Reviews - Men Without Women: Stories

Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami

3.57k reviews for:

I don't really like short stories so it is pretty high praise to give a short story collection four stars. I don't like short stories because I always feel cheated -- if the ideas were good they would have been turned into proper novels. I can't get comfortable in a short story. There isn't time to get to know the character and the story always ends too soon. But I did love the short story Men Without Women. I think that was the most successful here. I liked Sheherazade and Samsa in Love was weirdly funny.

bewiserkaiser's review against another edition

3.5

dark funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Life is sorrowful so be nice, loving, and take what you can when you can get it 👍

baebiebel's review against another edition

2.0

incel literature

cjaybrady's review against another edition

3.0

The short story layout makes it a good choice for airplane reading but it doesn’t always keep you captivated - as most series go.

stoogs's review against another edition

3.25

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

periapocalipticdaddy's review against another edition

2.0

i like murakami i do. i've always felt his read on gender has been really sloppy though and this is really just him leaning into that. his women are all objects for mens pontification and epiphanies.

there's still chekhov and magic cats and that odd surrealism of the mind and world we love from him. but i found this book painful and tedious more than insightful. maybe it was a bad time for me to read it what with everything in the world and his nothing-really-matters-and-we-can't-know-anything magical realism hit different.

elizgeise's review against another edition

4.0

“But maybe going through that kind of tough, lonely experience is necessary when you’re young? Part of the process of growing up?” “You think so?” “The way surviving hard winters makes a tree grow stronger, the growth rings inside it tighter.”