Tin Man
Sarah Winman, 2017 (2018, U.S.)
Penguin Publishing
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780735218727
Summary
An unforgettable and heartbreaking novel celebrating love in all of its forms and the little moments that make up the life of an autoworker in a small working-class town.
This is almost a love story. But it's not as simple as that.
Ellis and Michael are twelve-year-old boys when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers.
And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more.
But then we fast forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question, what happened in the years between?
With beautiful prose and characters that are so real that they jump off the page, Tin Man is a love letter to human kindness and friendship, and to loss and living. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 24, 1964
• Where—Illford, Essex, England, UK
• Education—Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
• Awards—Costa Award, shortlisted
• Currently—lives in London, England
Sarah Winman is a British author and actor, born in Essex County, England. After attending the Webber Douglas Aademy of Dramatic Art, Winman pursued an acting career in theater and film, turning to writing in 2011 with her debut novel, When God Was a Rabbit. That novel becme an international bestseller, winning her the designation "New Writer of the Year" from the Galaxy National Book Awards.
Four years later, in 2015, Winman published her second novel, A Year of Marvellous Ways. Her third, Tin Man, came out in 2017 and was shortlisted for that year's prestigious Costa Book Awards. (Adapted from the publisher and Wikipedia. Retrieved 8/25/2018.)
Book Reviews
Winman has crafted something of a small miracle here.… The slow build of emotion and the cascade of quet, well-earned tears are testament to how rich this meditation on love, art, loss and redemption truly is.
New York Times Book Review
Affecting.… [A] universalized fable of love and loss.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Complex characterization and emotional astonishments.… These are real people, in all their anxieties and quirks, their good intentions and their unfortunate choices, just as we all are. And all this is an impressive accomplisment, even for a novelist who already seemed to know the truth about humanity by heart and could spill it onto the page with ease.
Toronto Globe and Mail
A spare, physically small novel that feels epic.… The book is filled, like brush strokes on canvas, with the quiet moments of kindness and true friendship that make up a life.
Winnipeg Free Press
The most therapeutic emotional journey of the year.
EW.com
(Starred review) [An] achingly beautiful novel about love and friendship.… Without sentimentality or melodrama, Winman stirringly depicts how people either interfere with or allow themselves and others to follow their hearts.
Publishers Weekly
A love triangle in the age of AIDS…. The narrative shifts back and forth in time—not always smoothly— … [and] the writing is overwrought …too dependent on illness and accident.… [Despite] affecting moments, the book tries too hard to be… soulful.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1.Tin Man is narrated by both Michael and Ellis, each in a different section. What was this reading experience like? Whose story is this?
2. The female characters in the novel are pivotal in Michael’s and Ellis’s lives—we see this through Dora and her kindness to Michael, Mabel taking in Ellis, and then Annie taking on Michael as almost an integral part of her relationship with Ellis. In what ways do these three women underpin Michael’s and Ellis’s lives, and their relationship?
3. What do you think the title, Tin Man, refers to? Discuss its possible meanings.
4. Discuss the use of the color yellow throughout the story, taking a close look at the van Gogh painting that features in the book.
5. How is Michael and Ellis’s relationship affected by the time and place they live in? Consider their childhood in Oxford, their summer in France, and their adult lives after Michael returns.
6. Discuss the different ways that grief and mourning are portrayed in Tin Man. Think about the reactions of Ellis, his father, and Michael after losing someone they love.
7. Ellis and Michael each describe their summer together in France in 1969. Discuss this pivotal time period and its impact on the characters, as well as your experience reading about it from two different points of view.
8. How does Annie connect with both Ellis and Michael? How did you see her role in the trio?
9. What do you imagine happens to Ellis after the close of the book? What kind of life do you hope he lives?
10 Do you think Tin Man is ultimately a sad story? A hopeful one? How did youfeel after reaching the end of the novel?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Oligarchy: A Novel
Scarlett Thomas, 2019 (2020, U.S.)
Counterpoint Press
208 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781640093065
Summary
It’s already the second week of term when Natasha, the daughter of a Russian oligarch, arrives at a vast English country house for her first day of boarding school.
She soon discovers that the headmaster gives special treatment to the skinniest girls, and Tash finds herself thrown into the school’s unfamiliar, moneyed world of fierce pecking orders, eating disorders, and Instagram angst.
The halls echo with the story of Princess Augusta, the White Lady whose portraits—featuring a hypnotizing black diamond—hang everywhere and whose ghost is said to haunt the dorms. It’s said that she fell in love with a commoner and drowned herself in the lake.
But the girls don’t really know anything about the woman she was, much less anything about one another. When Tash’s friend Bianca mysteriously vanishes, the routines of the school seem darker and more alien than ever before.
Tash must try to stay alive—and sane—while she uncovers what’s really going on.
Hilariously dark, Oligarchy is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for the digital age, exploring youth, power, and privilege. Scarlett Thomas captures the lives of privileged teenage girls, in all their triviality and magnitude, seeking acceptance and control in a manipulative world.
(From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1972
• Where—Hammersmith, England, UK
• Education—Chelmsford College; University of East London
• Awards—Elle Style Award-Best Young Writer;
• Currently—teachers at University of Kent
Scarlett Thomas is the British author of some 10+ novels, including PopCo (2005), The End of Mr. Y (2006), and Our Tragic Universe (2011), and Oligarchy (2019). She teaches English literature at the University of Kent.
She is the daughter of Francesca Ashurst, and attended a variety of schools, including a state junior school in Barking, and a boarding school for eighteen months. She studied for her A levels at Chelmsford College and achieved a First in a degree in Cultural Studies at the University of East London from 1992-1995.
Her first three novels feature Lily Pascale, an English literature lecturer who solves murder mysteries. Each of the succeeding novels is independent of the others.
In 2008 she was a member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival jury, along with Director Iain Softley and presided over by actor Danny Huston.
She has taught English Literature at the University of Kent since 2004, and has previously taught at Dartmouth Community College, South East Essex College and the University of East London. She reviews books for the Literary Review, Independent on Sunday, and Scotland on Sunday.
Thomas shares with Ariel, her protagonist in The End of Mr. Y, a wish to know everything:
I'm very much someone who wants to work out the answers. I want to know what's outside the universe, what's at the end of time, and is there a God? But I think fiction's great for that--it's very close to philosophy.
In 2001 she was named by the Independent as one of 20 Best Young Writers.
In 2002 she won Best New Writer in the Elle Style Awards, and also featured as an author in New Puritans, a project led by the novelists Matt Thorne and Nicholas Blincoeconsisting of both a manifesto and an anthology of short stories. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
One of the funniest novels in recent years…. It takes a special kind of audacity to write a comic novel about teenagers with eating disorders, but Thomas’s humor has a sharp, rhythmic perfection. Her prose is fast-thinking, entertaining and punchy, her dialogue fully authentic without sinking into the tedium of real-life conversation…. Oligarchy is a study in obsessiveness pinned to a vague, whodunit structure we don’t really need, with a couple of barely felt deaths thrown in. But in Thomas’s hands we don’t care…. Intriguing, fluid and frequently funny interior monologues are what Thomas does best.
Lydia Millet - New York Times Book Review
[A] British writer who excels at delivering novels about difficult subjects, turns her brilliant, incisive gaze to a boarding school.… It’s a bracing reminder that no matter how obsessively young people measure themselves against one another, their self-worth also comes from the grown-ups around them… a strange but urgent glimpse into society’s often conflicting expectations of girls.
Bethanne Patrick - Washington Post
Thomas executes it brilliantly…. It's Thomas' boldness, as well as her writing―every sentence seems painstakingly constructed―that make Oligarchy such a remarkable novel. It's brash, bizarre and original, an unflinching look at a group of young women who have become "hungry ghosts, flickering on the edge of this world."
Michael Schaub - NPR
[A] fast, fizzy read… Thomas is satirically attuned to the intricate frustration of teen life, the ignoble obsessions of puerile minds and the speed at which hygiene, decorum and false pretences vanish in a single-sex boarding institution. This makes for an entertaining, irreverent and wrong-hilarious read… The novel is full of brilliant lines.… [Thomas] is on a red-hot streak of invention right now and these narratives succeed because of the novelist’s deep understanding of the cracks and quirks of such communities…. Despite the occasional spangles of darkness, this is hugely enjoyable. It’s about as menacing as a cool girl’s black glitter nail polish—and just as much fun.
Guardian (UK)
In this delicious Gothic set in a British boarding school, the daughter of a massively rich Russian finds herself menaced equally by Instagram, an anorexia epidemic, and a spectral ancestor whose haunting portraits seem to watch her every move.
Oprah Magazine
Thomas has a perfectly pitched ear for human cruelty and self-delusion… and all the wild tortures young girls subject themselves to just to feel pretty in the world.
Entertainment Weekly
[S]atisfying, keenly observed…. Though Thomas’s characters get a lot of flak for being insufferable rich girls from outsiders in the novel—and they are—she’s captured with an empathetic eye all the brutal, visceral, and surprisingly funny aspects of teenage girlhood. This is a sharp, astute novel.
Publishers Weekly
Thomas has penned a sharp-eyed novel about the pressure society, adults, and peers put on girls to look and behave a certain way…. Thomas deftly explores exactly what those cost are, and the toll they take on young women.
Booklist
(Starred review) Thomas does a fantastic job of capturing the mental and verbal style of a contemporary teen…. This is a weird, twisty book… [with] the kind of dark humor that is only possible from a writer of profound compassion. Strong stuff. Another strange delight from one of the United Kingdom's most interesting authors.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
Miss Kopp's Midnight Confession (Kopp Sisters Series, 3)
Amy Stewart, 2017
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780544409996
Summary
The best-selling author of Girl Waits with Gun and Lady Cop Makes Trouble continues her extraordinary journey into the real lives of the forgotten but fabulous Kopp sisters.
Deputy sheriff Constance Kopp is outraged to see young women brought into the Hackensack jail over dubious charges of waywardness, incorrigibility, and moral depravity. The strong-willed, patriotic Edna Heustis, who left home to work in a munitions factory, certainly doesn’t belong behind bars. And sixteen-year-old runaway Minnie Davis, with few prospects and fewer friends, shouldn’t be publicly shamed and packed off to a state-run reformatory. But such were the laws—and morals—of 1916.
Constance uses her authority as deputy sheriff, and occasionally exceeds it, to investigate and defend these women when no one else will. But it's her sister Fleurette who puts Constance's beliefs to the test and forces her to reckon with her own ideas of how a young woman should and shouldn't behave.
Against the backdrop of World War I, and drawn once again from the true story of the Kopp sisters, Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions is a spirited, page-turning story that will delight fans of historical fiction and lighthearted detective fiction alike. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Born—ca. 1968-69
• Where—N/A
• Education—B.S., M.S., University of Texas-Austin
• Awards—(See below)
• Currently—lives in Eureka, California
Amy Stewart is the author of eight books. Her debut novel Girl Waits With Gun, based on a true story, was published to wide acclaim in 2015. Lady Cop Makes Trouble, the second in the Kopp Sisters series, came out in 2016, also to favorable reviews.
She has also written six nonfiction books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including four New York Times bestsellers: The Drunken Botanist (2013), Wicked Bugs (2011), Wicked Plants (2009), and Flower Confidential (2009).
She lives in Eureka, California, with her husband Scott Brown, who is a rare book dealer. They own a bookstore called Eureka Books. The store is housed in a classic nineteenth-century Victorian building that Amy very much hopes is haunted.
Media
Since her first book was published in 2001, Stewart has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition and Fresh Air, she’s been profiled in the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, and she’s been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, Good Morning America, the PBS documentary The Botany of Desire, and—believe it or not—TLC’s Cake Boss.
Amy has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, and many other newspapers and magazines. She is the co-founder of the popular blog GardenRant.
Honors & Awards
Amy’s books have been translated into twelve languages, and two of them—Wicked Plants and Wicked Bugs—have been adapted into national traveling exhibits that appear at botanical gardens and museums nationwide.
She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Horticulture Society’s Book Award, and an International Association of Culinary Professionals Food Writing Award. In 2012, she was invited to be the first Tin House Writer-in-Residence, a partnership with Portland State University, where she taught in the MFA program.
Lectures & Events
Amy travels the country as a highly sought-after public speaker whose spirited lectures have inspired and entertained audiences at college campuses such as Cornell and the University of Minnesota, corporate offices, including Google (where she served tequila and nearly broke the Internet), conferences and trade shows, botanical gardens, bookstores, and garden clubs nationwide. Go here to find out where she’s heading next. (Author bio from the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Here…there is little crime-fighting and less suspense, as Stewart focuses instead on the very real social, economic, and legal restrictions on women in 1916, and on the prickly relationships between Constance and her two sisters.… [T]his latest volume is by far the funniest.
Publishers Weekly
The cases here are based on the experiences of real women, a technique that Stewart has employed in previous volumes. Collectively, the story lines intersect to create an intriguing window into women's rights and the social mores that women challenged on the eve of World War I. —Tina Panik, Avon Free P.L., CT
Library Journal
Constance's ability to hold her own in male-dominated investigations and courtrooms … makes her a welcome "vision of an entirely different kind of woman."… Lively and admirable female characters … impeccably realized and given new life by Stewart.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How has the world changed and progressed from book to book in the Kopp Sisters series?
2. How do the sisters’ roles evolve throughout the series, and how are the roles becoming more defined?
3. This third book is written in the third person instead of from Constance’s point of view. Did you notice this change? Why do you think the author chose to do this? What does it allow that Constance’s point of view did not?
4. What do you think of the rapport between Sheriff Heath and Constance? How has their relationship changed since the first book?
5. In the newspaper interview, Constance explains the six requisites she believes are necessary for a detective, and says, "At midnight a woman will tell almost anything if she finds one who is sympathetic to tell it to." This is also included in the book’s epigraph. In what ways are "help" and "sympathy" important themes in Constance’s life and in this book?
6. In the book, parents ask the police to arrest daughters for lack of morals and for waywardness — things as simple as staying out late, dating, or taking jobs. Before Constance takes on more responsibility, there is little or no defense available for these women. Were you surprised to learn about this part of our history? The Mann Act still exists, but its meaning and use have changed. What does its new use say about how our society has changed or stayed the same since the early 1900s?
7. Even though Constance supports and defends women like Edna who are in jail for leaving home, Constance expresses concern when Fleurette goes off on her own adventure. Constance even follows her and asks others to check on her too. How is Constance similar to the parents who turn in their daughters? How is she different?
8. Norma is protective of her family. She initiates spying on Fleurette, handles all of Constance’s fan mail, and takes care of the farmhouse. Does she enjoy her role? Do you think that role might change?
9. Even though Constance and May have very different personalities and jobs, they are both in strong positions for women at the time. How does being a woman affect their lives and their positions? Do they have to act differently than men in the same positions? If so, in what ways?
10. Why does Fleurette lie about her experience on the show? What is she feeling at the end
about her homecoming?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Kingdomtide
Rye Curtis, 2020
Little Brown & Co.
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316420105
Summary
The sole survivor of a plane crash, seventy-two-year-old Cloris Waldrip is lost and alone in the unforgiving wilderness of Montana's rugged Bitterroot Range, exposed to the elements with no tools beyond her wits and ingenuity.
Intertwined with her story is Debra Lewis, a park ranger struggling with addiction and a recent divorce, who is galvanized by her new mission to find and rescue Cloris.
As Cloris wanders mountain forests and valleys, subsisting on whatever she can scavenge, her hold on life ever more precarious, Ranger Lewis and her motley group of oddball rescuers follow the trail of clues she's left behind.
Days stretch into weeks, and hope begins to fade. But with nearly everyone else giving up, Ranger Lewis stays true until the end.
Dramatic and morally complex, Kingdomtide is a story of the decency and surprising resilience of ordinary people faced with extraordinary circumstances.
In powerful, exquisite prose, debut novelist Rye Curtis delivers an inspiring account of two unforgettable characters whose heroism reminds us that survival is only the beginning. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Rye Curtis is originally from Amarillo, Texas. He is a graduate of Columbia University and now lives in Queens in New York City. Kingdomtide is his first novel (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
A startling reversal to the typical survival story.… Abounds in homespun sensory detail.… Rye Curtis complicates the expected adventure-novel payoff.… Cloris's narration grows increasingly vulnerable, surprising, and profound. The wonder of her ordeal has detached her from ordinary cares yet made her ravenously curious about the big, unanswerable questions.
Sam Sacks - Wall Street Journal
Rye Curtis's debut novel, Kingdomtide, is that rare genre-fluid story that is lovable both because of and despite its surfeit of eccentric, over-the-top characters and moments. Some are gritty and dark, others light and wise; together they create an impressive first book and a highly original tale of adventure and perseverance.
Los Angeles Times
A heart-pounding tale.… Riveting and surprising.… Kindness helps steer this heartbreaking tale in a heartwarming direction…. Rye Curtis keeps us turning pages as Cloris confronts bobcats, hypothermia, starvation, icy inundation, and a strange mountain lion who walks backwards.… [A] transportive read… [and] stirring debut.
Heller McAlpin - NPR
Harrowing…. In beautiful prose this horrifying and brutal work of art bounces between Cloris's and Debra's narratives. Together, these unforgettable women create a unique literary novel full of suspense and twists…. The entire cast of characters is layered and raw…. Underneath this gritty and dark tale is the message that sometimes heroism and kindness emerge from those we despise and fear the most,
Sunday Times (UK)
Vivid… an enthralling debut.
Guardian (UK)
[I]ntense…. Seventy-two-year-old Cloris Waldrip's grueling attempt to survive and escape is depicted with vivid urgency…. Her gritty, nightmarish story, as well as her strong voice and personality, will make her a reader favorite…. This story of survival will keep readers quickly turning the pages.
Publishers Weekly
[D]eep and surprising…. Cloris’ survival narration is exciting, with devastating vistas and a mysterious savior in the form of a possible fugitive, but her musings on her past life and life in general are some of the book’s very best moments…. Gloriously unexpected.
Booklist
A bitterly unhappy forest ranger finds a purpose in her search for an old woman who might have survived disaster in this darkly humorous debut novel.… A captivating survival story alternates with a less satisfying look at a midlife crisis in this promising first novel.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(Resources by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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.)