Asai, a university student and a lanky young man with short black leather coat, wrinkled olive-green chinos, brown work boots and long tangled hair. He played jazz trombone but quitted performing music, and determined to study law seriously.
Kaoru (3, 5, 6) – The manager of a love hotel, Alphaville. A large, solidly constructed and strong-looking woman. She had been a professional wrestler who played bad girl, but she hurt her back so she retired at twenty-nine years old.
Komugi (3, 6) – An employee of Alphaville. A young woman with red hair, an oversized pink T-shirt and jeans with holes. Komugi means wheat in Japanese, but it’s her real name.
Korogi (3, 6, 15) – Another employee of Alphaville, speaks in the Kansai or the Osakan dialect. Korogi means cricket in Japanese, but it’s not her real name. She used to be a usual office worker in Osaka, but the Great Hanshin Earthquake changed her surroundings and mind.
Guo Dongli (3) – A 19 years old Chinese girl, a prostitute and probably an illegal alien with black long hair and a beautiful body was probably the same age as Mari. She was resorted to violence and robbed everything by her “customer”. Probably, she was brought by a Chinese gang from Old Manchuria.
A man of Chinese Agent (3, 6, 9, 12) – A man around thirty with reddish dyed hair ponytail and sharp eyes, rides a big Honda sports bike, wears a full-face helmet and a tight-fitting black leather jacket. He appeared Alphaville to pick up Dongli. His passing Mari and Takahashi, and Shirakawa, implies accidental connections and encounters in the internet.
Man with No Face (2, 4, 8, 10) – A mysterious man wore a dark brown business suit with a perfectly fitted transplant mask. He shut into Mari the room in a TV screen.
Shirakawa (6, 7, 12, 14, 16) – A typical office worker who worked at an office of a high-tech company near Alphaville. Also, the man ruined Dongli, robbed her belongings and he ran away completely. He may be around forty years old and has certain intelligence and good humour.
Bartender (5) – A middle-aged or old man, a bartender of a bar near Alphaville and an acquaintance of Kaoru, who loves LP records of Jazz.
Uncle of Mari (5)
Taxi Driver (12)
Locations
Shibuya
Hiyoshi
Koenji – A suburban town in Tokyo, Tetsuya Takahashi lived. (1)
Tetsugakudo, Ekoda – The place Shirakawa’s home is in. (12)
Places
Denny’s – Family Restaurant (1, 3)
Hotel swimming pool in Shinagawa – Eri, Mari, Tetsuya and his buddy (boyfriend of Mari) met there two years ago. (2)
Eri’s Room (2, 4, 18) – A Room in which Eri Asai slept.
Alphaville (3, 6, 15, 16) – A love hotel is in Shibuya named by Jean-Luc Godard’s movie Alphaville, and Alphaville is a kind of dystopia, so it’s a kind of irony.
A room in the TV screen (4, 8 , 10, 14) – The room in the TV of Eri’s room. It resembles the office where Shirakawa was working, there’s no furniture and equipment and only the bed of Eri existed. It seems to be the world of Eri’s unconsciousness rejected people and the real world.
A small bar (5)
Skylark (5, 9)
Office of Shirakawa (VERITECH) (7, 12)
7-Eleven convenience store (7, 12, 18) – The convenience store in which Takahashi bought a pack of milk, an apple and a fishcake, Shirakawa bought a carton Takanashi low-fat milk and a large plastic container of yogurt, and placed the cell phone of Dongli next to packs of cheese. It is a typical third place and a point of network.
Tokyo District Court in Kasumigaseki (9)
A small narrow park (11, 13, 16)
Tower Records (11)
the drab storage basement (16) – The band of Takahashi was allowed to practice at night.
Music
Percy Faith and his Orchestra – Go Away Little Girl (1)
Curtis Fuller – Five Spot After Dark (1)
Burt Bacharach – The April Fools (1)
Martin Denny – More (3)
Ben Webster – My Ideal (5)
Duke Ellington – Sophisticated Lady (5)
Pet Shop Boys – Jealousy (5)
Hall and Oates – I Can’t Go for That (5)
Bach piano piece, Ivo Pogorelich performs the English Suites (7)
Francis Ray (9)
Scarlatti cantata sung by Brian Asawa (12)
A new song by the Southern All Stars (12)
Sonny Rollins’s – Sonnymoon for Two (16)
Sagao Shika – Bomb Juice (16)
Japanese hip-hop (18)
Cultural Things on This Novel
Mutsuo Aida (3)
Alphaville (5)
Blade Runner (6)
Edward Hopper Loneliness (7)
Love Story starred Ryan O’Neil (9)
Key Elements
Music – Music in this novel implies and produces flowing of the time. Pop music and easy listening music imply the ordinary and vulgar mood of contemporary Japanese city sceneries and the American management system of third places. Jazz music implies a warm atmosphere and a slow flowing of the time in midnight and the bar. Classical music produces a businesslike and solemn scene of an office.
Five Spot After Dark by Curtis Fuller (1) – Tetsuya first heard the recording and Curtis Fuller’s performance, it hit his heart, he felt trombone is the instrument for him, so he started to play it. And, the title identifies the story and the state of this story.
intellectual curiosity (1) – The keyword of entire this novel. This novel is described by the view of a collective intellectual curiosity.
Television (2, 4, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16) – A entrance to the world of unconsciousness. And a thing synchronizes spaces in the world, the same as clocks.
Boston Red Sox navy blue baseball cap (1)
Trombone – A instrument for a low-key guy. (1)
Adidas faded-green jersey (3) – A product of a German brand. And green is the colour of West Germany.
security-camera (6)
To truly create something (9)
A pencil with an eraser was stamped the name VERITECH (10)
A metaphorical sense (11)
Aspects of the interrelationship of thought and action (14)
Thought & Philosophy
In chapter 8, Tetsuya bought a carton of milk and an apple. To take milk and apple is an essential, fundamental and healthy act for human. It may be a privately resistance to the efficient and mechanical convenience store system and americanism. And he wears an orange Swatch made in Swiss.
Synopsis
At autumn midnight, in Shibuya, a 19 years old boyish and innocent girl, a student of the University of Foreign Studies, Mari Asai was reading a thick book at Denny’s. Her sister’s ex-classmate Tetsuya Takahashi found her and shared the table with her. Then Kaoru, the manager of a love hotel, Alphaville, got her to speak and help a Chines prostitute girl, Dongli who was ruined and robbed of her belongings.
Simultaneously, Mari’s older sister Eri Asai who had been slept for two months was shut into the room in a TV screen by the Man with No Face, and suffered meaningless violence…
Mari had grown by to come across night people, Takahashi, Kaoru, Korogi and a bartender. In the morning she got back home, got into Eri’s bed…
Plots & Episodes
A. ari Asai spent a midnight in a city
B. Eri Asai in her room with a Man with No Face
C. Kaoru
D. Shirakawa
Impressive Scenes
Summaries, Keywords & Comments of Each Chapters
1
11:56 P. M.
The view like a high-flying bird looked over a city from above, then approached the ground and described the appearances of an amusement district and people.
eyes of a high-flying night bird ; single gigantic creature ; single collective entity
In Denny’s, Mari Asai, a boyish and quiet girl, sat alone at a four-person table, read a thick hardback book and smoked cigarettes. She seemed to hope for the time passing faster.
anonymous and interchangeable
A lanky young man with a big trombone case approached Mari and he ratrher forced to shared with table with her. And he ordered chicken salad and crispy toast. So Mari explained the cruelty of breeding chickens. They talked the meeting at a hotel pool at Shinagawa, Tetsuya’s deep scar on his right cheek and a not-enough crispy toast made by Japanese industriousness and high-tech culture.
chicken salad ; George Orwell ; peach melba ; Japanese industriousness and high-tech culture and the market principles ; of what value is a civilisation ; intellectual curiosity ; low-key guy ; side dish ; Chinese (language) ; name
- Tetsuya’s critique to the crispy toast implies the Japanese economic and business system and technology are influenced by it of the United States, and Japanese uniquely and highly developed it. But they should use it and live in it.
- Tetsuya’s words “low-key guy” and “side dish” impliy main characters of this novel, Mari, Tetsuya and Kaoru are not the heroine or hero type.
Then Tetsuya said Mari and Eri have wildly different personalities, despite they are born to the same parents and grew up in the same household. Then Tetsuya talked about a story about three brothers in Hawaii. Moreover Tetsuya explained why he plays trombone. When he left the Denny’s to go to a practice of his band, he left a memo of the number of his cellphone.
some kind of moral ; curiosity ; Hiyoshi ; Koenji ; trombone ; Five Spot After Dark ; Tower of Power
2
11:57 P. M.
The camera or our viewpoint watched Eri Asai was sleeping in her room. She slept deeply and unusually. The camera captured Eri’s highly decorated room.
threshold that separates the organic from the inorganic ; enveloped in warm wax ; digital clock
At 0:00 TV screen of Eri’s room begun to flicker and unstably shaped something. The screen shows a room like a classroom, in which only an old wooden chair existed. And a rather thin man with dark clothing sat on the chair, and something was about to happen in the room.
something of great significance
3
12:25 A. M.
Mari still sat down at the seat of Denny’s and read the thick book. A large and solidly constructed woman, an acquaintance of Tetsuya, Kaoru approached Mari, she asked Mari that she can speak Chinese and come with her to help a Chinese girl in a mess. And Mari and Kaoru left Denny’s and Kaoru paid the bill.
deeper stage of night ; vegetable sandwich ; laptop ; text-messaging ; cellphone ; don’t want to sleep ; Chinese
Mari and Kaoru reached a love hotel, Alphaville. Kaoru introduced her employee Komugi and Korogi to Mari. Mari met a Chinese girl was resorted to violence, Guo Dongli, and talked with her at a guest room. They left the room for another customer, Mari helped Dongli put a thin bathrobe.
love hotel ; Alphaville ; lots of different business in the world
They went to the hotel office. Kaoru treated Dongli by a first-aid kit and clothed her a panty of vending machine and an Adidas faded-green jersey top and bottom. Dongli called the agent used by the telephone of the office, and she said a man of the agent would come to pick her up.
Mitsuo Aida ; electronic clock ; room 404 ; cellphone ; Old Manchuria ; Adidas
The men of the agent came to pick up Dongli. When he left, Kaoru claimed to pay the bill of the room. He gave seven thousand-yen bills to Kaoru, then he and Dongli left for somewhere.
big, tough-looking Hand sports bike ; pretty gutsy ; give-and-take
4
12:37 A.M.
In Eri’s room, she was still sleeping. In the room, on the TV screen, a man wore a dark brown business suit with a translucent mask perfectly fits him sat down a chair. The Man with No Face stared sleeping Eri from the screen. The TV screen flickered and the noise sounds like someone’s brain waves.
5
1:18 A.M.
Mari and Kaoru walked down a deserted backstreet and went to a small bar. Kaoru drank draught beer and Mari drank Perrier with lime juice. Mari talked about the complex to her older sister Eri and her personal history from childhood. She adapted to schools and went a school for Chinese kids in Yokohama. And Mari said he never had a boyfriend. Then Mari asked the reason of the love hotel named Alphaville, but Kaoru didn’t know the reason, so Mari answered the hotel probably named by the movie Alphaville by Jean-Luc Godard and explained its irony. Mari and the bartender talked about why he likes LPs.
stainless-steel nerves ; Chinese ; University of Foreign Studies ; freelance translator or interpreter ; ugly ; cute ; individuality ; Yokohama ; Snow White ; LPs ; CDs ; time moves in its own special way in the middle of the night
- Ugly or not beautiful girl is a frequently appeared motif on Murakami’s works.
- LP record implies slowly time flowing and warm atmosphere and space of the bar.
1:56 A.M.
In a washing room of Skylark family restaurant, Mari carefully washed her hands, watched a mirror and bit her lip and nodded several times to reflect and check something.
- Pop music came floating up from speakers implies a miscellaneous and vulgar atmosphere of family restaurants and city sceneries.
6
2:19 A.M.
In the office of Alphaville, Kaoru checked the suspect by a computer and a security-camera DVD.
security-camera DVD ; ten fifty-two ; digital gizmos ; psycho ; 10:48
Kaoru, Korogi and Komugi specified the customer ruined Dongli on the movie. He looks a typical company man with a light grey trench coat, dress shoes and small wire-frame glasses. They discussed and concluded he must be an office worker treats computer-sofware in a company near here, works during midnights. Kaoru printed the image 5 copies. She called back to the Chinese agent and asked them to want a print of the man.
light grey trench coat ; small wire-frame glasses ; Blade Runner ; van Gogh
In the front of Alphaville, Kaoru hand 3 copies of the photo to the man of Chinese agent. Kaoru told the man if you find the man then let her know.
ghosts
7
2:43 A.M.
Mr Shirakawa, a man was photographed by the security camera at Alphaville, worked with a compute at an office, was listening to Bach’s the English Suites with name brand outfits. The wife of Shirakawa phoned Shirakawa
VERITECH ; Bach piano piece ; Edward Hopper Loneliness ; watch ; Armani ; Starbucks ; macchiato ; Chinese (midnight snack) ; Microsoft ; imagination ; Takanashi low-fat
In a convenience store, Tetsuya Takahashi took a carton of Takanashi low-fat milk but he returned it, then he picked up regular one, an apple and a plastic-wrapped fishcake and bought them. He left the store, sat on a guard rail, gulped the milk down and ate the apple.
fundameltal moral problem ; milk ; apple ; fishcake ; orange Swatch
- Milk and apple are sources of life and symbols of health. And to take milk and apple is a fundamental act of human, implies a resistance to the convenience store system.
8
3:03 A.M.
In Eri’s room, Eri was vanished from her bed. On the TV screen, Eri Asai lay asleep on a single bed of andorned wood identical to her bed. The Man with No Face was watched over Eri through his mask. The image looked paused, but it was live image sent in real time, and Eri and the Man kept breathing, maintained total silence and guarded their their entrances of awareness.
passage of time ; silence ; light of full moon ; the real bed ; live image ; same temporality ; the same speed down the same river of time
- The light of full moon or moon signifies the world of loss of life.
9
3:07 A.M.
Mari was sitting on a seat by the window in Skylark. Takahashi came in Skylark and headed straight for Mari’s table by the information by Kaoru, and he shared with the table and talked with Mari. He said he was enjoying performing music, but he can’t play music really creatively, so he decided to start to study law seriously and to take the National Bar Exam. Takahashi told why he decided to study law and talked about a cinema Love Story starred Ryan O’Neil.
little square sandwiches ; herbal tea ; coffee ; darkest part of the night ; the hardest part ; between playing well and playing really creatively ; kind of shared state; study law ; Tokyo District Court in Kasumigaseki ; a different kind of human being ; different world ; thick, high wall ; weird creature ; giant octopus ; signs ; numbers
- In Murakami's novels, performing music is a practical mental treatment and an act of tracing stories. And, by Murakami’s notion, on performing Music and to create something, it needs a special genius or gift to concentrate and enjoy, not a skill or technique.
- District court is a place of story, trial is a symbol and a turning point of person’s story and life. But the trial system is a self-acting huge system throws into confusion and spoils people and changes them into a sign or a number.
When Mari and Takahashi walked down a street, a man of Chinese agent passed close to them.
- This scene implies the network type communication.
Takahashi answered to Mari, why he got to know Kaoru, and why he lived by himself. Then Mari smiled the first time to Takahashi.
10
3:25 A.M.
Eri was still sleeping on the bed in the TV screen, she floated an ocean of pure thought. And the Man with No Face watched her. We looked a tiny movement at the corner of Eri’s mouth.
lifeboat floating in a calm sea ; ocean of pure thought devoid of waves or current
The viewpoint entered the room in the TV screen. Eri was still sleeping. Her consciousness was gradually and slowly awaken. Her eyelids opened but the eyes snapped shut again. Because her consciousness seemed to resist awakening.
consciousness ; bodily functions
She was raised herself in bed, tried to trace her memory back but she can’t do it. Then she got out from the bed, lowered to the floor and approached to the window. She strained to see outside from the window, but there’s no scenery. She inspected the room, but the switches of ceiling lights were not reacted and the two doors were shut.
Who are you ? What are you doing here ? ; no scenery ; uncoloured space like a pure abstract idea ; unbroken sound of silence ; signals of rejection ; independent creature
Our viewpoint noticed the room resembles the office of Shirakawa. And the room was forgotten by the world, and was plunged to the sea. She squatted down and a pencil with an eraser stamped with the name Shirakawa’s office VERITECH. She reflected the her situation but she couldn’t comprehend why she was in the room all alone and the situation is a reality or dream. So she decided to sleep on the bed to return to the real world.
the bottom of the sea ; silence ; mouldy smell ; place like this all alone ; afterlife ; dream ; reality
Our viewpoint drew back, the smaller grows the shape of the room, the it was gone. When we became conscious, we were back in Eri’s room. The TV only displays sandstorm and sounded harsh static. Then the room grew darker and the total darkness arrived.
vacuum of nothingness ; sandstorm ; harsh static ; total darkness
- This description implies the connections of macro to micro, maximum to minimum, the entire to a part and consciousness to unconsciousness.
- This scene is a variation of throning a wall in Dance Dance Dance and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
11
3:42 A.M.
Mari and Takahashi were sitting on a bench of a small narrow park near Alphaville, they talked. Takahashi told he had met Eri at the front of Tower Records, and they had a deep personal talk. Mari told she was lived a different world to Eri’s, then Takahashi said Eri might have a kind of complex to Mari, and there was no answer because Mari was still in a preparatory stage. Mari answered him that the Chinese girl was 19 years old too, she lived in a different world but she wanted to be a friend of her, and she became a part of Mari. Takahashi told Eri maybe was in am other place like Alphaville, and she suffered meaning violence by somebody in a metaphorical senses, as an expression of her feeling of agony.
late-autum white moon ; allergies ; Snow White ; hardy shepherd girl ; every kind of pill ; pills, fortune-telling and dieting ; therapist or psychiatrist ; million miles away ; hypothetically talking ; different worlds ; history ; complex ; preparatory stage ; metaphorical sense
- Moon emerges the world of passing away and the truth.
- The talk between Mari and Takahashi signifies there were (accidental) connections and syncs among three girls, Eri, Mari and Dongli in a metaphorical sense.
12
3:58 A.M.
In the office, Shirakawa did exercise such as sit ups and knee bends. He went to a lavatory, wipe the sweat from his body and wore his shirt and tie. He stared at himself long and hard in the mirror. After Shirakawa had left, Shirakawa’s reflection or image still was there, it stared straight ahead, then its hands rubbed cheek like checking for the touch of flesh.
Scarlatti cantata ; part of daily routine ; temporary freeze ; to bring the advance of time to a halt
Shirakawa returned to the office and examined the items and clothes he robbed from Dongli. He put the items into a plastic garbage bag except a prepaid type small flip cell phone, and put it in a pocket of his trousers. Then he called a cab and went out into the front of building.
the same pencil as the one on the floor of the room in which Eri Asai woke up, stamped with the name VERITECH ; six identical pencils ; all worthless grabage ; shabby traces of the recent past ; three ten-thousand-yen bills
Shirakawa got into the cab, asked the driver to go to Tetsugakudo, Ekoda. On the way to home, he dropped in a 7-Eleven convenience store, threw away the garbage bag in a garbage can of the sotre, placed the cell phone of Dongli next to the boxes of cheese, and bought a carton of Takanashi low-fat milk and a container of yogurt. He got into the cab again and fell asleep. While waiting for the green light, next to the taxi, also the bike of the man of Chinese agent was waiting for the light.
13
4:09 A.M.
Mari and Takahashi was still talking in the park, then got out and took a walk. Mari asked Takahashi that she wanted to go to Alphaville.
On the way to Alpaville, Mari said she didn’t want to talk about why Eri didn’t awake. So Takahashi told his circumstance and history. At the front of Alphaville they promised have breakfast together at a restaurant makes a good omelette Takahashi knew.
Red Sox cap ; somebody give it to me ; I don’t know a thing about baseball
- Mari’s Red Sox cap implies the randomness of things and knowledge of the internet era, and usualness of the American culture.
14
4:25 A.M.
In Eri’s room, from inside the TV screen, Eri was looking out, pressed her hands against the glass and shouted something, but it did reach outside. Then Eri reflected her situation, told precisely it and she tired of to tell. And she could see her room from the screen, and watched attentively her own items of her room. The image of TV screen trembled, Eri was upset, the meaning of her physical self begun to eroding then the image was extinguished.
contact point ; circuit hilltop ; meaning of her physical self is eroding ; nothingness ; silence
The same time, in the kitchen of Shirakawa’s house, he ate yogurt and watched a TV programme, Creatures of the Deep.
aspects of the interrelationship of thought and action ; Thought and action continue to operate in concert.
15
4:33 A.M.
In a guest room of Alphaville, Mari and Korogi watched Creatures of the Deep by a larger TV set. Korogi lost interest and turned off the TV. Korogi talked about her personal circumstance. She had been an usual office worker, but by the time around the Kobe earthquake any incidents occurred, so she escaped from somebodies.
personal question ; real name ; the Kobe earthquake ; dream ; mark of some kind ; three diagonal lines like a bird’s footprint
- Earthquake is not only a disaster breaks physical bodies and things, but also shakes, breaks and changes human minds.
Then Mari spoke to Korogi about her sister Eri. Just two month before, Eri had only to slept except doing minimum needed to keep herself alive such as to go to toilet, to take a shower and change her pyjamas. Korogi told her sister might have some big problem and want to got away from the flesh-and-blood world.
some big problem she’s trying to deal with ; beautiful ; transparent ; Sleeping Beauty
Mari and Korogi talked about reincarnation. Mari said after the passed away, there’s only a nothingness. But Korogi said she believe the reincarnation and there’s kind of salvation. And Korogi said people stay alive while they burning memories as fuel, include bad memories. Then Korogi got out of the room to work.
reincarnation ; nothingness ; memories ; racing with my own shadow ; memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive
16
4:52 A.M.
At the storage basement, the band of Takahashi practices Sonny Rollins’s “Sonnymoon for Two”. Takahashi played a long solo by trombone, then the four horns joined for the final theme. And they took a ten-minute break, only Takahashi hung a instrumental case and left the basement.
technique ; almost conventional phrasing
5:00 A.M.
In the Kitchen of Shikawa’s house, on the TV, the NHK 5 o’clock news begun. The pain when he had attacked Dongli still remained. He took a green Perrier bottle and cool the back of his hand. He want to sleep but he can’t fall asleep.
pain with memories ; the night is nearly over
5:07
A room in Alphaville, Mari was napping
5:09
Eri was back on the real world then. She was sleeping in her own bed. The strange events occurred in the room had ended.
heavy silence ; waveless, mirrorlikek surface of the water of thought ; cause and effect ; synthesis and division maintain their equibrium
5:10
Inside the 7-Eleven store, Takahashi choose food and picked up a tuna sandwich pack and a carton of milk. The cell phone was put by Shirakawa, begun to ring. Takahashi took it and answer. A man said “You’ll never get away.” “We’re going to tap you on the shoulder some day.” a few times, then the connection is cut.
5:24 A.M.
At the park near Alphaville, Takahashi called Mari by his cell phone. Mari answered she didn’t want to eat breakfast, so Takahashi suggested he take Mari to the station.
cresent moon ; the new day ; the old one
17
5:38 A.M.
(…)
18
6:40 A.M.
(…)
6:43 A.M.
(…)
6:50 A.M.
(…)
6:52 A.M.
(…)
Remarks
- In this novel, Murakami splendidly described the situation, state, atmosphere and communication in the network and global age and the 00’s internet and cellphone era. The era in which people connect through the internet and cellphones, and meet at third places such as family restaurants, convenience stores, fast-food shops and Starbucks café as points of networks. Third places connect things and people from global to local.
- This story is the story of to connect, to sync and to exchange symbols, metaphorical meanings or something among three girls (Mari, Eri and Dongli), and between Mari and night people, Eri and Man with No Face, and Dongli and Shirakawa.
- Concerning C. S. Lewis’s The Four Loves, three girls exchanged agape, Mari and adults exchanged philia, then Mari got eros and Eri recovered it.
- Also this story is a story of occurrences of very long midnight of Mari Asai between 7 hours. Mari was concerned and talked with adult night people, exchanged kindness and tenderness, then she grew up. I think this novel is short as a long novel, very long as a story of 6 or 7 hours occurrences. Because there are lots of short chattings and objective descriptions.
- The third-person point of view looks like the view of Google Earth and Google Street View.
- Clocks and television in this novel sync places in the world. Also television is the entrance to the world of subconsciousness.
- Mari knew Curtis Fuller's Five Spot After Dark, her most favourite movie is Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, and wore a Boston Red Sox cap (She was given the cap by a friend only, and was not interested in baseball.). These descriptions mean randomness of knowledge in the global culture and the internet.
- Takahashi’s saying “Say your sister is in some other Alphaville kind of space—I don’t know where—and somebody is subjecting her to meaningless violence”, and Mari’s reply “In a metaphorical sense?”. (p.130) ”Aspects of the interrelationship of thought and action” (p. 153) of which Shirakawa considered. They imply the most important theme of this novel. There are proper and accidental connections in physical and metaphorical senses in the world, for better or worse, like a network or the internet. So the world is moving and changing.
- Another theme of this book is Murakami’s question of China or answer to China in the 00’s. Dongli was assaulted by Shirakawa and left her as she was. Mari was going to study abroad in China.
Details of the Book
After Dark
Haruki Murakami (Author), Jay Rubin (Translator)
Vintage Books, London, 5 June 2008
208 pages, £6.99
ISBN: 978-0099506249
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