Men Without Women
Haruki Murakami, 2017
Knopf Doubleday
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780451494627
Summary
A dazzling new collection of short stories--the first major new work of fiction from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami.
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. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 12, 1949
• Where—Kyoto, Japan
• Education—Waseda University
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives near Tokyo
Haruki Murakami is a contemporary Japanese writer. Murakami has been translated into 50 languages and his best-selling books have sold millions of copies.
His works of fiction and non-fiction have garnered critical acclaim and numerous awards, both in Japan and internationally, including the World Fantasy Award (2006) and the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award (2006), while his oeuvre garnered among others the Franz Kafka Prize (2006) and the Jerusalem Prize (2009). Murakami's most notable works include A Wild Sheep Chase (1982), Norwegian Wood (1987), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994-1995), Kafka on the Shore (2002), and 1Q84 (2009–2010). He has also translated a number of English works into Japanese, from Raymond Carver to J. D. Salinger.
Murakami's fiction, often criticized by Japan's literary establishment as un-Japanese, was influenced by Western writers from Chandler to Vonnegut by way of Brautigan. It is frequently surrealistic and melancholic or fatalistic, marked by a Kafkaesque rendition of the recurrent themes of alienation and loneliness he weaves into his narratives. He is also considered an important figure in postmodern literature. Steven Poole of The Guardian praised Murakami as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his works and achievement.
In recent years, Haruki Murakami has often been mentioned as a possible recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Nonetheless, since all nomination records are sealed for 50 years from the awarding of the prize, it is pure speculation. When asked about the possibility of being awarded the Nobel Prize, Murakami responded with a laugh saying "No, I don't want prizes. That means you're finished.
Recognition / Awards
1982 - Noma Literary Prize for A Wild Sheep Chase.
1985 - Tanizaki Prize for Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.
1995 - Yomiuri Prize for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
2006 - World Fantasy Award for Kafka on the Shore.
2006 - Franz Kafka Prize
2007 - Kiriyama Prize for Fiction
2007 - honorary doctorate, University of Liege
2008 - honorary doctorate, Princeton University
2009 - Jerusalem Prize
2011 - International Catalunya Prize
2014 - honorary doctorate, Tufts University
Controversy
The Jerusalam Award is presented a biennially to writers whose work deals with themes of human freedom, society, politics, and government. When Murakami won the award in 2009, protests erupted in Japan and elsewhere against his attending the award ceremony in Israel, including threats to boycott his work as a response against Israel's recent bombing of Gaza. Murakami chose to attend the ceremony, but gave a speech to the gathered Israeli dignitaries harshly criticizing Israeli policies. Murakami said, "Each of us possesses a tangible living soul. The system has no such thing. We must not allow the system to exploit us."
Murakami donated his €80,000 winnings from the Generalitat of Catalunya (won in 2011) to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami, and to those affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Accepting the award, he said in his speech that the situation at the Fukushima plant was "the second major nuclear disaster that the Japanese people have experienced... however, this time it was not a bomb being dropped upon us, but a mistake committed by our very own hands." According to Murakami, the Japanese people should have rejected nuclear power after having "learned through the sacrifice of the hibakusha just how badly radiation leaves scars on the world and human wellbeing." (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/19/2014.)
Book Reviews
[A] beguilingly irresistible book. Like a lost lover, it holds on tight long after the affair is over.… Part allegory, part myth, part magic realism, part Philip Marlowe, private eye.… Murakami puts the performance in performance art.
New York Times Book Review
Men Without Women has the familiar signposts and well-worn barstools that will reconnect with longtime readers of Murakami: magical realism, Beatles tracks and glasses of whiskey. Yet, except for a few tales, the magic is watered down and it’s reality that is now poured stiff.… This collection is a sober, clear-eyed attempt to observe the evasion and confrontation of suffering and loss, and to hope for something better.
New York Daily News
Mesmerizing tales of profound alienation.… Murakami is a master of the open-ended mystery.
Washington Post
Classic Murakami.… [His] voice—cool, poised, witty, characterized by a peculiar blend of whimsy and poignancy, wit and profundity—hasn’t lost its power to unsettle even as it amuses.
Boston Globe
Time and again in these seven stories, Murakami displays his singular genius.… The stories in this collection find their power within the confines of common but momentous disturbances that linger on in memory.
Los Angeles Times
Wise stories.… Moody and melancholic as [they] can be, some of them offer comparable hope that these men without women might emerge from their long and isolating loneliness, acknowledging the hurt, pain and even rage they feel rather than folding in on themselves and ceasing to fully live.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Beautifully rendered.… Murakami at his whimsical, romantic best.… [He] writes of complex things with his usual beguiling simplicity — the same seeming naivety found in the Beatles songs that are so often his reference points. The stories read like dirges for ‘all the lonely people’ but they are strangely invigorating to read.
Financial Times
A whimsical delight.… The seven stories in his fourth story collection present another captivating treasure hunt of familiar Murakami motifs—including cats, jazz, whiskey, certain cigarettes, the moon, baseball, never-named characters, and—of course—the many men without women.… Murakami always manages to entertain, surprise, and satisfy.… Sanity might be overrated, but Murakami is surely not.
Christian Science Monitor
It’s been a few years since we’ve gotten something new from Japan’s master of magical realism, but this new seven-story collection draws us right back into his signature realm — one of lonely men with wandering imaginations, mysterious cats, and subtle-yet-surreal narratives that reveal the supernatural layer operating beneath our everyday lives.
W Magazine
Although the plotting can be repetitive, Murakami’s ability to center the stories on sentimental but precise details creates a long-lasting resonance.
Publishers Weekly
Compellingly odd.… A glimpse into the strange worlds people invent by the always inventive [author].… Not groundbreaking but certainly vintage Murakami: a little arch, a little tired, but always elegant.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The title of the collection is Men Without Women. Consider the ways in which the men in these stories find themselves alone, not just without women but, in many cases, without friends as well. Are there similarities between their situations? What does it mean to be a man without women, both in the title story and throughout the collection?
2. Kafuku, the protagonist of "Drive My Car," divides people into groups. For example, he says female drivers are either "a little too aggressive or a little too timid" (3) and identifies two types of drinkers: "those who drank to enhance their personalities, and those who sought to rid themselves of something" (29). What’s the effect of classifying people in this way? What does it reveal about how Kafuku sees the world? Do you think there’s any truth to these kinds of classifications?
3. Kafuku has a "blind spot" in his vision that prevents him from driving, but also a "sixth sense" that enables him to know his wife is cheating on him. How is he — and other men in this collection — both aware of and oblivious to what’s going on around him?
4. Why does Kitaru want the narrator to date his girlfriend, Erika Kuritani? Why do Kitaru and Erika eventually break up? Do you think they are ultimately destined to be together? Do you think it is possible for the men in these stories to have platonic relationships with women?
5. Kitaru makes up his own lyrics to the song "Yesterday." Why do you think Kitaru plays with the words, and how does the narrator react? How does this mirror the ways in which both Kitaru and the narrator want to become "a totally different person" (45)? How do they each accomplish this? Does either of them succeed?
6. What kind of person is Dr. Tokai? He is described as "not the sort of person with an excessive amount of room for misunderstanding" (78), yet the narrator seems to have complicated feelings about him, calling him both a "principled soul" and also someone lacking "intellectual acuity" (77) who "only thought of himself" (91). How does he come across throughout the story? Does the narrator’s perception of him change by the end? Does your own?
7. What is the "independent organ" Dr. Tokai believes in? How does it impact men and women in different ways?
8. In both "An Independent Organ" and "Scheherazade," lovesickness is presented as an actual medical condition. What is the effect of treating the relationships between men and women in this way? Why do you think Murakami chose to do so?
9. "Scheherazade" (as Habara, the main character of this story, nicknames her), claims to have been a lamprey in a previous life, "fastened to a rock" (120), but it is Habara who now seems stuck in one place, unable to leave his house. Why do you think he has to remain at home? How can each of their lives be seen as lamprey-like?
10. In high school, Scheherazade became addicted to housebreaking. How does her obsession compare and contrast with Habara’s need for her stories — and his fear of losing them?
11. Kamita tells the two yakuza that visit Kino’s bar, "Memories can be useful" (157). What do you think he means by this? Are memories helpful for Kamita later in the story?
12. Kino’s aunt calls snakes "essentially ambiguous creatures" (172). Do you agree, based on the role they play in the story? Are they, as she suggests, harbingers of disaster, or guides, or something else?
13. "Samsa in Love" is a reversal of Franz Kafka’s story "The Metamorphosis," in which a man finds himself transformed into an insect. How does Gregor Samsa view the world — and people — differently after having been a bug? Why do you think Murakami chose to retell the story in this way?
14. How does the narrator of "Men Without Women" respond to finding out that his ex-girlfriend has killed herself? Why do you think he reacts this way? Do his feelings cause him to look inward or outward?
15. What does the narrator mean when he says he’s "trying to write about essence, rather than the truth" (218)? Are there other stories or novels you’ve read that also deal with the distinction between the two?
16. Haruki Murakami’s stories are famous for their fantastical elements — talking cats and parallel universes. Do any of these elements appear in the stories in this collection? What purpose do you think they serve?
17. Acting — or "becoming somebody different" (23) — is a major theme throughout the stories in this collection. In "Yesterday," the narrator says that "you can’t just change your personality" (68); nonetheless, many characters do try to reinvent themselves. Do you believe that it’s possible to become a different person? What do the examples in these stories suggest?
18. Music is a constant presence in these stories — as it is in all of Haruki Murakami’s books. In "Yesterday," the narrator remarks, "Music has that power to revive memories, sometimes so intensely that they hurt" (75). Do you agree? What role does music play in this collection?
19. Consider the roles of fate, luck, and predestination in these stories. Do the characters in these stories believe in these things?
20. Have you read any other books by Murakami? How were they similar or different to the stories in Men Without Women? Are there common themes that tie them together?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)