This was the first book by Murakami which I read. There are certain characteristics of his writing that I would like to bring up. This will help us appreciate and understand his work better.
Firstly, Murakami is a great observer. He talks about daily affairs in such light and detail that you will wonder whether you are living life in the right way. His stories don’t need any fancy setting or place. All he uses is an old rusty car or a simple bedroom with a perfectly common ceiling. Secondly, you can find him using vivid dreams and imagery. His dreams are very real and you will find him using different creatures like cat, fish and snakes to add some tinge to the story. Thirdly, there is a sense of enigma in his writing he makes you ask questions and then takes you on an incomplete journey to find the answers. I personally love this as he gives us enough context about the riddle we are trying to solve but no more. We are all free to come to our own conclusions as we see fit.
So now that you know something about Murakami. I’ll try to describe my journey through the book Men without Women trying to avoid any spoilers. The thing which I found out after I got the book is that this is a collection of short stories on the same topic of Men without Women. These are the stories of men who desire a female company and sometimes fall in love and occasionally die. It is an account of feelings and emotions within a man, what he is in a company of a woman or when he loses that company. He shows the reality of how weak men are, they cheat and they love, they laugh and they cry.
The stories are not in any specific order but they do try to tell us(me) something. He starts with a man who is alone for a long time, he has lost his wife and child. Now he meets a young woman who shares the same age as his dead child and shares an emotional conversation about his love for the woman who was the best person to sit beside him in his car. He also goes about describing how cheating can hurt and some men bust-up while another soak in the pain for the sake of love.
Then there is a story about the man, a surgeon who has been with so many women but never in love until one day. He falls in love with a woman, married and a mother of a child. He is not sure if they will ever be together but his insecurity and love for this lady is mind-numbing. He faces a defeating heartbreak which in turn takes away his everything.
A woman and storyteller, what else can a man desire? This was true for a man who was seeing a woman who was a storyteller. He was not sure if he enjoyed her physical company or liked her looks. What he was sure about was how much he enjoyed her stories on the bed after they made love. This was his favourite. He is still afraid and wondering that without this woman how will he ever live again.
A man is enticed by mysteries and story of Kino is one of them. Kino is a bar name after its owner. Cheated, heartbroken doesn’t expect much from life when suddenly he lay down with a woman and see how brutal the world can be. The story is yet incomplete as Kino moves around the world because of omens and sign which were not good for him. He doesn’t even know what is happening with him.
Now Murakami starts another story out of nowhere and shares things with us which we’ll never forget. Have you ever wondered if it were better to be a sunflower or a fish? You will ask this question once you read this story. Here we see the ignorance and unknowns of life and how oblivious we are to the things. We know or we don’t the life always continues and things keep changing. Only love is a feeling worth caring about.
In his final story which is the title of the Book, Men without Women, he tries to tells us about a gap, a void in the heart of a man. The void which we all men have. The void created by the broken heart, the unsoothed feelings and the incomplete hopes and desires. Love fills in the vacuum of a man’s existence but as it leaves it takes away everything.
It was a nice book to read. These are the feeling we all have been through but never paused to notice. It can help you see life in ways we never thought before and open perspectives and doors to new experiences. :)