The question: What do female readers think of Haruki Murakami’s work? In particular, how do you feel about Murakami’s depiction of women in his novels?
I (a man) recently started reading *Kafka on the Shore* (about halfway through, no spoilers please!) with a few friends, one of whom is a woman. Thus far, she has struggled with the way women exist in this book. She has never read Murakami before. It got me thinking more generally about Murakami.
I’m a big fan of Haruki Murakami’s work. I’ve read 4 of his novels and a bunch of short stories, and I really enjoy his storytelling sensibility. I don’t always understand what’s happening at first, and some things I still don’t understand what they are supposed to signify, but I am consistently drawn into his worlds and compelled to keep reading more. I also cannot deny that he’s… horny? Women are often sexualized, even if they aren’t primary romantic interests; many women our characters interact with are drawn as objects of desire, or end up in sexual encounters quite casually. It’s never bothered me enough to put me off him–though it has always struck me a strange quirk of his. Also, the people I’ve shared an appreciation of him with are all men. I’m curious how y’all feel!
by CaptainLeebeard
16 Comments
I’ve significantly decreased the number of books I read that were written by men after reading Norwegian Wood. I had a whole rant about it after I finished, but it’s been awhile now so I don’t remember the specifics. The gist is his portrayal of women was just bizarre and so hyper sexual. I understand there’s potentially a lot that contributes to the portrayal of women in this book (came out 37 years ago, cultural differences, things getting lost in translation), but I will not be reading any more of his work.
I think it’s fairly obvious: that Murakami can’t really write women well. Actually there’s an interview with him and Mieko Kawakami (Breasts and Eggs, Miss Ice Sandwich, among others) where she sort of grills him on it but he doesn’t seem to really get it: https://lithub.com/a-feminist-critique-of-murakami-novels-with-murakami-himself/
It’s a big reason I don’t love him. It’s way better in his short stories, which I still enjoy, and way worse in his novels which I don’t really have any interest in anymore.
I’ve stopped reading two of this books a few chapters in because of how the women were written. I’ve become a lot more sensitive to how women are portrayed in novels written by male authors these days, and it just made me uncomfortable. I don’t have the urge to read any more of his work
I enjoy his books. I’m a horny woman as well, lol, so I do undersand where he’s coming from.
I enjoy sex in books in general though, so I’ve never minded.
I haven’t read him myself but I have seen tons of women reviewers talking about how badly and offensively he writes women and how it makes it really difficult to read his books because it’s really uncomfortable, which has led me to not want to read from him tbh…
I’m a woman and I actually really like his books.
Do I relate to the way he writes women – no. But that’s not necessarily why I read. I can enjoy his stories and worldviews even if I don’t relate or even agree with him all the time.
I do think open discourse about it is important though and I understand people who don’t like to read his work as a result.
I DNF’ed IQ84 because the male gaze seemed strong to me and my noticing of that was frequently taking me out of the story.
I was hoping it was just an artefact of the English translation, or that it was only a thing in that single book… Reading this thread has pretty much convinced me to not to re-try Murakami.
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This has to be bait. There is no way anyone can hang around this sub for more than a few days and not know the majority answer to this question.
If I didn’t read books that had shitty portrayals of women, I’d be missing out on a large part of literary canon. Whenever I see it I just roll my eyes and get on with it. Murakami does some things really well and I’m there for that, but yeah, the criticisms are valid.
I respect people who have decided not to read his works because of it, but this is the trade-off I’ve made. It sucks that it has to be made at all.
I’m a guy but my girlfriend introduced me to him and she re read Kafka on the Shore while I read it for the first time. She definitely seemed less enamored with the wild sex sequences than I was and I had a lot of fun getting her to roll her eyes talking about the older woman character being sexy.
Essentially she said she likes him despite it though, and basically acknowledges that the run off byproduct of a great writer is gonna be weirdo, pervertedness like with Murakami.
I read his books for the vibes. Sometimes the way he focuses on breasts is a little off-putting, but it’s all a part of the world he creates.
I can’t say I’ve thought deeply about it. Sometimes it seems like he’s specializing teenage girls from the perspective of older male protagonists. I don’t really like that, but I know what I’m getting into when I read one of his books.
I just want to be in the bubble of a Murakami world. His writing is so unusual and it creates a vibe I can’t describe. If I were to analyze things too much, I’d lose the feeling. So it is what it is!
He writes seriously awful women. The constant objectification and sexualization of all of the women and girls in his stories puts me off a lot, so I don’t read him. Some people write bad women but have a good enough story otherwise that I can overlook it (Stephen King), but for some reason murakamis writing just really grates on me
I’m a woman and I’ve read a lot of his work. Honestly like, this is going to sound rude or something but I feel like I’ve had to learn to just roll my eyes and go “yes, dear” during certain scenes by many, many male authors I otherwise really enjoy. I love the weird, surreal, mysterious atmosphere Murakami creates. I love his pop culture references. Mostly I love the way he depicts contemporary urban loneliness and alienation. But the way he writes about women is frankly stupid. Same for a lot of great male writers like Cormac MacCarthy, Don DeLillo, of course Hemingway, etc.
When I was young I took it personally and would get depressed that the authors I admired often didn’t seem to see women as real people. If you think about it that way, it really sucks. Like I went to college and grad school and have continued going to writing workshops into my advanced middle age to learn about writing, and to some people my existence is always going to come down to whether I have a pleasantly rounded bosom or whatever condescending description they want to use, and that’s depressing as all hell.
So now I just kind of do my best to look at it as a fault in the author, not in me. A lot of people are just kind of dumb when it comes to seeing the humanity of people who are different from them. It’s disappointing but it’s very, very common.
I haven’t read any of his books. I was interested in reading them until I saw some quotes. Sexualizing a woman while at the same time comparing her breasts to a child’s breasts, and multiple books which contain little girls “sexually assaulting” grown men. No thank you, not interested in reading something that sexualizes kids.
To me Murakami is yet another reminder of how alienating (male) culture and literature is for women. You can find all the loopholes in the world trying to justify him, but in the ends it all boils down to women having to accept the constant dehumanization we’ve been suffering for centuries. I don’t care for his writing, and I prefer investing my time reading other authors.