Breasts and Eggs

I have complicated feelings about this book. It occasionally dips into brilliance before grinding to a brutal halt again. The first half was genuinely engaging, and then you randomly crash into the most wildly transphobic scene in probably any recent novel not written by J.K. Rowling, and then the narrative moves on like it never happened.

I loved this book's analysis and description of how being a middle age working class woman experience is like.
The descriptions were nice and soothing at first but sincerely, they became repetitive eventually.
Apart from that, I loved it. I think that It makes sense stylistically that Natsuko as a writer, is very detailed with her thoughts and Dead Eye is more simplistic.

I think it’s important for people to read books that are explicitly about experiences that they can not and will not have in their lives. It’s a great way to expand one’s horizons and I find that the process makes people more enlightened. This idea is what drew me to Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami. The vast majority of Japanese books that I’ve read have been written by men and for men, with the women in these books either being nonexistent or totally unrealistic. Breasts and Eggs is the opposite of that. It is written by a woman for women with the majority of the characters being women and the entire focus of the book being on womens’ issues. That makes it a book that is very important for me as a man to read but one that I am unsure of how to review. Because I question what right I have to critique it. What I will do is lay out the facts of how I feel about this book in as matter-of-fact a way as I can possibly get.

I love it. I love pretty much everything about it. I love how it’s structured. I love how it’s narrated. I love the nuances of the characters. I love the questions it brings up. I love how some of those questions aren’t totally answered. I love the big emotional scenes. I love the more subtle parts. It’s a book that I feel is totally successful in what it is trying to do, which is about the highest praise I can give any novel. And those are the facts.

Plotwise this book doesn't offer much content but the triumph lies in its straightforward and unflinching social commentary on women's bodily anatomy, and functions. Like the majority of people, I think the first part is better in terms of character growth and the realistic outcome of events. In the second part, it seemed like our protagonist's actions became more random and spontaneous and the motive behind her important decision seemed to be a fleeting thought which has little logical and empathetic reasoning, especially after Yuriko's conversation bit impacted me so much and it seemed like even Natsu has shaken I was disappointed with Natsu's decision at the end. It may seem like a happy ending for her but that doesn't strengthen the reason behind her ultimate decision. it seemed incompatible with the ultimate messages that are presented here.

People are willing to accept the pain and suffering of others, limitless amounts of it, as long as it helps them to keep on believing in whatever it is that they want to believe. Love, meaning, doesn't matter.

I guess this book is about becoming a woman? Or wanting to become a mother? Kind of hard to sum up. It also had some slightly surrealist, Murakami vibes - which makes me wonder is that because it is similar, or do Japanese books translated to English generally end up like this?

Also interesting to note is that the original book was written in Kansai-ben (a more rough-sounding Japanese dialect) but the book hasn't made any attempt to translate that and has done it purely in standard English. Which makes me wonder how different the experience would be if you read it in Japanese.

Stopping this despite having reached 50%. The novel is split into two parts, and I quite enjoyed the first shorter part. But now the second part is too meandering, and has a navel gazing aspect that becomes worse because the protagonist of the novel is an author. So, the two stars are for the first section, which apparently existed as a standalone novella before.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book and the journey it took me on. I read this book because I had heard others praise it, but I didn’t really know much about the story. All I knew was what the synopsis vaguely mentions. While reading book one, I was a bit confused on how this book planned on covering such a small yet deep conflict in so many pages without overusing it. I was getting a bit weary and was just hoping the author wouldn’t drag it out. However, that small conflict was only the beginning, the catalyst, it was just the foundation and the set up to a much deeper and heart wrenching issue that the main character is dealing with.

It's fiction. But not really. It's real. So real for me and any woman living next door.
Most reader's didn't like the eggs part much or at least prefer the breasts part more but I was more moved by the second half. Being a child-free married woman myself, that whole anti-natalist monologue from yuriko was spot on. I was disappointed how Natsu ended up having a child even after that discourse but i guess that adequately represents human society. we know it's bad we know it's selfish yet we do it anyway. (not me though)

‘Breasts and Eggs' is a novel that every woman should read: it is inspiring and hopeful in some ways, but also extremely scary and depressing in others. It made me want to reclaim my body by refusing to be influenced by the media who successfully promote unachievable and unhealthy female body images. It makes you reflect on issues such as body dismorphia, mental illness, body shaming and eating disorders. It is a feminist book directed to women, that should be read by all - no matter what gender you identify with.

I am absolutely in love with the prose of this book. All the uses of metaphors and similes made me feel exactly how Natsuko felt, especially feeling oddly comforted with all the surreal dreams she had throughout.

This is a great book that provides commentary on bodily autonomy and what it means to be a woman. I felt myself relating to the protagonist a lot with her feelings and thoughts on her sexuality. Overall, I have to say I enjoyed both books, but the first definitely would be my favorite despite the impact of the second book.

Enter Natsuko's world: it is broken into two books and has a lot to say about being a woman, breasts, eggs, being a writer, families and relationships. I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. The highpoints: some quotable lines I just loved and highlighted the hell out of and a scene at the end of the first book that just cries out to be a big screen moment- it's raw (literally) with eggs and emotion. I loved getting a glimpse of daily life in Tokyo.
“You only know what it means to be poor, or have the right to talk about it, if you've been there yourself” Yas, Queen. or “Another single mother, working herself to death”

The meh:
Being in Natsuko's head got tiring. It's almost stream of consciousness, broken only by dinner/drink dates with other characters where the conversation is almost all exposition. Honestly, enough male writers do the same things, so roar, woman, roar but it's still tiring on the brain. I forced myself to take it down in smaller bites. I was both horrified and thrilled with the children in the bed theory. That gave me a lot to think about. I wanted so much for her to make a damn decision and then I wont say what happens ....because spoilers but it's a type of Hail Mary and it pissed me off.

And here's the thing. I don't feel that this book explores what it means to be female at all. What I read was a human struggling with meaning. Once one's immediate needs are taken care of, when one is no longer in survival mode, when they are comfortable only then do they have the privilege to sit around and ponder the meaning of existence. It was clear that her writing was supposed to be that for her but it is not filling the need (perhaps because she peaked too early in her career?) and it's family and friends-to a point. Somewhere in book two she decides it is parenthood that will give her life meaning. And then she dithers over it for almost the rest of the book.

I wish she'd gone deeper and explored other ideas of finding meaning. For some parenthood is enough, for others it is not. I almost see the potential Natsuko had to be a fictional example of those who choose to not to have children, but not only is she not that, the one character (who I loved) who WAS that-her story ends badly.
There is much to discuss here.

Different feelings depending on which part of the book we're talking about. This novel is split into two parts: the first third, “Breasts”, is one novella, while the sequel “Eggs” is the next two thirds of the book and takes place with the same set of characters ten years later. Kawakami explores multiple different facets of womanhood from the perspective of three characters: Natsuko, her older sister Makiko, and Makiko's preteen daughter Midoriko. The first novella was a really strong start, but during the second I found my mind wandering more at parts. All in all I did like this, and I am very much interested in reading more of Kawakami's writing. Her highest rated novel on here, ‘Heaven' is apparently looking at a 2021 release date in English! 3.5