However, over the course of their six-month friendship which was spent mostly binge drinking at local bars, he was never able to find any damning information and instead sympathizes with Takatsuki's observations.

Dealing with actors and the world of theatre, "Drive My Car" could be considered as an example of what Graham Wolfe calls "theatre-fiction".

Kitaru has a few idiosyncrasies that cause his girlfriend Erika to feel uneasy about their relationship: he speaks in a Kansai dialect despite having lived all his life in Tokyo, does not want to study hard despite having university aspirations, and seems to be asexual around her.

He goes on to ask whether she had sex with the man she mentioned on their date years ago; she replies yes, but that it did not lead to anything and that she still thinks about Kitaru on occasion.

The title of the story comes from The Beatles' "Yesterday" and how, upon hearing it, Tanimura is reminded of Kitaru's playful mistranslation of the lyrics into "Kansai Japanese."

Tanimura tells of a time in his life when he regularly played squash with Dr. Tokai, a 52-year-old cosmetic surgeon and bachelor who has never lived long-term or fallen into a serious relationship with anyone.

The title of the story comes from Tanimura's memory of Tokai's observation that women have "an independent organ" that allows them to lie with a clear conscience.

Upon returning for her fourth break-in, Scheherazade notices that the locks have changed and reluctantly goes back to her regular schooling.

Kino, with the help of his retiring aunt, decides to open up a bar after he finds out his wife's affair with her lover, his co-worker.

A week later, a mysterious man, Kamita, begins to frequent the bar because he finds the establishment a soothing place to read.

A week later, Kino notes a particular woman who frequents the bar, but on this occasion, her male companion is absent; she interests him because of their mutual fondness of jazz.

Kamita returns, and tells him that he has been working for his aunt and insists that he temporarily close the bar and go on a trip to soul-search.

During a night when he perceives there is strange knocking on his door, he comes to terms with himself, realizing that he has been living for so long in apathy.

When the doorbell rings, he opens it to find a young, hunchbacked female locksmith apprentice who says that she is here to fix a lock in the house.

An unnamed narrator receives a phone call in the middle of the night telling him that his former lover, who he dubs M, has committed suicide, the caller being M's husband.

He is also in a state called "Men Without Women," a period of sudden and intense misery after a man learns of the death of a beloved woman.

[9][10] Lucy Scholes, writing for The Independent, states that the stories "strung together [a]re a sparkling strand of precious stones, the light refracted from each equally brilliant but the tones varying subtly.

"[11] Heller McAlpin, writing for The Washington Post, states that "[Murakami's] meandering, mesmerizing tales of profound alienation are driven by puzzling circumstances that neither his characters nor readers can crack — recalling existentialist Gabriel Marcel’s assertion that 'Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be experienced.

'"[12] The short story "Drive My Car" (and, to a lesser degree, "Scheherazade" and “Kino”) served as the basis for the 2021 film of the same name by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.