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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Diary of a Void started with a rather light-hearted yet novel concept about a woman who fakes a pregnancy for nine months in order to… Well… It’s not clear.
I perhaps naïvely decided that the reason why I thought she was doing it was to get the benefits of having her coworkers shoulder some of the responsibilities she usually had to manage, giving her a much-needed break from the 9 to 5 grind, with a paid maternity leave thrown in for good measure.
However, in retrospect, there is a deeper message here, particularly about how our narrator, Ms Shibata, is only treated with respect and consideration when she becomes “pregnant,” which some may argue symbolises something about how a woman’s value is placed in her ability to bear children, more than in her mind or character. I don’t know; it’s quite complex, and I’m not the best person to consult on matters of this calibre.
I wasn’t ignorant of the feminist criticisms that come into play here; however, what I found fascinating beyond that was how, at a certain point, it becomes difficult to tell, from the reader's perspective, whether Ms Shibata truly believes she’s pregnant.
Is she actually pregnant? Does she not believe she’s pregnant? Is she or is she not actually pregnant? It all becomes very blurry, as the lines between truth, what we want to be true, and myth become crossed. At a certain point, even though we spent the first three-quarters of the novel explaining the implications of the narrator's fake pregnancy, I was under the impression that she might actually end up with a baby at the end of this.
In addition to some important social commentary, there’s also something interesting going on here about reality and fiction, truth and deceit, and whether it’s possible to will something into being true, and whether it’s okay to lie. A part of me was waiting for the moment in which the climax of the novel would come in the form of Ms Shibata being exposed for never actually being pregnant and having to deal with the fallout of that, but that moment never comes, and the novel never condemns the act of lying or deceiving others in this way. The narrator faces no consequences. I found that interesting; it really shook up our expectations of storytelling and what the purpose of storytelling is.
Overall, while the plot is fairly mundane and uninteresting, there are some fascinating thematic issues and many notably unique narrative features that, for prose perverts like myself, will find to their liking.
I perhaps naïvely decided that the reason why I thought she was doing it was to get the benefits of having her coworkers shoulder some of the responsibilities she usually had to manage, giving her a much-needed break from the 9 to 5 grind, with a paid maternity leave thrown in for good measure.
However, in retrospect, there is a deeper message here, particularly about how our narrator, Ms Shibata, is only treated with respect and consideration when she becomes “pregnant,” which some may argue symbolises something about how a woman’s value is placed in her ability to bear children, more than in her mind or character. I don’t know; it’s quite complex, and I’m not the best person to consult on matters of this calibre.
I wasn’t ignorant of the feminist criticisms that come into play here; however, what I found fascinating beyond that was how, at a certain point, it becomes difficult to tell, from the reader's perspective, whether Ms Shibata truly believes she’s pregnant.
Is she actually pregnant? Does she not believe she’s pregnant? Is she or is she not actually pregnant? It all becomes very blurry, as the lines between truth, what we want to be true, and myth become crossed. At a certain point, even though we spent the first three-quarters of the novel explaining the implications of the narrator's fake pregnancy, I was under the impression that she might actually end up with a baby at the end of this.
In addition to some important social commentary, there’s also something interesting going on here about reality and fiction, truth and deceit, and whether it’s possible to will something into being true, and whether it’s okay to lie. A part of me was waiting for the moment in which the climax of the novel would come in the form of Ms Shibata being exposed for never actually being pregnant and having to deal with the fallout of that, but that moment never comes, and the novel never condemns the act of lying or deceiving others in this way. The narrator faces no consequences. I found that interesting; it really shook up our expectations of storytelling and what the purpose of storytelling is.
Overall, while the plot is fairly mundane and uninteresting, there are some fascinating thematic issues and many notably unique narrative features that, for prose perverts like myself, will find to their liking.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
lowkey nothing happened the only character development was that the glue guy wasn’t a creep and just wanted a baby
A quietly devastating novel about loneliness, invisibility, and the desperate need to be recognized, even if it means living a lie. The faked pregnancy is both absurd and deeply tragic, exposing a society where a woman’s worth is only acknowledged under specific conditions. Beneath the surface of self-care and consumption lies a hollow attempt to fill an emotional void. Her transformation - both physical and psychological - reveals the painful lengths one might go to just to be seen.
Do you know when you have a dream and you’re pregnant in the dream or are a mom? Yeah thats the whole book, imagine lying so feverishly that you believe yourself
I appreciated how easily and accessibly this writes about the misogyny women face in Japan in particular (though this is applicable to some degree to many other places) - in the workplace and in society in general. In particular, it highlights how it does not have to take violent expressions to be nevertheless dehumanising. It is a simple and straightforward book and it is worth picking up.
emotional
funny
informative
fast-paced
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes