Breasts and Eggs

hardcover, 448 pages

Published April 7, 2020 by Europa Editions.

ISBN:
978-1-60945-587-3
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(28 reviews)

On a sweltering summer day, Makiko travels from Osaka to Tokyo, where her sister Natsu lives. She is in the company of her daughter, Midoriko, who has lately grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with adolescence. Over the course of their few days together in the capital, Midoriko's silence will prove a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and family secrets.

On yet another summer's day eight years later, Natsu, during a journey back to her native city, confronts her anxieties about growing old alone and childless.

Bestselling author Mieko Kawakami mixes stylistic inventiveness and riveting emotional depth to tell a story of contemporary womanhood in Japan.

10 editions

reviewed Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Breasts and Eggs

I appreciate that female friendships and fulfilment without a romantic relationship are themes in the author's work. Writing about poverty and classism from the opening chapter also boded well, but in the end I was disconnected from every one of the characters' thought processes and motivations. Disengaging scenes included the later-unreflected-upon policing of gender when the protagonist is trying to work up the nerve to tell someone off for being in the women's section of a bathhouse, and when the protagonist speaks during the Q&A after a donor conception meeting and her argument degenerates and she lands on talking about parents murdering their own children. More than one character rants about inflicting life on people who never asked to be born and it teeters near ableist ideas of what lives are worth living. Natsuko concludes that Yuriko and Sengawa were right, and instead of standing up for herself, her decision …

chewy

Content warning Spoilers & CW birth, ableism

10 out of 5 stars

Easily one of the best books I have ever read. No previous description, or review could have prepared me for it. A lot of folks go on and on about the meta / societal aspects of the text. They are there, but they are not the point, and that certainly isn't what floored me. Come without preconceptions, let yourself bask in the language, the stories within stories.

Review of 'Breasts and Eggs' on 'Goodreads'

I loved it. I thought the prose was beautiful and I liked the weight she gave to each character. I felt like I could understand each character on a minute level. She did a good job talking about each character’s struggles. At times it was a bit repetitive and the motif was a little ham fisted, but I’d give the book a 4.5/5.

Boiling women down to the parts

Content warning Gender essentialism? A bit of possible transphobia

reviewed Breasts and Eggs by David Boyd

Kawakami stan.

What a beautiful book. I was scared by the reviews calling it a "feminist novel" but it was not what I was expecting. Whenever I read someone describing something as "feminist", I brace myself for something superficial, something that can only be envisioned in the realm of white feminism. This was not it. Granted, I have just recently started reading modern literature and this was my first real taste of Japanese literature, but this book felt like nothing I have ever read before. I have never read a book about women so profound and raw. I am enamoured with Mieko Kawakami writing and persona. I am already planning a reread (what have I become?).

Review of 'Breasts and Eggs' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

I couldn't finish. I got about halfway through, and the story was just too meandering and plotless, I just couldn't imagine it holding my attention for another 200+ pages. This is really two separate books -- a novella (the first half) and then a longer novel (the second half), resulting in a too-long 448 pages. The first-half novella was excellent, a well-written family drama giving a view of what life is like for poor women in Japan, one of whom is a single mother, and I liked the fact that all of the characters were women. But the second half just drags on.

Review of 'Breasts and Eggs' on 'Goodreads'

This brought up a lot of questions but I'm not sure it always answered them. As I mentioned before, several pages of transphobic nonsense in the beginning that had nothing to do with the plot. I'm not entirely sure what this book was trying to communicate unless it genuinely just wanted me to think on questions of the female condition on my own. Some beautiful writing and wonderful translation. Overall an enjoyable read.

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