Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Breasts and Eggs

a beautifully written, insightful, melancholy exploration of patriarchy, womanhood, motherhood, loneliness, and career stagnation. much of this book was just long conversations that the main characters have with other people and themselves, and they feel so real. their problems are ours, our mothers' and sisters', our friends' and acquaintances'. even though there is no "plot" to speak of, i flew through the chapters and was excited to be in natsuko's head again every time i put it down.

virtually the only issue i have with this book, and the reason i took off half a star, is that although i really enjoyed the second half and all of natsuko's musings about asexuality, single motherhood and her future, i did feel the absence of makiko and midoriko. it would have been nice to see their development also, where they were in their journeys.

nevertheless, kawakami's writing and characterisation are stunning, and i can't wait to read more of her work

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angela_iseli's review

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challenging emotional inspiring 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

4.5

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vigil's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I think this is a book i'll have to buy a physical copy of to return to later, because there is so much being said about how society views women, parenthood, class, and most of it is left up the interpretation of the reader, that i think it can easily fly over the head. that fact especially was one i appreciated about this book. kawakami gives several different points of view (particularly in book two, my favorite, though book one is the most tightly plotted) that contrast each other, taking natsuko and the reader on a rollercoaster together. it is deeply immersive and atmospheric, so that when natsu feels like she's meandering, the reader feels it from the book too, which can be a positive or a detraction for someone. the pacing is very slow, and different between the first and second halves of the book (the breasts portion, was originally a seperate novella) and the change can feel rather abrupt. there is no big climax in this book, it is far too introspective and philosophical for that, instead letting protagonists come to quiet decisions framed very plainly.

this would normally be a five star book, but during book one (the breasts portion), there is a long scene of our protagonist being transphobic towards another woman in the spa. i'm not sure whether or not this had a connection to the overall themes of the book, or was simply just added in, because it's not fully explained by the narrative during or after the event, it just happens and it moves on. i believe i read something about this having translation issues, which could be the cause of this or other things.

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madamdun's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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jayisreading's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Admittedly, this one took more time than I normally would have given a book to get invested. I’m glad I stuck with it, though, because this ended up being a really entertaining read that grappled with an array of interconnected issues. I wouldn’t say the book is funny in the “laugh out loud” sense, nor was it exactly quirky, but there were a number of occasions where you couldn’t help but feel the corner of your lips tug slightly upward at some of the protagonist’s thoughts or in her conversations with others.

Speaking of, the thoughts and conversations around sexuality came as a pleasant surprise for me. I was not expecting such a nuanced approach to asexuality and the struggles that often come with being a sex-repulsed asexual, but Kawakami did a wonderful job exploring the complexities of sexuality, especially when considering other matters such as gender and childbearing. I appreciated that Kawakami didn’t make a huge fuss about giving Natsuko (the protagonist) a label or concrete idea of why she’s so sex-repulsed and, instead, allowed thoughts to flow freely in a way that felt authentic to anyone trying to work out their sexuality.

My main gripe isn’t about the content but, rather, the structure. I felt the two parts of this book seemed a bit disconnected, plot-wise. I just couldn’t quite follow how the two parts closely connected beyond sharing similar themes. It probably didn’t help that I struggled a bit with the first part, since I didn’t find it as engaging as the second part.

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becks_books's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Ultimately, I think this was a really excellent novel, it discusses important topics in a way that's honest and often uncomfortable (there are a lot of content warnings in this book) but it does also have some hope in it.

The book is mainly focused on 2 things: breasts (expectations of women's bodies, especially as they age and have children and how their bodies are perceived, and ultimately how that affects the women and their view of themselves), and eggs (who gets to have children? And the difficulties some people face in having children and accessing services like sperm banks because of their circumstances, specifically in Japan).

Personally, I have absolutely 0 desire to have children and while I've had times where I felt a lot of pressure to look a certain way, I feel like I'm at a place where I can just accept my body for what it is, but reading about people with different circumstances can be really enlightening and I really felt for the women in this story and their circumstances and problems, I think the part about birth and desperately wanting a child was really well done especially, and I just wanted Natsu to find happiness, whatever that looked like for her in the end.

Overall, a really interesting read. Just go in with caution.

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thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

to say that breasts and eggs hits me hard is an understatement. i relate to this book on an unprecendentedly visceral level; never have i felt so seen, my anger, frustrations, and fears as a woman captured so succinctly, like they've been scooped from my deepest inner being then so accurately verbalized. it's wild but it's like this book was written just for me, not merely bc of its main character and themes but also bc of all the lil coincidental things (denmark, osaka ferris wheel, etc.). reading this--esp abt natsuko, tho sans her want of child--was perhaps the very first time a book ever made me go, "oh wow, i'm not the only who thinks that??" and countless times, at that.

this was a slow, melancholic read filled w/ an array of different, multidimensional female characters--honestly so refreshing to see the opposite of the more common occurrence for once--that deals w/ being a woman in a man's world, bodily autonomy, the blurring of memory and reality, and the critical--albeit rarely explored--issue of donor conception that entails its own set of complexities. i could go on more abt the story or structure or the characters or the pacing or the could-be-better translation, but rly, rn im just astonished by how friggin validated this book makes me feel, and how thankful i am for that. mieko kawakami just became one of my fav authors, no questions asked

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lettersinthemargins's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Kawakami deflty deals with issues like women's bodies, sexuality and the choice to have children. She wheedles information and provides a commentary on women's experiences through conversations. Seasons and character emotions also seem to have a close reflective relationship. There is the definite sadness that abusive and traumatic childhoods create, throughout the novel.
The first section is mostly about the way social spaces place an imposition on women's bodies to look and perform a certain way. The second section follows Natsuko as she deliberates on whether to have a child through assistive reproductive methods, the ethical and moral dilemmas involved and her own journey as a single adult woman. The text doesn't delve into the social manifestations of sex and gender discrimination, as much as I would have liked. Yet the lives of the central women characters are explored sensitively through multiple perspectives. Besides Natsuko, the novel provides a poignant look into Midoriko's thoughts on her mother's wish to have breast enhancement surgery and on the woman's egg producing body. Riko, Sengawa and Yuriko's perspectives reinforce and influence the protagonists thought and empathy.
The book sort of follows Natsuko in and out of daily moments. It skims through some surreal parts as Natsuko's emotions fluctuate. While these add to the flavour of the text, I really disliked how some intense moments were left incomplete, and sort of abruptly. I'm not sure if this is a result of the translation - which severly does injustice to the prose in some parts. It's excessively americanised and the Asian perspective doesn't come through. Which is another issue I had with the book.

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