Breasts and Eggs - Gatti Ninja

hardcover, 192 pages

Published April 16, 2020 by Picador.

ISBN:: 978-1-5098-9820-6

(1 review)

Challenging every preconception about storytelling and prose style, mixing wry humor and riveting emotional depth, Kawakami is today one of Japan’s most important and best-selling writers. She exploded onto the cultural scene first as a musician, then as a poet and popular blogger, and is now an award-winning novelist.

Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own.

It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a …

Challenging every preconception about storytelling and prose style, mixing wry humor and riveting emotional depth, Kawakami is today one of Japan’s most important and best-selling writers. She exploded onto the cultural scene first as a musician, then as a poet and popular blogger, and is now an award-winning novelist.

Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own.

It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations.

On another hot summer’s day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.

6 editions

ElectricMari reviewed Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

Kawakami stan.

5 stars

What a beautiful book. I was scared by the reviews calling it a "feminist novel" but it was not what I was expecting. Whenever I read someone describing something as "feminist", I brace myself for something superficial, something that can only be envisioned in the realm of white feminism. This was not it. Granted, I have just recently started reading modern literature and this was my first real taste of Japanese literature, but this book felt like nothing I have ever read before. I have never read a book about women so profound and raw. I am enamoured with Mieko Kawakami writing and persona. I am already planning a reread (what have I become?).