I'd give this one 3.5 stars, if i was a possibility, I think - I am quite torn. I enjoyed the characters presented in Murakami's newest work, the stories were all intriguing and made me think and wonder of the mysteries presented, but by GOD am I tired of his sex-obsession. Men without Women? More like 'Women are only worthy of mentioning if they are fuckable or want to have sex with me'. Sheesh. By the first story, I excused it on how the character was written. But it just kept on going, and going, and going. Give me a break, man! Take it easy! Quit masturbating while you write!

*deep breath*

Other than that, lovely work, it was interesting and had a nice mood going throughout its whole. Much better than his last work, and I enjoyed the majority of it!

This is actually the first book by Haruki Murakami that I've ever picked up and read, despite knowing of his legendary reputation for years. I guess I never felt like I knew where to start with his work, and my entry here was the desire to read the stories that inspired the film adaptation Drive My Car, both of which are contained in this collection. (And of course, I still have yet to watch the movie itself, but it gave me a good excuse!)

I was quite moved by how deeply wrought the complex emotions of these stories are despite some hesitations going in. I wasn't sure how I felt about the conceit of this collection before delving in (would it feel misogynistic? Overly masculine?) and was pleased that in fact, there is much more nuance to these stories and characters. There are a plethora of perspectives covered in these stories, and all felt very rooted in a specific experience, in dealing with fallout or absence rather than just the story of these men in isolation. While these stories feel drawn from reality and the contemporary experience, there are some of the surrealist aspects that I was expecting from my knowledge of Murakami's work, which definitely kept me engaged. 

It's clear that great care went into the translation of these stories into English, and I commend the translators for their work. I think this was a more manageable way to dip my toes into the Murakami waters, and while I'm not tripping over myself to get my hands on more of his books, I'd definitely be open to exploring his backlist further. 

The standouts for me in this collection were: 
"Yesterday"
"An Independent Organ"
"Scheherazade"
"Kino"

I find it hard to leave a review for a book of short stories as one story could be a 1 star and another can be a 5 star. Maybe trying to write a review for this book is as helpless as men without women. Alas, I’ll attempt it.

Murakami manages to use his incredible prose to tell us seven stories regarding men that in one way or another are missing women. Packed full of his usual references to music artists he loves, hints of his oh so common horniness and dashes of supernatural, he explores what women are to men.

It opens with drive my car a story about an actor and his chauffeur a quiet yet straight talking girl and deals with grief and isolation. This one i’d probaby have gave a 3 stars.

Yesterday is 2nd in the collection of 7. This was entirely forgettable for me. I can only remember the ending to it and I just got the idea he was trying to show 2 people that are very similar but one decides to embrace their true identity. Probably 2 stars because the writing was still good.

An independent organ is his 3rd story. It tells us the story of a plastic surgeon who finds love for the first time but in doing so also finds heartbreak for the first time. We see the physical effects of this heartbreak on the doctor and how an emotion can be the ultimate debilitating illness one can have. 3 stars.

Scheherazade is the passing of the midpoint. A weird situation of a man who is not allowed to leave the house and a woman that visits him to bring a food delivery but also who lets him fuck her. This story is the most like the Murakami books i’ve read in that so much of the world is left a mystery like why is this man in this house, why does this same woman always come to him, why does she let him hit since she isn’t enjoying it. 3 stars.

Kino. From here till the end of the book the stories all nail their jobs. A man that catches his wife cheating and deals with it by burying his emotions deep down inside and not dealing with how he feels about the situation in order to heal. We also see how this apathy can change a good man. When confronted with the knowledge of a woman being in an abusive relationship he chooses to do nothing about it. We’re led to believe this is because of him not having healed and from running from his troubles which then begin to manifest and chase him until he finally has no where to run and has to answer to the voice he can hear in his heart. Will he heal or will he try to avoid more? We never find out but I like to think he confronted the darkness chasing him and healed. 4 stars

He leaves the best 2 till last with Samsa in love and Men without women, the former being an interpretation of the reverse of metamorphosis. Rather than Gregor Samsa turning into a monstrous creature we’re treated to some unnamed thing waking up in Gregor Samsa’s body and learning about the strongest emotion humans have, love, and how it’s the reason we love being human and it would have been the biggest loss to Gregor in the original metamorphosis. Then we come to Men without women a beautiful story of a man learning about the death of a former lover of his and how death is more than just the person being gone, it’s also the loss of innocence to the things they loved. Both 4 stars.

I think what stood out the most to me is the succumbing to the despair and loneliness in each story. That applies to both the men who were the focal point of each short story and the women involved with each of them. For the men, there was never a moment of reckoning when they had the women in their lives still, only after they left or were gone, which to me symbolizes a larger issue of lack of vulnerability and emotional connectivity prevalent in our society among men. There seemed to be more comfort in the darkness/complacency than in confrontation of emotional discomfort. Both men and women were resigned to their situations which made for a series of unresolved short stories but ones that ultimately make you question a person's ability to connect with the people closest to you if only the space existed for openly acknowledging the hardships.