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A review by ktrain3900
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This is a slice of life novel, and a social commentary novel, and a feminist novel, meandering largely through hot, sticky summers in Tokyo and Osaka, while also meandering through the lives of a number of interesting and unspecial (in the best way) mostly female characters.
In the journal entries, long conversations, and hallucinatory dreams of the Part 1 (essentially the Breasts section) we meet Natsuko, her sister, and her niece, as the latter two visit Natsuko in Tokyo for sister Makiko's breast enlargement consultation, where Natsuko is ultimately a foil in the drama between Makiko and Makiko's tween daughter Midoriko, all while exploring aspects of her own childhood.
Part 2 (essentially the Eggs section) is more stream of conscientiousness, with the dreamy quality now more like a ghost haunting old neighborhoods, almost through time, the long conversations now with colleagues and friends, as Natsuko now contemplates having a child as a single mother by choice. She continues to explore her own past and life, as she emerges from a fog to forge a future she wants.
While I found the book a little hard to engage with when I first started, to the point I started reading other books for a break, I was able to breach the tidebreak and get into the ocean of the book and it's well thought out and considered debates between the mainly female characters. The ending did feel a little bit contrived, or at least convenient, but ultimately this is a novel that deserves a place along with classics like The Golden Notebook and The Women's Room addressing women's issues and creativity from a more contemporary lense.
In the journal entries, long conversations, and hallucinatory dreams of the Part 1 (essentially the Breasts section) we meet Natsuko, her sister, and her niece, as the latter two visit Natsuko in Tokyo for sister Makiko's breast enlargement consultation, where Natsuko is ultimately a foil in the drama between Makiko and Makiko's tween daughter Midoriko, all while exploring aspects of her own childhood.
Part 2 (essentially the Eggs section) is more stream of conscientiousness, with the dreamy quality now more like a ghost haunting old neighborhoods, almost through time, the long conversations now with colleagues and friends, as Natsuko now contemplates having a child as a single mother by choice. She continues to explore her own past and life, as she emerges from a fog to forge a future she wants.
While I found the book a little hard to engage with when I first started, to the point I started reading other books for a break, I was able to breach the tidebreak and get into the ocean of the book and it's well thought out and considered debates between the mainly female characters. The ending did feel a little bit contrived, or at least convenient, but ultimately this is a novel that deserves a place along with classics like The Golden Notebook and The Women's Room addressing women's issues and creativity from a more contemporary lense.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, and Rape