Always love a short story collection, especially from someone like murakami. Great writing, a few too many erection references

It's easy to become one of the men without women, Murakami says. You love a woman with all your heart and suddenly she's gone. She is taken by crafty sailors. Then loneliness begins to seep into the body like a wine stain into the carpet, where it remains and over time only fades, but never disappears. For Murakami to compile a thematic collection of previously published stories is not difficult, since it seems that Murakami always writes about the same characters and themes, just changes their names and puts them in a different context, but each time they are lonely people from the edge of society.
The collection "Men Without Women", as the title itself says, tells seven stories in which the main characters are lonely men, who have lost their women one way or another. The problem with stories, in general, not only Murakami's, is that the quality of them in collections varies, so usually only a few can be singled out while others fall into mediocrity and are far from the creative reach of the author. The reason for this sometimes is the period that passes from writing one story to another, or perhaps the author was "forced" to write it.
The stories in this collection are classic Murakami, they contain all those ingredients that we find in his works, sometimes they are also seeds from which the whole novel sprouts, and as such, lovers of his writing (myself included) will enjoy them, although they will also notice these differences in stories.
"Drive My Car" opens the collection and sets the mood. It tells the story of veteran actor Kafuku, who is forced to hire a driver because he is not allowed to drive, so he hires a young Misaki to whom he tells about his late wife and her marital affairs, and how he decided to find a reason why she did it by becoming friends with one of her lovers.
"Yesterday," named after the Beatles song of the same name, which one of the characters interprets in its way, is similar to [b:Norwegian Wood|11297|Norwegian Wood|Haruki Murakami|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1713542603l/11297._SY75_.jpg|2956680] where the main character hears the song and memory takes him on a journey back in time. The asexual bond between a man and a woman, her love for him despite his flaws, and her aspiration to move on with his life, two timelines in which the fate of the characters is revealed. Among the weaker stories in the collection despite the elements it contains.
"An Independent Organ" is a story that today's woke generation could cancel, as it is popular today, because of the author's view of women who have “an independent organ” that allows them to lie without remorse. Nevertheless, this is an interesting story about a successful, egoistic, and self-sufficient surgeon who has no real relationship but only maintains superficial sexual relationships with married women until he falls in love and, literally, falls ill with love. Another good story.
"Scheherazade" is another average story. Just as in the Arabic "1001 Nights" and here Scheherazade, as she is nicknamed by Habara, the male character, in reality, the nurse who takes care of him, tells stories after sex. Only here it’s not her life at stake, but she is talking about her obsessive high school sweetheart, which affects the quality of sexual intercourse between her and Habara.
"Kino" is already one of those stories where Murakami's fantastic elements can be found, above all his favorite disappearing cats. Although all the stories in this collection have a note of erotica, here it is the most pronounced and the descriptions of sex are not as horrendous as they can be with Murakami. Perhaps the darkest story of the collection, same, yet different Murakami.
"Samsa in Love" is the reverse version of Kafka's “Metamorphosis”. This time, the insect wakes up transformed into man, and for the first time encounters human emotions and urges. It was as if Murakami wanted to honor one of his role models, but somewhere things went downhill. Not so impressive story which stands out from the rest of the collection.
"Men Without Women", the last story after which the collection is named, is the strongest of them all. It has that Murakami’s sensibility; it's emotionally charged and colored with just the right dose of mysticism. It is somewhat reminiscent of Andrić's [b:Jelena, žena koje nema|3551256|Jelena, žena koje nema|Ivo Andrić|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1553432968l/3551256._SY75_.jpg|3593355] because of that dreamlike atmosphere. The unnamed narrator recalls his ex-girlfriend who committed suicide, which was reported by her husband with a late-night call. Remembering her, the narrator talks about two narratives, the one that happened and the one that was supposed to happen. Murakami in his true form.
This collection is not only about lonely men, without women and friends, but also concerns change. They all want to change, become someone else, or do things differently, change the flow of events. There is, of course, indispensable music as a tool of memory that serves as a time machine that goes back in time. However, although Murakami's ideas are excellent, the realization of them is sometimes flawed, as if Murakami had lost his way in his metaphor. Or perhaps this metaphor is lost in translation because at times it seems that only the author knows the true purpose of the metaphor, while it escapes most readers. A collection worth reading, if anything, because of a few stories.

This was the first (and only) Murakami book I've gotten a print ARC for and I was so excited I read the first few stories and then promptly forgot I hadn't read them all. Awkward.

These short stories are like little bits of floating surreal clouds of mystery, loneliness and the complicated lives we create for ourselves. Just when you start falling into a story it is over which is not the journey I am used to when I pick up a Murakami book. I think that is okay, though. Sometimes, all you need is a little dose until your next meeting.

No fundo, eu acho que ele odeia mulheres, mas fica se justificando e usando de racionalismos.

I expected more.. it's less than 3 stars actually.

My discussion highlights:

Drive My Car
This is a beautiful world-in-miniature, but my prevalent lingering feeling is just overwhelming awe towards filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and his ability to expand upon a thirty page short story in a way that is totally organic. The original story is one of the collection's more optimistic explorations of grief, but there is still a lot left unresolved. Reading it now, I can see just where the film put in the work into finding that deeply buried catharsis. No wonder the runtime was three hours.

An Independent Organ
I've seen a review that accuses Men Without Women of being too despondent in its approach to male loneliness, and I imagine this was the short story they had in mind. Still, something spoke to me in the acuity with which it pursues lovesickness, and the horrific contemplation that such a crippling condition has befallen people in the real world. It was also interesting to me how Murakami fills a lot of this story's page count with a recounted biography of the central character, rather than action happening in the present - a writing decision that recurs throughout many other chapters in this collection. It's a testament to his observations that each description maintains a sense of urgency and momentum.

Scheherazade
The most interesting in the collection, and the one I imagine has been the most discussed in literary circles. A lot of that is bound to arise from the open-ended circumstances that couch Scheherazade's tale: there are a lot of mysteries left uncommented upon, and the story itself stops in a way that feels almost arbitrary. If this were my first Murakami story, I'd be baffled, but I'm a firm believer that each of his books teaches you a little more about how to read his other works, and as such I parked all expectations of puzzle-solutions about midway through. The machinations of the plot are eerie and evocative, but they don't strike as pointedly as the recounting of Scheherazade's fetishistic burglary. What we're left with is a strangely perverted tale that can never end, but nonetheless concludes. Fascinating stuff.

Kino
The most Murakami short story to ever Murakami. If the guy has a formula for weirdness, then this was one 'well' short of a parody. Mysteries that remain puzzling even to the narrator? A crossing of some sexual taboo such as infidelity or abuse? An ending that cares little for explaining why the preceding events are occurring? They're all here! In that respect, it feels a little tossed off, but even here Murakami is showing us all how tricky the line to thread is between pastiche and the genuine thing. There's that great Guardian review quote which states something along the lines of how Murakami's writing has a "gossamer" structure that renders every description as loaded with potential meaning, and that skill is still on display here.

Men Without Women
The closest the collection has to a tone poem, as a narrator waxes lyrical about what it means to be "Men Without Women". I think it would work fine as its own thing, but it comes alive as an epilogue to the rest of the book - a melancholy musing on the nature of a life lived where love always feels transient.

Mijn hart brak een beetje toen ik zag dat ik het bijna uit had. Vond het zó mooi. De volgende Murakami maar direct ingeslagen. De beschrijvingen zijn echt weergaloos.