看過村上春樹新出的英譯本小說 After Dark，很失望啊！這是我在 friendster 和 amazon.com 寫的書評。今次跌眼鏡啦。

Haruki Murakami has always been one of my favourite contemporary writers. My passion towards his literary works is so intense that I insist on writing a chapter on him in my postgraduate thesis. However, I regret to know that AFTER DARK is probably the worst novel he has ever written. Yes, I agree with other reviewers that the style is different from his 'Boku' tradition in his previous novels and I do feel a strong cinematic style spread throughout the narrative. Nevertheless, if we think about the overall meaning of the plot and the way the story is told, AFTER DARK is nothing compared to the writer's previous works. The novel opens with an ambition - to adopt a god's eye view on the organic nature of the city. Then the 'darkness' of the setting brings forward the 'darkness' of the characters. For a novel of such length, the writer does not do a good job in 'utilizing' the characters to enrich the plot. There are too many characters, but not many of them are involved in backbone of the story, not to mention that many of them (though interesting) gradually fade out in the middle of the story. Readers are confused by the lack of direction of the novel even in the middle of the story. And of course, to end the novel by viewing the city with the daylight at dawn is also predictable. Murakami has successfully trapped us in the mysteries of the darkness, but fail to bring us back to a point of illumination when the day breaks. After reading the novel, I ask myself: What is the point of writing this? Especially when Murakami has established himself as one of the key international authors at this moment. Then, a second question comes: What is the point of reading it? I always believe writers should be diversified. Writing the same stuff over and over again simply does not do the readers and his writing career any good. With the attempt to try something different but disappointingly disastrous, I have decided to give two stars for the latest novel of my beloved author.