Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Brüste und Eier

Breasts and Eggs is an insanely surreal book. It explores what it means to be a woman, what can classify a person as a woman, and what it means to live. The characters are convoluted, just complete messes—what a disaster they are, but that's what I found rather charming. Even as they're aging, moving into their twenties and thirties and forties, they still have no idea what the fuck they're doing. Which is almost reassuring, in a way. It took a while for me to read because it has a quirky writing style, and the paragraphs were… long, to say the least. Some themes were rather sudden, too, and I wasn't used to reading about such things, so I had to take breaks here and there. However, I still quite liked it. A very thoughtful piece of work, I can see why it received the praise it did.

Content Warnings

breebok's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

This was pretty far outside of what I usually read. It was a really odd and heart wrenching exploration of what it means to be a woman.

Content Warnings

lettersinthemargins's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Kawakami deflty deals with issues like women's bodies, sexuality and the choice to have children. She wheedles information and provides a commentary on women's experiences through conversations. Seasons and character emotions also seem to have a close reflective relationship. There is the definite sadness that abusive and traumatic childhoods create, throughout the novel.
The first section is mostly about the way social spaces place an imposition on women's bodies to look and perform a certain way. The second section follows Natsuko as she deliberates on whether to have a child through assistive reproductive methods, the ethical and moral dilemmas involved and her own journey as a single adult woman. The text doesn't delve into the social manifestations of sex and gender discrimination, as much as I would have liked. Yet the lives of the central women characters are explored sensitively through multiple perspectives. Besides Natsuko, the novel provides a poignant look into Midoriko's thoughts on her mother's wish to have breast enhancement surgery and on the woman's egg producing body. Riko, Sengawa and Yuriko's perspectives reinforce and influence the protagonists thought and empathy.
The book sort of follows Natsuko in and out of daily moments. It skims through some surreal parts as Natsuko's emotions fluctuate. While these add to the flavour of the text, I really disliked how some intense moments were left incomplete, and sort of abruptly. I'm not sure if this is a result of the translation - which severly does injustice to the prose in some parts. It's excessively americanised and the Asian perspective doesn't come through. Which is another issue I had with the book.

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