Men Without Women: Short Stories on Loneliness in Relationships

Posted On April 14, 2023

Hi Readers! This is my Year of Murakami. I plan to read all of Haruki Murakami’s books. I have already read many books and have about 10 more to go! Seems quite simple to me. So, this review is about an amazing collection of short stories called Men Without Women.

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

A dazzling new collection of short stories-the first major new work of fiction from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami since his #1 best-selling Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic.

~~THOUGHTS~~

Men Without Women or Women Without Men or Person without People. All the short stories in this book are somehow related to loneliness in modern relationships. Some of the stories are quite simplistic whereas others have multiple deep levels to them.

‘Drive My Car’ made me wonder about how real these stories felt compared to the relationships I’ve seen. Sometimes you are so without people in your life that you end up having the most profound talks with your driver or your maid or the person sitting next to you in a flight.

Other times, like in ‘Yesterday’, you have been around one person for almost the entirety of your life where you just lose all your objectivity when it comes to them. Maybe you mirror each other’s style of talking or your entire lifestyle. The impact that one person has in your life, whether positive or negative, is so life altering.

Some other times, people just decide that love and relationships are not for them. Dr. Tokai in ‘An Independent Organ’ is one such fellow. He only has physical relationships with women who are already in a relationship with other men. He doesn’t mind being the mistress. He is so set in his ways that when love finally comes his way, he is baffled and has no idea what to do. Did he chose to stay the mistress to protect himself from any potential heartbreak? Did he choose not to be in a serious emotional entanglement because he knew better or because he was secretly emotionally damaged? Or what most people never think about, did he simply love a solitary life?
When he begins to question who he really is outside of the work he does and the people he knows, he really goes into an overthinking spiral. Have you ever thought of that? Who would you be if you were not defined by the people in your life and the job that you do? Who you are really?

The fourth short story ‘Scheherazade’ was bizarre keeping with the Murakami style of writing. We have a girl breaking and entering a boy’s house who is her crush just to leave something behind and take something of his. As wild as that was, it goes to show how if you are single and lonely, some times you can go to great lengths or even cross the lines just to feel a connection with someone. Even if only you had that connection all to yourself without the other person knowing about it.

What do you do if there is even a little bit of ambiguity in your marriage or your relationship? ‘Kino’, the fifth short story talks about that. Instead of being in that void of ambiguity, you look for another person to fill that void. When did cheating on your partner become so normal? Are we so incapable of mature adult committed relationships? Are we so incapable of not putting ourselves in a void and just staying there until there’s clarity? Are we so incapable that we must have another person around all the time?
Another lesson from this story is how we are always in Action Mode, moving at warp speed from one thing to the next. One book after another. One movie to another. One relationship to another. In that we never really stop and reflect. Never really feel the emotions we are supposed to feel. Yes, the movie was super boring with nothing happening but did you think what was the underlying message? What that book was really about? Did you learn new words and new emotions? What could you do better when you are in a new relationship and also why do you always need to be in a relationship?

Sixth story ‘Samsa in Love’ was a wild ride. But somehow it showed that after our primary needs of food, water and shelter are met, we immediately go to companionship. Samsa had no idea about anything going on in the world or in his life, yet all he wanted was a long talk with a girl who came to fix the door locks. Just being with our people makes us feel sane and okay and happy even when there are worse things going on in the world outside of your home.

The last one was titled ‘Men Without Women’ and was the perfect story to end such a deeply emotive bunch of short stories.

As always, there was music, jazz, cats and sexist phrases. But given how many books I’ve read by Murakami, it doesn’t bother me anymore. Murakami had written that he enjoys writing short stories more than writing novels. I read two of his short story collections this year and I have to admit I enjoy reading them more than his novels too! I have rated Men Without Women at 5/5 stars!

Until next time,