Reviews - Men Without Women

3.6k reviews for:

Men Without Women

Haruki Murakami

3.61 AVERAGE

snjuu's review against another edition

5.0

4.5
One of my favorites from Murakami!

pastmyego's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

courtneyajw's review against another edition

3.0

Kino is the story of a man who finds his wife cheating on him, divorces her, and opens a bar in the tea house his aunt used to own before retiring. It's my serious belief that Murakami's short stories tend to capture the essence of his writing. There are trademark symbols in all of his stories that will remind you whose work you're reading and his doesn't deviate.

A man frequents his bar and we eventually learn that this man - real or other - is there to watch him and was requested to do so by Kino's aunt. Eventually, Kino sleeps with a strange patron of the bar who has burn marks all over her body. The man, Kamita, instructs Kino to leave the bar shortly after that. He tells him that he may be in danger for not having done something right - but he may not have don't something wrong. So Kino leaves and travels Japan for a while. He finally learns that the problem is his heart. I think the point of the story is that Kino rarely listens to his heart and now that he is, it is full of sorrow and memories of people and things that have done him wrong. Once he finally learns to open his heart, listen to what's it's telling him and really absorb his own emotions, it's a bit overwhelming but will eventually allow him to lead a more fulfilling or well-buttoned up life.