Book Review: Men Without Women

Title: Men Without Women
Author: Haruki Murakami
Date: 2017

"Once you have become Men Without Women, loneliness seeps down inside your body, like a red wine stain on a pastel carpet."

Yes, another Murakami's book. Because of Norwegian Wood I have taken an interest to read all Murakami's works. Men Without Women is the second book of his book that I have read.

The book itself consists of seven (short) stories about men on their loneliness without women. All the seven stories were from different narrators and plots but they share something in common. The stories is talking about how women are coming to men's live and then they left based on the men's perspective. The stories are: Drive my Car, Yesterday, an Independent Organ, Scheherazade, Kino, Samsa in Love, and Men Without Women. 

Drive my Car is the first story on the book. It tells about Kafuku, an actor, who hired a female driver. Later, he shared his story about his dead wife whom he found out was cheating on another man and he tried to befriended the guy.

From the seven stories, my favorite is Scheherazade. Scheherazade is a story about a man who cannot leave the house but he was visited by a woman twice a week. The woman always bring him groceries and household needs, she also provides him sexual needs. After the sex, the woman always tells him stories and slowly he is growing fond of her. So, it was like a story inside a story.

I think what makes Scheherazade my favorite is that Murakami left the ending hanging. It is just stop before the woman finish her 'pillow talk' story. Honestly, I am curious about what happened next to her story. She was sharing her high school memory where she was obsessed over a guy. The woman's story was very interesting so I was kind of upset when it ended like that.

For me, I will give this book 5 stars. A truly masterpiece, I really adore Murakami's works.

Review: 5/5