I love Murakami’s long shadows, the darkness he creeps into every chapter. Men without Women: Another of the narrator’s girlfriends kills herself.Īt first blush, I enjoyed reading this book. Samsa in Love: A cockroach is transformed into Gregor Samsa, and falls in love with the hunchback locksmith. Shadowy figures and a woman with cigarette burns on her back show up. He moves to his aunt’s coffee shop, where he sets up a bar. Kino: Man’s wife has an affair with his best friend. She reflects on her “breaking-in period.” Scheherazade: Married homekeeper and lover of a home-bound man tells him stories about her childhood. After she sleeps with someone else, he leaves.Īn Independent Organ: A plastic surgeon sustains several affairs with different women until he falls deeply in love with one in particular. One of the men is dating a beautiful young woman, who promises to wait for him even as he tells her to go out with other guys. The man misses his wife, who died some time ago, and reflects on her affairs. As always, expect melancholy and ennui in those observations.ĭrive My Car: An older actor hires a homely female driver to take him to his performances. Though it is man-sided: all of the narrators are relatively young men observing at a distance the women in their lives.

Men Without Women is a collection of short stories about men of various ages who have lost or never found their loved ones, making this a book about relationships, rather than men in particular. As I told Mike, I can’t remember the last time I took a flight that was (a) on time, (b) nonturbulent. Murakami books go fast (as I promise when recommending 1Q84), even taking several breaks to ride out the turbulence. Yesterday, I started this collection in at the airport in Austin, Texas, and finished it on a plane somewhere over California. The most on-time review I’ve written in a long time.

Murakami men without women review