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A review by ireney5
All My Darling Daughters by Fumi Yoshinaga
4.0
*2020 Popsugar Reading Challenge*
Advanced Prompt #5. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics
You have to take into consideration the fact that this book was written almost 20 years ago in Japan, a country that's generally more "traditional" than Western countries (to put a positive spin on it) - meaning, it has cultural norms that might seem strange, inappropriate, or just plain wrong to a western audience in 2020.
Case(s) in point:Mildly incestuous references (Guy had a crush on his aunt growing up, leading him to like older women), "forced fellatio" of a student cartoonishly forcing her affections on her professor, who is seen as the victim/good guy, and more.
You have to look at these things through a cross-cultural lens and not from a west-is-best mindset. For example, it's not weird in Japan to jokingly say "I'm going to rape you if you do that" in the way that Americans might say "I'll kill you if you do that," and if you think about it, it's not like murder is any better than rape, so there's nothing inherently worse about the rape threat than the murder threat when both are used as jokes, even though one clearly sounds much worse to westerners. I'm not saying it should become socially acceptable to say that in the west, but just pointing out an example of something that's normal in one culture but horrifying and borderline-illegal in another.
Now that that's out of the way, I want to applaud the strong feminist message in this collection of five connected stories. More so because while most of the stuff in this collection isn't at all radical or shocking to western audiences, they're extremely contrary to East Asian ideals and social norms. They are emotional, highly intimate, uncomfortable at times, and realistic in spite of the soap opera-level dramatics and sometimes exaggeratedly cartoonish art style. This book brings up age-gap couples and "undesirable" jobs (an older divorced woman marrying a young handsome man who used to get paid for talking to older women), gender roles (a newlywed woman disappointed that her husband doesn't do his share of the cooking and housework), physical disabilities, poverty, possible child abuse, gender equality in the workplace, bullying, and mostly pointedly, the relationship between a mother and her daughter.
It's not the first manga I've read, but it's the first one I've read in probably 10+ years, and the first in "one-shot" style. It's also by far the most jarring, bold and layered and by far the least afraid to approach difficult issues. I didn't realize until I read this that I was under the misconception that western-based graphic novels and comic books could be deep/intellectual/philosophical/academic but asian-style graphic novels were made purely for entertainment or art. This is even more evident when I admit that I chose this book in particular because the cover displays "Eisner Award-nominated creator" under the author's name - something that surprised me coming from a Japanese mangaka. It's a valuable lesson, and I'm glad I learned it now. If I could go back to my super tough 4th year of university Graphic Novels class, I would have asked for less [b:Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth|6493321|Logicomix An Epic Search for Truth|Apostolos Doxiadis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312031956l/6493321._SX50_.jpg|6684749] and [b:Palestine|769712|Palestine|Joe Sacco|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569917057l/769712._SX50_.jpg|755771] and more works in translation from non-Western countries.
Advanced Prompt #5. A book set in Japan, host of the 2020 Olympics
You have to take into consideration the fact that this book was written almost 20 years ago in Japan, a country that's generally more "traditional" than Western countries (to put a positive spin on it) - meaning, it has cultural norms that might seem strange, inappropriate, or just plain wrong to a western audience in 2020.
Case(s) in point:
You have to look at these things through a cross-cultural lens and not from a west-is-best mindset. For example, it's not weird in Japan to jokingly say "I'm going to rape you if you do that" in the way that Americans might say "I'll kill you if you do that," and if you think about it, it's not like murder is any better than rape, so there's nothing inherently worse about the rape threat than the murder threat when both are used as jokes, even though one clearly sounds much worse to westerners. I'm not saying it should become socially acceptable to say that in the west, but just pointing out an example of something that's normal in one culture but horrifying and borderline-illegal in another.
Now that that's out of the way, I want to applaud the strong feminist message in this collection of five connected stories. More so because while most of the stuff in this collection isn't at all radical or shocking to western audiences, they're extremely contrary to East Asian ideals and social norms. They are emotional, highly intimate, uncomfortable at times, and realistic in spite of the soap opera-level dramatics and sometimes exaggeratedly cartoonish art style. This book brings up age-gap couples and "undesirable" jobs (an older divorced woman marrying a young handsome man who used to get paid for talking to older women), gender roles (a newlywed woman disappointed that her husband doesn't do his share of the cooking and housework), physical disabilities, poverty, possible child abuse, gender equality in the workplace, bullying, and mostly pointedly, the relationship between a mother and her daughter.
It's not the first manga I've read, but it's the first one I've read in probably 10+ years, and the first in "one-shot" style. It's also by far the most jarring, bold and layered and by far the least afraid to approach difficult issues. I didn't realize until I read this that I was under the misconception that western-based graphic novels and comic books could be deep/intellectual/philosophical/academic but asian-style graphic novels were made purely for entertainment or art. This is even more evident when I admit that I chose this book in particular because the cover displays "Eisner Award-nominated creator" under the author's name - something that surprised me coming from a Japanese mangaka. It's a valuable lesson, and I'm glad I learned it now. If I could go back to my super tough 4th year of university Graphic Novels class, I would have asked for less [b:Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth|6493321|Logicomix An Epic Search for Truth|Apostolos Doxiadis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312031956l/6493321._SX50_.jpg|6684749] and [b:Palestine|769712|Palestine|Joe Sacco|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569917057l/769712._SX50_.jpg|755771] and more works in translation from non-Western countries.