Breasts and Eggs

Product Information

She leads a relatively isolated life, occasionally meeting old co-workers (all women) or her editor (a woman), and she remains in touch with her sister and niece (but mainly via phone and text), but basically on her own. She refuses to say a word to her -- which now also goes for aunt Natsuko, when she is in Tokyo (though she continues to speak with her friends and teachers at school). One friend of Natsuko is leaving Tokyo to join her husband in his family's home because he couldn't continue working, but she loathes the over-indulged (by his mother) father of her child; another friends sums up what seems to be the prevailing opinion: "I find all men repulsive". It is a story in two parts, with the first a revision of Kawakami’s novella Chichi to Ran, initially published in 2008 and awarded Japan’s prestigious Akutagawa Prize. The second part, which this review focuses on, is an extension of the story.

If Book One was a photograph or a haiku, Book Two is a film or a sonnet. We still follow Natsuko, but almost a decade has passed and she is now a published author. McNeill, David (18 August 2020). "Mieko Kawakami: 'Women are no longer content to shut up' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 November 2020.

The Sociological Review

Even though she is about to turn forty, Natsuko is still growing, changing, and learning. She meets death, suffers loss, finds herself floating and confused, seeks help, finds it, feels betrayed, learns, loses, finds, falls, stands up again. Natsuko doesn't come across as a neutered (or psychologically damaged) character -- though here again the story is clearly 'foreign', as it seems unimaginable her American or European counterpart would not at some point, of her own accord or encouraged by others, have consulted a therapist about her aversion to sex.

Because you’re not one of the kids inside that little house. That’s why you can do it. Because whoever the child is, the one who lives and dies consumed with pain, could never be you.” Breasts and Eggs meanders some, Natsuko rambling especially in the more extended second part (which also covers a considerably longer period), but she leads down intriguing paths (or, mostly, detours). Yuriko’s philosophy is similar to that of real-world philosopher David Benetar, an anti-natalist who believes that, since life is so difficult and painful, we should not force our children to have to go through it themselves. SB: We’ve finished a third book by Mieko, due out next year from Europa. I’m working on an MFA in fiction at Bennington and writing my first novel, which centers on shark fishing and weed nostalgia. C'est une tragicomédie crue, et cruelle. Et un passionnant instantané de vie féminine dans le Japon d'aujourd'hui." - Didier Jacob, Le Nouvel ObservateurThis means we are always being offered a new perspective on life, motherhood, womanhood, work ethics, success, and more. HR: Let’s talk about the logistics of undertaking a translation project as a team. Are both of your hands on every word, do you somehow divide up the work? Is this your first paired translation project? Makiko married young but split up from her husband before Midoriko was even born, raising her as a single parent. And even Midoriko -- not even a teen yet -- understands how hard her mother has it, and struggles with her own inability to be a support beyond her years: Now it's a buzzy release here. But while Breasts and Eggs features incisive commentary on being a woman and a mother, and some surreally intense passages, I struggled to understand the fervour it's inspired. (...) Kawakami writes with ruthless honesty about the bodily experience of being a woman" - Holly Williams, The Guardian