2020: I definitely should not have skipped around Murakami's list of top recommended books for this one, because it has the potential for me to write off Murakami forever, but Barack Obama told me to read it. Actually, what Obama said was "Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women examines what happens to characters without important women in their lives; it'll move you and confuse you and sometimes leave you with more questions than answers." Which I guess is not wrong.

The stories all center around men losing women in some capacity, but it's very difficult to have any sympathy for any of them. They come across as rather weak characters who are unable to deal with the loss of these important women in their lives, but honestly? The majority of the women made it clear that they did not want to be with the men.

The stories got very repetitive after a while, and I honestly don't even know what happened in "Kino". There were a ton of misogynistic undertones, and it was very weird to have a book be praising Woody Allen in 2017 (when the book was published, unclear exactly when the story was originally written. BUT STILL).

It is funny to me to read about Murakami's continued obsession with The Beatles, just after having finished Norwegian Wood earlier this year. The first two stories in this collection are named after Bealtes songs ("Drive My Car" and "Yesterday"). "Yesterday" also had a ton of elements in common with Norwegian Wood.

Overall, I straight up would not recommend it.