Yesterday tells the story of Kitaru who wants his friend to date his girlfriend.
He talks to her about befriending the man his wife had an affair with, to know what he himself lacked. I enjoyed all the other stories in the book, which is impressive for a short story collection.ĭrive my Car is about an actor who employs a woman driver. Interestingly, the title story Men Without Women is my least favourite. Her debut, Rainbirds has a Murakami-ish vibe and deals with grief and loneliness.
More recently, I have found this likeness in Clarissa Goenwan’s novels. If there is anything ‘Murakami-esque’ I missed in the collection, it would be the slow process of cooking that Murakami often includes in his books. They are slow paced, detailed and pensive and marked with music, quiet moments and conversations with self. They masquerade as symbols of regrets and grief and sustain themselves with the unrest in the minds of men.Īll the stories have the usual characteristic traits of a Murakami novel. They take different forms – wives, ex-wives, lovers, friends or memories. Women are present, often like wraiths, in the book. They are incomplete without the women, or maybe just changed from what they used to be.
The men are often searching for answers for questions that trouble their mind. There is a strong sense of loneliness in all the stories. I usually enjoy Murakami’s surreal stories more than his realistic ones and I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed both kinds in this collection. All the stories have a similar tone of melancholy. Men Without Women is a collection of seven short stories by Murakami, translated from the Japanese by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen.
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