Men Without Women: Stories (Vintage International)

As a man, without a woman, this title intrigued me. But what lead me to Haruki Murakami was a woman I briefly chatted with from a dating site as we exchanged books of authors we were currently reading. So this is my very first Haruki Murakami book I’ve read and I have to say, it’s fitting, for me. I enjoyed this book, very much. I identified with some aspects of these men (I’m sure most men do) from each story. I would have loved to narrate this book. Thank you Haruki Murakami. You have a new fan. More importantly, thank you to the woman who introduced me to you. Regards, L

Love this book. I’m a big fan of Haruki Murakami. Very interesting and different stories.

Fabulous! Inventive stories. Unique characters.

As Murakami's career continues, I find myself looking for his growth, that hope that there is a deeper well (yes, pun intended) the author himself has to plumb as the work continues. And that this progress can be something less than obvious. Murakami's seemed to want to go into Big Book Authorship with 1Q84, which I found to be almost wholly unreadable. So while having a short story collection feels like a refreshing change from the Big Book, it is hard with a good half of them to get away from Murakami once describing some of his stories as failed novels. Murakami is a master of the unresolved ending, but not all of these stories show that mastery and instead leave a little too much in the air. This felt most pointed in the story "Scheherazade," of a shut-in and his relationship with his maybe nurse. Murakami's writing remains as competent as ever, so there was much to enjoy in reading these stories, even though I wasn't always satisfied by their completion. He can handle a 30-pager about as well as anyone writing today. And while the binding element, of men struggling to understand the women in their lives, seems to be a development, relationships and mysterious women have probably always been a near-central (if not central) aspect of Murakami stories. So I find myself torn about this collection. While it didn't feel as repetitive as reading some Murakami can be, there also seems to be a level of challenge lost here. For example, Murakami never risks a story from a woman's perspective in this collection, though he has done just such a thing in the past. But the last two stories show a comic level of experimentation, one an homage to Kafka and the other flirting with a style reminiscent of Padgett Powell. A good read, but more and more I feel the guy is going to have to knock my socks off soon.

Haruki Murakami once said in an interview that he wanted to be “a writer who tells stories like no other writer.” He succeeds brilliantly in Men Without Women. The first story, “Drive My Car,” might be my favorite. Oddly, it has none of the dreamlike quality of so much of Murakami’s writing. A fairly straightforward narrative, it derives its charm from its quirky characters. I sense Shakespearean overtones and philosophical probings, but maybe that’s just me. Anyway, it’s wonderful. All the characters in these stories are intriguing — a promiscuous and suddenly lovesick plastic surgeon, a nurse who believes she was a lamprey eel in a past life, a quiet man (possibly yakuza)who reads books while drinking in a bar, a man whose three ex-girlfriends committed suicide (he hopes it’s nothing he did)... “Samsa in love” borrows a Kafka character and is, not surprisingly, Kafkaesque. But Murakami rescues Samsa with a delightfully hopeful twist. I loved this story. Despite the title of this book, the collection is rich women and love stories. The last story in the book provides it with its title. Murakami is a fabulous prose stylist. His writing is Japanese in its purity and restraint, but jazz-like in its playful bursts of metaphor. All this combined with an aberrant imagination makes for a reading experience like no other.

Well written

I bought this book on a whim after a friend said they liked this author. They named a different book, but the title of this one stood out to me. I'm glad I chanced it with this one instead(After Dark is the book I was recommended to read). I've only finished two of the seven stories(the first and the last), but they both have had a poignant effect as they reveal a little something about the nature of a man's grief over the woman who left his life for whatever reason. Powerful stuff. I just wish I was capable of reading Japanese so I could enjoy the true beauty of Murakami's poetic writing style.

something of the mystery of the human mind is revealed in each of these stunning stories here the author is mostly interested in men + how they relate ( or don't ) to women a mirror image to Anita Brookner - who's mostly interested in women + how they relate ( or don't ) to men melancholic tales ( mostly about loss + regret ) with endings that often raise more questions than they answer the influence of Kafka can be felt throughout not least in the story entitled "Samsa In Love" in which a beetle awakens one morning to find its body has metamorphosed into that of a man ! with an appendage that does strange things when a woman comes calling !!

I had to wait for really long, over a month but the book was good.

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Me ha gustado mucho este libro. Lo tenía que leer para clase y dado el poco tiempo que tenía para hacerlo, pensé en leer 4 o 5 historias de las 7 que tiene. La realidad es que no he podido parar hasta acabarlo.

Murakami te lleva a través de sus historias a la reflexión. Excelente.