My review of Haruki Murakmi’s After Dark can be found in this Sunday’s Los Angeles Times Book Review. Here’s the first paragraph:
The title of Haruki Murakami’s latest novel may connote the smoke-hewn, jazz-strewn flow of Hugh Hefner’s old television show. But the book’s post-midnight Tokyo is a lonely place where the trains have stopped running and the love hotels and the family restaurants are sanctuaries for the loners and the sad sacks stuck working graveyard.
I’m honored to be in there with Sven Birkets, who reviews the new DeLillo book, and Sarah Weinman, who reviews a Sara Paretsky volume.
“Toolbox of tics.” Nice! You exhibit a skilfull turn of the phrase. I also like: “Milk, far from putting the leche in lechery, serves as fey nectar against the darker impulses of human nature.”
It’s a pleasure to read a well-written book review.
I almost purchased the Murakami on Friday. But I’ve still got The Savage Detectives ahead of me, and I’m falling behind.