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

I dont know how exactly to rate this book

I loved seeing Fuyuko’s development throughout the book and I think it did a good job at portraying loneliness and the difference between every individual’s human experience.

It touches upon a plethora of subjects such as misogyny, loneliness, suicide, relationships, spirituality, SA and rape. I would even say that maybe it touches upon too many subjects? While many scenes in the book that treat a specific topic has a reflection of its counterpart later in the story, some points are still left open ended.

I do feel like womanhood could have been explored more thoroughly, being only mentioned

when Fuyuko enters the bookstore and her conversation with her old friend. But then again, those two are counterparts of each other. In the bookstore, Fuyuko reads about all the things a woman supposedly needs to feel fulfilled, like getting married and having children, but when meeting Noriko we see how it is not a guarantee for happiness?

There is no real conclusion or moral to the portrayal of both sides of the coin. Kawakami shows us all these different paths and choices, but doesn’t label one as the best or the better choice. She just shows us the endless ways of being human, of being a woman.

While I can appreciate the literary value of this book, I did not connect with it as deeply as I hoped. It was very slow paced and felt very long despite it being only 220 pages.

It did made me cry so kudos for that

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333amreen's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

The first half of the book felt REALLY slow paced (and it was!) but the latter half really caught me in (though it was just as, if not more slow) but what was different was the emotional connection I'd built with the characters! While this book can be found boring & uneventful by some (like past me) In hindsight, there's actually SO MUCH you can take from it if you you keep an open mind when reading this one, instead of constantly thinking "ugh, what's going on?" I now completely understand why someone on yt said it's a must read for when you're in your 20s. I COULDN'T AGREE MORE‼️

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moonravioli's review against another edition

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reflective sad tense slow-paced

1.5

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soyboysimon's review against another edition

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sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Didn't love this, I feel truly neutral about it. Its like i was reading only to get to the end of it. i didn't connect with any of the characters or their problems, the main characters troubles seemed self-inflicted, and I absolutely hate the way it talks about—or rather doesn't talk about—mental health.

The main character is dealing with a number of things,

anxiety, depression, alcoholism, an eating disorder, recovery from rape

, but they are presented as being normal parts of life that she has to conquer on her own, without help, before she can let herself be loved. Its sick and twisted to me, it wasn't good for me, I don't recommend it if you deal with any of these problems.

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robyn1998's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this more than Breasts and Eggs, maybe because I listened to it as an audiobook so it demanded less of my attention. It was very depressing but interesting and weird. I do think Mieko Kawakami's novels are quite fatphobic though - every character's weight has to be commented on which is quite disappointing. I probably won't pick up any more of her books unless I get bored and need something to listen to on Libby.

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rinku's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

All the Lovers in the Night is a quite character driven, melancholic story. I liked it for what it was, but it couldn’t really catch me.

Fuyuko is a single woman in her thirties that is not happy with her life, so it happens one day that she starts to drink alcohol to deal with everything. For me, this decision came a bit too sudden. Then, she meets Mitsutsuka and everything starts to change. It takes some time, but it was so nice to see how Fuyuko starts to dress nicely and just starts to feel better. I’m not sure about the message of this novel though, and I don’t know what I think about the ending. Another thing I appreciate is that the has some feminist undertones but with Hijiri, I sadly have the feeling that her femininity was quite shamed.

Fuyuko is a likable main character, and her feelings are portrayed so well, especially her loneliness is intensively described. She just feels miserable and doesn’t want to be anymore. It’s so terrible when we learn that

she was raped as a teen

which explains some of her feelings. Mitsutsuka is the other important character and kinda the love interest of the story. I have to say that I didn’t like him, and that I couldn’t feel the chemistry between them. He’s just this kind of man that talks <i>to</i> women but not with them, if you know what I mean. This is probably because of the long dialogues. There’s also an age gap of around 25 years between them.

All in all, I would still recommend All the Lovers in the Night for people who are interested in Japanese contemporary literature and stories focussed on female characters like I am.

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