Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

This is my first book by the highly appreciated Haruki Murakami. It contains short stories of men and their relationship with women. Although I had a slight problem with the first story, or the way it was written (might have been the translation), it improved with each of the stories.

The stories are about different men from different parts of the society and their often troubled relationship with their women. Together, they show the different ways of love. One of my favourite was the one about a man who did not want to get married, and had a lot of different affairs. It was always him that ended the affairs. Then, one day, the thing happened, that I always think happens to most of us, he fell in love with his mistress. All of a sudden the situation was the reverse. He was the eager one and she withdrew. It lead to a total downfall for the man and ended in disaster.

This is just one of the extremes of the stories Murakami tells us. They are all told in a calm, matter of fact way, and it is almost like you see a movie, rather than read a text. The stories are very visible. Although it takes place in the Japanese society, I think the stories are universal. Love is a very complicating thing, no matter what happens.

I loved the book and am looking forward reading more by Murakami.