Breasts and Eggs

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.