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

Leave it to Mieko Kawakami to create the most beautiful visuals and lyrical descriptions of what listening to your favorite song feels like. I also enjoyed the brief lessons on how light and colors work.

I could relate quite a bit to Fuyuko, and to me, this story served as an important reminder on what it REALLY means to have a real, genuine connection to someone.
(To put it in a nutshell, take the time to get to know the other person in depth and, in turn, allow yourself to be known and seen and heard as well. It needs to go both ways.)

Did NOT see that ending coming, but I can't say I was disappoined.

In fact, I quite liked the subversion of expectations. It goes back to the previous idea of knowing someone & being known in return. Fuyuko barely shared anything about herself, and also never got to know Mitsutsuka on a deeper level, opting instead to daydream about him or stay mostly silent during their hangouts instead of asking those questions she had in her mind, to get to know him better. In turn, Mitsutsuka himself avoided to tell the truth about who he really was from the very beginning - perhaps out of shame, or simply because it was great to be somebody else for a little while. Maybe he felt lonely, too. Maybe he knew that, if they were to get closer, Fuyuko would eventually find out he wasn't at all what he said he was. Maybe he got scared and that's why he ran away. So they pretty much remained strangers to each other all throughout their "relationship".
Same thing with Hijiri's wish to know Fuyuko better - whether she wanted to get closer to and manipulate Fuyuko, or whether that actually was a genuine plea for connection: "I want to know you better. I want to know you, so I can be your friend, too." I like to think it's the latter reason, but it could be either one.

I only wish we'd gotten more of a glimpse on how Fuyuko's friendship with Hijiri developed after the end of chapter 12.

With that last paragraph, I like to believe that Fuyuko went on to write this very book that we're reading right now, and named it "All the Lovers in the Night". I like to believe that, with these six words, with this book, she finally found her voice.

All in all, every character had its flaws, but Kawakami wrote them in such a way that their personalities & motivations were believable and, most of all, very human - which is why I found all the characters likeable in some way and worthy of consideration.

Except for Mizuno, he can die in the hole he crawled out of for doing what he did and for having the absolute NERVE to blame it all on Fuyuko - and on TOP of that, to say that SHE pisses HIM off. While I can understand his frustrations with a stagnant, pre-determined life in a small town, and wanting to leave somewhere far away, to create his own identity & make a different, better life for himself, NOTHING could EVER justify what he did.

Content Warnings

theprinceofdenmark's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

there are parts of this that encapsulate everything i love about contemporary japanese fiction - slice of life chapters with fully realized environments and stark dialogue that's so realistic it sounds transcribed - but there are also parts of this that i really didn't like, but i can't put words as to why.

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sydizen's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

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cheezit's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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hue's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

There's just something so remarkable in the way Mieko Kawakami writes. I'm so enveloped in her world at first word. To think none of these people are real. I can't wrap my head around it.

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lilureads's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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 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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elisemiddletonxo's review against another edition

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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? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

if mitsutsuka, a high school physics teacher in tokyo, taught me — taught fuyuko — well, then the colours we see are those that have been left behind. not having been absorbed by the material we see them reflecting off of (see the light reflecting off of?), these colours suddenly all feel melancholy in their abandonment. this characterisation of something we take for granted in our day to day, the reflection of light, is a key consideration of this short novel. i’ve likely butchered the physics of the phenomenon as it was always my least favourite subject, but isn’t it a testimony to mieko kawakami’s story and to sam bett and david boyd’s translation that i felt compelled to try?

all the lovers in the night is my second kawakami, having read breasts and eggs back in 2020, and for me it’s a testament to the steady development of one’s writing over time. there is something almost unassuming about this novel at first glance, following the lonely fuyuko irie, a freelance proofreader who encounters mitsutsuka by chance and develops a tentative friendship over a number of weeks. this is certainly a character-led novel, and i was particularly struck by the delicate building of fuyuko’s character and how we got to know her. she’s often quiet, seeming to some like only a reflective surface or a minor character for them to vent their frustrations to — she nods, mm’s and ah’s at appropriate moments, often slightly baffled by the thoughts and feelings of the women in her life (these conversations traverse work, marriage, sex and relationships, all manners of connection fuyuko feels absented from). the main thing we might know about her beyond her profession is that she is consistently drinking, finding each day easier with a combination of beer and sake swirling around her system. and yet in kawakami’s depiction of her emotional state, of a yearning and a loneliness that will slip beneath your skin, we know her sense of herself entirely. we are brought across every plane of her emotional life.

a novel of sensation and feeling, all the lovers in the night, one to accompany you in the delicate solemnity of the early hours. acutely rendered and beautifully written, it’s a winner for me.

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chrisljm's review against another edition

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reflective slow-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

I'm sure the mundanity and passiveness of the main character is important to the story, but I couldn't stand it. It was very frustrating to read how she interacted with other characters, but specifically her lack of response when communicating with them or the way she constantly repeated what they said. I also found the book to be dull and dry, and often times the monologues (particularly with one character) came off insincere and preachy. All the Lovers in the Night is described as "insightful, entertaining, and engaging; it will make readers laugh, and it will make them cry" but I strongly disagree. The storytelling was so overwhelmingly monotonous that I wasn't emotionally engaged at all.

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