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A review by hank_moody
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami
4.0
Fuyuko lives behind the walls of her little world. No one can touch her there, there are work colleagues to mock and tease her. It’s just her and a reflection of a woman in a mirror, one that she doesn't like because she's the woman Fuyuko didn't want to become. The one who has no control over her life. Because of this, Fuyuko flees into the night and walks alone through the streets of the city, finding solace in the light. Especially on Christmas Eve, her birthday. There's something about the lights of the city that calms her down, gives her hope.
In an attempt to change her life, Fuyuko quits her job to work from home, but that woman in the mirror is still there. She doesn't go away. Fuyuko starts drinking, and then by a pure strike of luck, Mitsutsuka, a middle-aged physics professor, enters her life. Their conversations are rare, days, weeks, even months apart because Fuyuko doesn't want to easily tear down the wall she's built. It is a protection from the past, the day she first had sex. The same day that she had sex for the last time. There are no feelings there that can hurt her, but little by little her dam begins to crack.
Mitsutsuka becomes an object of desire in an erotic dream, and after waking up Fuyuko tries to awaken the feeling from the dream. Her hand goes between her legs, but she doesn't know what to do. Only in a dream Fuyuko’s the woman she wants to be, but words do not come out when she’s awake, talking to Mitsusuka. When her wall finally collapses, exactly what she fears happens. That's what she's been defending herself against all those years. Abandoned, Fuyuko tries to find refuge behind the ruins of her ramparts until Hijiri, the only friend she has, appears.
It takes a lot of skill and talent to write a novel about solitude through the prism of love and eroticism, without having the lovers touch each other once even, except in a dream, but Mieko succeeds in doing so. Poetically melancholic "All lovers in the night" is a study of lonely people who hide from pain behind solitude, unaware that despite everything, they want someone in their life, even if it means to have their hearts broke again. It is clear why Haruki Murakami is full of words of praise for Mieko Kawakami, considered by many to be his literary successor and indeed occasionally seems to feel a lot of his influence in her writing, although after all Mieko is unique. It’s a novel for all those who love Haruki’s writing, with much less weird things. Talking cats and female ear lobs included.
In an attempt to change her life, Fuyuko quits her job to work from home, but that woman in the mirror is still there. She doesn't go away. Fuyuko starts drinking, and then by a pure strike of luck, Mitsutsuka, a middle-aged physics professor, enters her life. Their conversations are rare, days, weeks, even months apart because Fuyuko doesn't want to easily tear down the wall she's built. It is a protection from the past, the day she first had sex. The same day that she had sex for the last time. There are no feelings there that can hurt her, but little by little her dam begins to crack.
Mitsutsuka becomes an object of desire in an erotic dream, and after waking up Fuyuko tries to awaken the feeling from the dream. Her hand goes between her legs, but she doesn't know what to do. Only in a dream Fuyuko’s the woman she wants to be, but words do not come out when she’s awake, talking to Mitsusuka. When her wall finally collapses, exactly what she fears happens. That's what she's been defending herself against all those years. Abandoned, Fuyuko tries to find refuge behind the ruins of her ramparts until Hijiri, the only friend she has, appears.
It takes a lot of skill and talent to write a novel about solitude through the prism of love and eroticism, without having the lovers touch each other once even, except in a dream, but Mieko succeeds in doing so. Poetically melancholic "All lovers in the night" is a study of lonely people who hide from pain behind solitude, unaware that despite everything, they want someone in their life, even if it means to have their hearts broke again. It is clear why Haruki Murakami is full of words of praise for Mieko Kawakami, considered by many to be his literary successor and indeed occasionally seems to feel a lot of his influence in her writing, although after all Mieko is unique. It’s a novel for all those who love Haruki’s writing, with much less weird things. Talking cats and female ear lobs included.