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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A much more caustic and unsentimental read than I'd expected from any Japanese author I've read so far. I need to qualify that judgment of 'unsentimental'... perhaps 'ungentle' is better. I don't know. Subtlety is often the name of the game for Japanese authors, but that subtlety typically belies a turn toward balance. Endings are often bittersweet, but at least they are not purely bitter. Kawakami doesn't really do this, at least not in book one. Many authors, male and female, have portrayed the Japanese female experience as involving a lot of forebearence, a struggle to retain dignity through quiet suffering, which is itself broadly valorized in the culture. Kawakami is much more earthy and her story somewhat more Western for being more open in how shitty things are. I liked that a lot. I hope this book made waves and made old men angry! Dignity is rarely something those most immediately suffering can cling to.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3
Thought provoking. Doesn't say anything revolutionary but in the social media era I think it's refreshing when novels take a deeper look at our culture and how beauty ideals and plastic surgery impact the lives of women. However I am sort of over liberal/bioessentialist discourses wrt women & reproduction, which this book contains quite a bit of-- including ofc mandatory transphobic scene (I think a lot of popular contemporary Japanese authors (at least those who end up getting translated) have a bit of a transphobia problem, my discomfort with some of this reminded me of my discomforts with some elements of [b:Kitchen|6597614|Kitchen|Banana Yoshimoto|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1246941577l/6597614._SX50_.jpg|1543818] by Banana Yoshimoto. I would love to hear the perspectives of trans/genderqueer Japanese authors, unfortunately not too many get translated and I'm not sure where to begin looking. Shouting into a void here but if someone with more intimate knowledge of Japan's literary scene is aware of anything lmk.) Still, I liked it. I recommended it to my younger cousin and she loved it.
Thought provoking. Doesn't say anything revolutionary but in the social media era I think it's refreshing when novels take a deeper look at our culture and how beauty ideals and plastic surgery impact the lives of women. However I am sort of over liberal/bioessentialist discourses wrt women & reproduction, which this book contains quite a bit of-- including ofc mandatory transphobic scene (I think a lot of popular contemporary Japanese authors (at least those who end up getting translated) have a bit of a transphobia problem, my discomfort with some of this reminded me of my discomforts with some elements of [b:Kitchen|6597614|Kitchen|Banana Yoshimoto|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1246941577l/6597614._SX50_.jpg|1543818] by Banana Yoshimoto. I would love to hear the perspectives of trans/genderqueer Japanese authors, unfortunately not too many get translated and I'm not sure where to begin looking. Shouting into a void here but if someone with more intimate knowledge of Japan's literary scene is aware of anything lmk.) Still, I liked it. I recommended it to my younger cousin and she loved it.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Has a lot to say about being a woman and what that means in a society as patriarchal as Japan's. The novel is broken up into two parts: Breasts, which gets into the female body image experience and Eggs, which is all about pregnancy and being a mother. Single motherhood is also a major theme in both parts, as both the main character and her sister were raised by a single mom, then become single mothers later in their lives.
I feel like the 2nd half was given more attention than the first as far as fleshing out the main points were concerned. It was pretty uneven to me as a result.
I feel like the 2nd half was given more attention than the first as far as fleshing out the main points were concerned. It was pretty uneven to me as a result.
emotional
reflective
Knowing how this author openly hates Murakami and having him as the one review of note on the cover made me cackle.
ough wow. wow. this is a good one
"free labor with a pussy, just like my mother"
"free labor with a pussy, just like my mother"