Men Without Women: Stories
53 pages • 1-hour read
Haruki Murakami, Transl. Philip Gabriel, Transl. Ted GoossenMen Without Women: Stories
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Stories 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, sexual content, mental illness, gender discrimination, child death, illness, and pregnancy loss.
Story 1 Summary: “Drive My Car”
Kafuku believes that women who drive largely fall into two categories. The first is timid drivers, while the other is aggressive. Though he does think that some women drive well, just as there are some men who drive poorly, Kafuku finds that the only time he perceives a real difference between genders is when a woman is behind the wheel.
When Kafuku needs a new driver, his mechanic recommends a woman. Kafuku is apprehensive, but the mechanic assures him that this young woman is an excellent driver. Two days later, Kafuku returns to the mechanic. He sees his car and remembers driving it with fondness, before his wife died. The mechanic introduces Kafuku to the driver, Misaki Witari. For the test drive, Kafuku asks Misaki to drive him around Tokyo.
As they drive, they do not speak, and Kafuku finds the silence comfortable and not awkward. He is amazed that when he closes his eyes, he cannot hear Misaki shift the gears of the car, complimenting her obvious skill behind the wheel. Misaki explains that she learned to drive in Hokkaido, where the harsh winters forced her to become a good driver. When he asks her if she knows why he needs a driver, she explains that it is because of a minor accident he had years prior, due to his eyesight, and he had his license suspended. Kafuku offers Misaki the job, and she accepts.
Misaki’s responsibilities primarily consist of driving Kafuku to rehearsals for Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. On their drives, Kafuku plays music when he does not practice lines, but Misaki never comments on it. Kafuku is surprised by how comfortable it is to practice lines in Misaki’s presence. Misaki also drives Kafuku to his other jobs.
As they drive around, Kafuku finds himself thinking of his wife more and more. They met when they were both young actors. Though his wife was initially the bigger name, Kafuku rose to prominence as they aged, though this never caused any friction between them. Kafuku loved his wife more than anything, and loved the 20 years they had together. His wife, however, often conducted secretive affairs with other men. Kafuku knew, but never understood why she did it, as their relationship was always strong and joyful. Now that she is dead, he regrets that he never asked her about the affairs. Though it hurts him to know of them, he would rather know than be ignorant. He credits his acting skills with the ability to keep his knowledge hidden from his wife and others. His love for her drove him to do this, and even after she died, he could not find the same joy he once had with her with any other woman.
One day, Misaki asks Kafuku why he became an actor. When he was in college, a friend of Kafuku’s asked him to join her theater club. He loved it and found the ability to be someone else exhilarating. When Misaki follows this up by asking why Kafuku has no friends, he explains that he never felt much of a need for them, especially after marrying his wife. Kafuku asks the same question, and Misaki tells him that she also has no friends.
After some time, Kafuku tells Misaki that he once knew someone who was a sort of friend—one of his wife’s former lovers. He sought out the friendship, wanting to know why his wife wanted this other man. He found it difficult at first to lie to this man, but once again relied on his acting to get him through. When Misaki asks if they were truly friends, Kafuku admits that he doesn’t quite know.
The man was another actor whom Kafuku’s wife had briefly worked with. Six months after her death, Kafuku ran into the man. The man was very complimentary about Kafuku’s wife, and before parting, Kafuku asked the man out for a drink to talk about his wife. During their first meeting, Kafuku realized that this man had loved his wife.
The two men reminisced about Kafuku’s wife, and Kafuku grew attached to the man. They became drinking buddies. One night, in a bar behind the Nezu Museum, they sat, watched by a gray cat. Kafuku shared that he believed he never truly knew his wife. The man comforted Kafuku, saying that no man can truly understand a woman, and suggested that Kafuku should look inward and fully understand himself in order to understand his wife. That night, when they shook hands in parting, Kafuku did not feel overwhelmed by the thought of touching a hand that had also touched his wife.
Misaki asks if Kafuku remained friends with the man, but Kafuku admits that after six months, he began ignoring the man. At this point, he did not have to act as the man’s friend and therefore gave up the performance. Though he initially wanted to hurt the man, Kafuku could not. He had to let go of his rage, finding the man sincere.
Kafuku tells Misaki that he will nap for a while. He closes his eyes and listens to the engine as she drives. He still cannot hear when she shifts gears.
Story 2 Summary: “Yesterday”
Tanimura only knows of one person who ever translated the Beatles song, “Yesterday,” into Japanese. It was his friend, Kitaru, who used the unique Kansai dialect.
Kitaru and Tanimura met while working together in a coffee shop outside of Waseda University. While Tanimura was raised in Kansai, he spoke standard, or Tokyo-style, Japanese, while Kitaru, born and raised in Tokyo, only spoke with the Kansai dialect. Kitaru was an avid Hanshin Tigers fan and learned the dialect to speak with other fans of the team.
At the beginning of their friendship, Tanimura was a sophomore at Waseda, while Kitaru, who had failed the entrance exams, studied at a cram school to retake them. Tanimura first heard Kitaru sing his version of “Yesterday” while at Kitaru’s home in Tokyo. Though Kitaru pretended to be from a middle-class area, his home was in one of the richer parts of the city. They would often spend time there and talk while Kitaru took a bath and Tanimura sat on the other side of a partition. As Kitaru sang, Tanimura argued with him, saying the lyrics sounded like they were mocking the song. Kitaru said that the words were not to be taken so seriously.
In the bath, Kitaru often lamented the state of his life. He forced himself to study as much as he could, even though his parents believed that he was not studying enough. He wanted to pass the exams so he could join his former girlfriend, Erika, at university. Kitaru and Erika knew each other as children and dated in high school. Erika, however, went to college right after, while Kitaru struggled with the exams. They agreed that they should pause their relationship until Kitaru passed the exams. In Tokyo, they would talk and occasionally meet, but it was formal.
One day, Kitaru suggested that Tanimura date Erika for him. Tanimura was surprised. Kitaru explained that he felt split, with one half of him insecure that Erika was moving on without him, while the other was relieved that they were not continuing their perfect relationship. Kitaru believed that Tanimura was a good guy and would be good for Erika.
Tanimura agreed to meet Erika. One Sunday, he met with her and Kitaru. Tanimura watched as the two teased each other, witnessing the connection they had. Eventually, Kitaru suggested that Erika date Tanimura, telling her that he would feel better if he knew she was with a good guy, even though she assured him she was seeing no one else. After some hesitation, Erika agreed to see a movie and have dinner with Tanimura the following Saturday.
After the movie, Tanimura and Erika ate dinner at an Italian restaurant. Erika asked Tanimura for advice. She was confused, saying that Kitaru’s commitment to getting into Waseda University, despite not studying enough, was wearing her down. Kitaru believed that he would pass the exams with luck. Erika saw Kitaru as a rigid thinker, his commitment to the Kansai dialect an example of this. Erika also complained that she and Kitaru were not as intimate as she wished. Tanimura suggested that the length of their relationship and how deeply Kitaru cared for her, almost as a sibling, may have made it hard for him.
Tanimura believed that Kitaru was lost. Erika did not disagree and revealed that she was, in fact, seeing another boy. Though she loved Kitaru and did not expect to ever love someone else the same way, she felt an urge to move on and try something else. She hesitated to tell Kitaru, not wanting to hurt him, and told Tanimura of a dream she frequently had. In the dream, she and Kitaru were on a ship, and when they looked out of the porthole, they saw the moon with its bottom half below the horizon. Though it looked like the moon, it was actually ice, and always melted when the sun came up. Erika believed it was a beautiful dream, but woke from it sad every time.
After the date, Kitaru interrogated Tanimura, wanting to know everything. Tanimura answered what he could and assured Kitaru that he and Erika were never physical. As they talked, Kitaru revealed that he saw a therapist and had been for years. It was supposed to help with his rigid thinking, but Kitaru said it did not help, believing that his way of thinking was normal. Tanimura told Kitaru to ignore the urge to change and just be himself. He told Kitaru that Erika loved him and that he could not let her go.
Two weeks later, Kitaru disappeared. He stopped showing up for work and did not contact Tanimura. As Tanimura thought of his friend and Erika, he reminisced about his own ex-girlfriend from before university. He regretted how he treated her and wrote an apology to her, though she never replied.
16 years later, Tanimura runs into Erika at a wine-tasting event. They catch up and joke about how they never had a second date. Eventually, Erika brings up Kitaru. He sends her postcards every time he moves. He was in Seattle, and now is in Denver, working as a sushi chef. After quitting his job at the coffee shop, Kitaru left Tokyo for cooking school, leaving Erika and their relationship behind.
Upon hearing this, Tanimura asks Erika if she had sex with the boy she was seeing when they had their date. She tells him that she did, and that their first time was soon after her date with Tanimura. Tanimura guesses that Kitaru sensed this, and Erika confirms that this likely led to him leaving. Before parting, Tanimura asks Erika if she still dreams of the moon of ice. She is thrilled that he remembers her dream, but says that she no longer has it.
Tanimura drives while listening to “Yesterday.” He tries to remember Kitaru’s Kansai lyrics, but can only recall fragments of them. He reminisces about his time with Kitaru, thinking of how it is the clearest time of his 20s in his memories. He realizes just how powerful music is and its ability to bring up memories. He remembers this time as a lonely one. He thinks of Kitaru in Denver and hopes he is happy.
Stories 1-2 Analysis
In the first story, “Drive My Car,” the protagonist Kafuku struggles with the knowledge that his late wife conducted multiple affairs without telling him. Kafuku does not know how to confront her, or the emotions he feels because of her betrayals, introducing the theme of The Relationship Between Masculinity and Emotional Unavailability. As a professional actor, Kafuku decides to feign ignorance, conceptualizing this strategy as playing another role: “Kafuku was a professional actor. Shedding his self, his flesh and blood, in order to inhabit a role was his calling. And he embraced this one with all his might. A role performed without an audience” (17). In hiding behind a role even in his personal life, Kafuku avoids the risks of vulnerability and emotional openness.
Kafuku does not feel comfortable exploring his emotions or discussing the matter with his wife or anyone else. He would rather know than not know of her infidelity, but does not want to openly acknowledge it. This results in the feelings of betrayal seeping deeper and deeper into him while also making him reconsider his entire marriage and the woman he loved. As a man, he is uncomfortable sharing these feelings, even when he makes friends with one of his wife’s ex-lovers, who experiences the same emotions that he does. Kafuku relies on playing a role to protect himself rather than heal, unwilling to fully face the force of emotions resulting from his wife’s betrayal and subsequent death.
Murakami’s stories in Men Without Women are rife with figurative language. The most common device that Murakami uses is the simile. He frequently uses this literary device to create an association between what the characters of his stories feel and a physical image. When Kafuku meets with his wife’s ex-lover, the man watches Kafuku, curious to see how the man reacts after the death of his wife. Kafuku is largely silent, not revealing much to the man. The ex-lover sees this stillness and thinks of how it resembles water: “All he saw was the kind of stillness you might expect someone who had recently lost his wife of many years. Like the surface of a pond after the ripples had spread and gone” (26).
The use of this simile creates a connection between the perceived emotional state of Kafuku and the ex-lover’s ability to understand it. The comparison to a pond in which the ripples of something breaking the surface have dissipated creates a chilling environment. It is as if the ex-lover sees Kafuku as silent and still because the life he led with his wife, the ripples, is gone, and now there is no texture to either the surface of the pond or to Kafuku’s life. The ex-lover assumes that Kafuku is only suffering because of his wife’s death, and not her infidelity as well. When Kafuku eventually shares his fear that he never really knew his wife, the man’s comforting response helps him begin to heal. He loses his anger against the ex-lover, revealing the benefits of emotional vulnerability.
Another key, The Persistence of Loneliness in Love, manifests differently in characters at different stages in their romantic relationships. Kafuku feels lonely in the aftermath of his wife’s death. Kitaru, in “Yesterday,” feels lonely as well, due to the growing distance between him and Erika as they enter young adulthood. Whereas Erika is at university, progressing in life, Kitaru feels stuck, struggling to be admitted to university himself: “I mean, I’m going to some fricking cram school, studying for the fricking entrance exams, while Erika’s having a ball in college […] She’s got new friends, is probably dating some new guy, for all I know. When I think of all that, I feel left behind” (52). Kitaru worries his love is not enough to overcome the differences between him and Erika. In fact, he approaches this loneliness from the perspective of love, believing that by giving her freedom from him, he is allowing her to grow and live her life instead of being held back by him. Kafuku watches as her life changes and progresses without him, while he lives the inverse, his life stalling in her absence.
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