![]() ![]() There is the standardized first person point of view. ![]() There is perfunctory sex between straight couples and the glaring absence of authentic sexual pleasure (except when part of a nostalgic longing of adolescence). There is the cishet normativity flowing through the veins of each story like a lifeline. There is the classic diegetic narrative (in fact, one woman, who tells the story of breaking and entering into the house of her high school crush, one chapter for each time they have sex, is even given the eponymous nickname “Scheherazade” by the tragically normal male protagonist). ![]() This long anticipated collection of short stories gives readers the candy they want, only the pieces are smaller (and some might be a choking hazard): there is the quintessential Murakami story formula iterated in many Japanese manga series of the boring male protagonist whose tragically normal life gets turned on its head after meeting an intriguing, audacious, and eccentric female character (or after crossing paths with a stranger with a mysterious past). Men Without Women is a familiar, easily identifiable, and oddly comforting book for the Murakami reader, privileging the emotional landscape of lonely Japanese men through scaffolding characterization, personal idiosyncrasy, and monkey-wrench narratives instead of dramatic Hollywood plot lines, food porn, or cultural didacticism. ![]()
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