Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - All the Lovers in the Night

Similar to her bestseller Breast and Eggs, Kawakami explores the themes of becoming as well as defining womanhood for oneself against a world that speaks so loudly on the ways a woman should be. In the vein of great Japanese novels, Kawasaki delves into these thought-provoking concepts ever so subtly through delicate yet poignantly worded descriptions of the mundane and muddled paragraphs of the main character’s inner thoughts and feelings.

The main character Fuyuko is stuck in an endless loop of isolation and passivity. I understood the feeling of wanting decisions to be made for you and to numbingly move through day to day. Fuyuko could even withstand being completely alone with no one to really talk to for a month or so.

Fuyuko reminded me of a quote from Fleabag where the titular character says, “I want someone to tell me what to wear every morning. I want someone to tell me what to eat. What to like, what to hate, what to rage about. What to listen to, what band to like…who to love and how to tell them.” There can be freedom in passivity, letting go of control and seeing where the waves of life take you. But, as we see with Fuyuko, there is also great damage as she numbs and blurs life through alcohol and struggles to build meaningful relationships.

I appreciated how the book ended without the resolution of a grand love story, rather with Fuyuko recognizing how bright and full of energy life can be, how striking it is to have felt something even if it is pain or hardship. It was wonderful to see the differences in how Hijiri and Fuyuko interacted with each other in the end. Instead of thoughtlessly nodding through Hijiri’s rambling, Fuyuko was now an active participant. Made me proud of the MC

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lesliekate's review

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dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I feel like I didn’t get this at all. it started off so strong, then got so depressing and creepy and weird and uncomfortable, then completely irritating and fucked up, then slightly better. I am lost.

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cecinamo's review

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was such a good book! It was so beautifully written and

I really liked how the ending wasn’t the classic “happy end” but you could still tell that the mc had grown as a person.

. It also had very sad parts ;^;… I think the mc was really likeable and relatable, I enjoyed reading the book from her perspective.

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cecilialau_'s review

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4.0

When first getting into it, I worried that it would be overly descriptive and slow, and I did initially find it hard to reach for it/wanting to keep going.
However, I did have very high expectations but the latter half-ish really came together so well in my experience of it. I thought it was written so well and with such relatability and heart. You get to reflect on life through the life lived on the pages and the interactions (both real, imagined and the ones that were passed by).
I definitely recommend this - and there is such a thing as a right time, and both you and this book deserves that

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sea_tea_books's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4 ⭐
[A book club/buddy read selection.]

Beautiful and interesting descriptions of light throughout the story.

The story is told from the perspective of the main character and depicts the messiness of life when individuals connect and their complex feelings and choices merge. More than once I became lost in the story and was even caught off guard by the abrupt ending. I'll be checking out more works from this author.

Trigger warnings: alcoholism, rape

Content Warnings