After Dark » (~)

Writing in a style that is deceptively plainspoken, Haruki Murakami finds a dreamlike common ground between Japan and the West, conscious and subconscious. His heroes lose themselves in quests that we may not always understand, but are hopelessly compelled to follow.

Cerca ya de medianoche, en esas horas en que todo se vuelve dolorosamente nítido o angustiosamente desdibujado, Mari, sentada sola a la mesa de un bar-restaurante, se toma un café mientras lee. La interrumpe un joven músico, Takahashi, al que Mari ha visto una única vez, en una cita de su hermana Eri, modelo profesional. Esta, mientras tanto, duerme en su habitación, sumida en un sueño «demasiado perfecto, demasiado puro». Mari ha perdido el último tren de vuelta a casa y piensa pasarse la noche leyendo en el restaurante; Takahashi se va a ensayar con su grupo, pero promete regresar antes del alba. Mari sufre otra interrupción: la encargada de un «hotel por horas» pide que le ayude con una prostituta agredida por un cliente. Dan las doce. En la habitación donde Eri sigue sumida en una dulce inconsciencia, el televisor cobra vida y en la pantalla empieza a distinguirse una imagen turbadora... pese a que el televisor no está enchufado.

The New York Times - Walter Kirn

It's when his technique is inconspicuous and not when he's waving his wand above the hat that Murakami's spell is most persuasive. Moving outward from obscure Mari through her shifting circle of friends, Murakami takes in widening perimeters of a nocturnal urban habitat. We get a strong sense, though we're not quite certain how, of the city's fugitive social ecology, of the bargains and compacts among its tribes and classes. Women are prey for the most part and band together, particularly the poor and the unmarried. Men venture forth more boldly, lone marauders, though sometimes they leverage their power by forming gangs. Behind and underneath it all are the monstrous, semiautonomous grids and systems - police forces, garbage trucks, fiber optic networks - that labor to keep order until morning. The night is a chaos of sprees and errands, of trysts and stickups, escapes and rescue missions, but dawn is a return to productivity.