Book review: men without women

By Malvika Sawant, 2025

Published 9/27/23

Haruki Murakami’s works have recently been gaining traction on TikTok, notably the novel Kafka on the Shore. During the summer, I absolutely demolished the book and savored its beautiful world, so I knew I needed more. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami (originally written in Japanese, then translated to English) is definitely one of his lesser-known works, yet it is exceedingly well written and leaves the reader mulling over their choices and decisions in life. This book is a compilation of short stories, telling the story of seven men and their experiences with the women in their lives. It is definitely a more mature book, with some hard-to-digest topics and scenes with mature content.

 This book delves into the lives of these men—men who are without women. It shows the loneliness that everyone has faced at least once and how these people get out of or sink into the depths of what it is to be alone. The characters range from a silly college student who composes funny songs to a cosmetic surgeon who plays squash at a very expensive gym. Every one of these characters' stories display their relationships and the things which happen to different people as they go through the pain of loss. The diversity of the stories juxtaposed with the similarities in each character's underlying emotions really shows the reality of our daily lives.

If you are a fan of books that really make you introspect and look at the outside world differently, read Men Without Women.

“So in the end, maybe that’s the challenge: to look inside your own heart as perceptively and seriously as you can and to make peace with what you find there. If we hope to truly see another person, we have to start by looking within ourselves.” Haruki Murakami, Men Without Women