A review by jayisreading
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

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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