Makeup blog for Week 11

For my second independent reading book I had picked "After Dark" by Haruki Murakami. I had heard that Murakami was a really awesome writer and had many of his books recommended to me, but never before had I read one. So when I saw this as a choice on the list (and noticed that it was one of the shorter ones and since I was reading this and "Breakfast of Champions" at the same time it seemed to make sense) I decided it was about time that I read a Murakami. And I'm glad I did.

I really loved this book, it was different and festinating and read really quickly. Needless to say I enjoyed it a lot. There were two main reasons that I really liked this book, the first being that it was written in 2nd person point of view. Second person POV is used little in writing just because usually authors don't want to break the third wall with the reader and acknowledge that the reader exists in a separate world from the book. However Murakami wrote in second POV and it actually provided some really cool insight that otherwise would have been lost. By writing in second person POV Murakami invited the reader into the world of the book, he made it more essential that they notice every detail of what was happening and made it feel like they were part of it by observing the action. This was key to the major themes within the book.

The other main reason that I really loved this book was by the way that everything in it was very circular. All the characters tied into one another, they all had their stories intertwine in one way or another. By doing this Murakami achieved his purpose of showing that the world may seem like such a large place, yet it is completely and totally interconnected. In doing this he was also able to show that one tiny event, such as someone you met years ago recognizing you in a restaurant, can change the whole entire course of a night.

The theme of the book was something that I found really cool and almost enlightening, "After Dark" is definitely a book that I would read again and would recommend to others.