'Breasts and Eggs' by Mieko Kawakami is a novel that follows the story of Natsuko and her relationships with her sister Makiko and niece Midoriko. The book delves into themes of womanhood, gender, class, motherhood, and societal expectations in Japan. The plot is divided into two parts, with the first part focusing on Makiko's visit to Tokyo for breast enhancement surgery and the second part exploring Natsuko's contemplation of motherhood and her struggles as a writer. The writing style is described as straightforward, clear, and insightful, providing a moving and original perspective on women's bodies and their roles in Japanese society.
Genres:
Tropes/Plot Devices:
Topics:
Notes:
Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings for Breasts and Eggs include discussions of mental health struggles, body image issues, infertility, competition among women, and societal pressures regarding motherhood.
From The Publisher:
The story of three women by a writer hailed by Haruki Murakami as Japan's most important contemporary novelist, WINNER OF THE AKUTAGAWA PRIZE.
"BREASTS AND EGGS took my breath away."-HARUKI MURAKAMI
Challenging every preconception about storytelling and prose style, mixing wry humor and riveting emotional depth, Kawakami is today one of Japan's most important and best-selling writers. She exploded onto the cultural scene first as a musician, then as a poet and popular blogger, and is now an award-winning novelist.
Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own.
It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko's daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations.
On another hot summer's day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.
Kawakami's first novella My Ego, My Teeth, and the World, published in Japan in 2007, was awarded the Tsubouchi Shoyo Prize for Young Emerging Writers. The following year, she published Breasts and Eggs as a short novella, and won praise from Yoko Ogawa and Haruki Murakami. The newly expanded Breasts and Eggs is her first novel to be published in English.
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2020
Vogue・Thrillist・The Millions・ Literary Hub・Now Toronto・Metropolis Japan
"One of Japan's brightest stars is set to explode across the global skies of literature . . . Kawakami is both a writer's writer and an entertainer, a thinker and constantly evolving stylist who manages to be highly readable and immensely popular."- Japan Times
"Mieko Kawakami lobbed a literary grenade into the fusty, male-dominated world of Japanese fiction with Breasts and Eggs."- The Economist
"I can never forget the sense of pure astonishment I felt when I first read Mieko Kawakami's novella Breasts and Eggs . . . Kawakami is always ceaselessly growing and evolving."-HARUKI MURAKAMI, author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Ratings (19)
Incredible (4) | |
Loved It (3) | |
Liked It (6) | |
It Was OK (5) | |
Did Not Like (1) |
Reader Stats (86):
Read It (17) | |
Want To Read (56) | |
Did Not Finish (1) | |
Not Interested (12) |
3 comment(s)
At this point I'm not sure if it was the book or my brain that was making it hard to focus. I really enjoyed some parts of it, but then getting slitgly disoriented in other. If I'll ever find a book of it somewhere I'll give it another go as I listened to it as a audiobook. Could be the right book, won't time kind of deal here. I'm not sure
In a word, breathtaking.
Sisters Natsuko and Makiko, along with Makiko's teenage daughter Midoriko, meet in Tokyo. Despairing over the loss of her youthful looks, restaurant hostess Makiko has come to the city for breast enhancement surgery which she believes will change her life. Meanwhile, her daughter Midoriko refuses to speak. Eight years later, asexual Natsuko must confront the fact that she will not conceive a child of her own conventionally.
I read this after being told that I was infertile, not realising the journey it would take me on. Kawakami writes of the pressures put upon women - to be sexually attractive, and to become mothers - with razor-sharp accuracy. In long, rolling passages of the most exquisite introspection, she explores the longing for a seemingly unattainable child, the taboos around artificial insemination, and how it feels to inhabit a woman's body today.
While this isn't a light read, it is an incredibly powerful one. I can't recommend it enough.
"Breasts and Eggs" is a novel by Japanese author Mieko Kawakami, translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd. The story follows the life of a 30-year-old Tokyo woman named Natsuko who is grappling with questions about motherhood, family, and the meaning of womanhood in contemporary Japan.
The book is divided into two parts, with the first part focusing on Natsuko's relationship with her older sister Makiko and her young niece Midoriko, who visit from their rural hometown. The second part of the book jumps forward in time and finds Natsuko still struggling with these same issues years later, now considering the possibility of having a child through artificial insemination.
Kawakami's writing is spare and evocative, with a focus on the inner lives of her characters. She tackles complex themes with sensitivity and nuance, exploring the pressures faced by women in modern Japan to conform to societal expectations of femininity and motherhood.
Overall, "Breasts and Eggs" is a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant novel that offers a powerful critique of gender norms and social hierarchies in contemporary Japan.
What can you read after
Breasts and Eggs?
When you click the Amazon link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commision, at no cost to you.
