A review by tej_reads
Butter by Asako Yuzuki

5.0

There are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine.

I devoured Butter, (and not just literally) it took me some time to finish but that was because it made me hungry! I had to keep stopping to make some of the recipes, I made rice with soy sauce and butter, and pancakes with artisan butter, both were amazing. But onto the novel.

Kajii had given herself that permission. Ignoring other people’s yardsticks, she had decided that she was enough as a woman.

I loved the discussion of feminism and femininity throughout the novel. Kajii from the start is very clear that she hates feminists but in my opinion she’s portrayed as quite the feminist. Kajii chooses to go against the standard of weight, of womanhood and of social expectations in Japan, which to me is what being a feminist is all about having the ability to choose for yourself. Which I found was in contrast to some of things she would say which were very subservient towards men, a direct contrast but as you read on you see how it all plays out together, in a wonderful display of Kajii’s true ability.

All women should give themselves permission to demand good treatment, but the world made doing so profoundly difficult.

The above quote I felt resonate throughout the book, especially at the end, with the public response to Rika - which if you have read the book you may feel the same, but if you have not I will not say more.

I found that Butter is more a vehicle for social commentary that it is a thriller with a murder mystery element, which is fine for me. I enjoyed the social commentary aspect slightly more, but I did enjoy the murder mystery a lot as well, it was enjoyable trying to piece the story together with Rika, and trying to understand Kajii and her motivations.

The pacing was interesting, I found it to be very slow, but looking back on the novel I’m glad it was. One because it’s translated and the translation should be as faithful to the original work as possible but second because Rika’s investigation was over a decent period of time and I don’t think all the plot lines would have come together in a fulfilling way (especially Kajii’s actions) if it had been sped up for the sake of page count.

I was famished for a good book but Butter has me sated. My physical copy is on the way and I look forward to annotating the heck out of it.

Thank you to Asako Yuzuki, Fourth Estate and NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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