Men without Women by Haruki Murakami

A collection of seven stories, Men without Women by Haruki Murakami isn’t different from his other books, yet it is! The book revolves around relationships, supernatural phenomenon, love, deceit, but the translation in this book lacks the poetic depth that one yearns for in a Murakami book. Few stories are exceptional—it is a habit now for Murakami (genius dripping out at the top of his hat). But a few stories give a Deja-vu feel. Nevertheless, give it a try. The stories that I enjoyed were:

1.       The Woman Driver which starts with the common sentiment that women are bad drivers, it progresses onto a deep friendship between the two protagonists—a woman driver and her employer. Their camaraderie doesn’t translate to any physical relationship and that’s comforting.

2.       Scheherazade, inspired by a character in the Arabic folklore, is about a kleptomaniac, narrated by her paramour. The intricacies of the theft and emotions associated with it are surreal and beautiful.

His pencils, his scissors, his ruler, his stapler, his calender—the most mundane objects became somehow radiant by being his.

As the book progresses, you wonder if you'd find a great story and that’s when Kino comforts you.

3.       Kino, a poetic story about a man, cheated on by his wife, who turns his aunt’s coffee shop into a bar and encounters some broken people and people who want to fix him.

Since I read Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, before I read this, the impact of the supernatural wasn’t that hard. And, hearing about the book from various sources upped my expectations.

And lastly, the title of the book: Men Without Women, will satiate the reader in you: this is my favourite story and I abs-oh-lutely loved it! Read this story to float in its brilliant storytelling, for it starts like this:

The call came in after one a.m. and woke me up. Phones ringing in the middle of the night always sound harsh and grating, like some savage tool out to destroy the world. I felt it was my duty, as a member of the human race, to put a stop to it, so I got up, padded over to the living room, and picked up the receiver.