A review by rinku
All die Liebenden der Nacht by Mieko Kawakami

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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