Breasts and Eggs: Mieko Kawakami

This book is about feminine struggle, not in a boohoo shrinking violet kind of way but in a hilarious-despite-all-the-trauma way, as these stunted injured female characters manage to overcome their obstacles and demons and find their power. Natsuko Natsume is a 30-yr old writer in Tokyo, she's single and not into mingling. Her older sister Makiko is a single mom to daughter Midoriko in Osaka. Natsu and Makiko's mother raised them with the help of her own mother, after their dad left. When Natsu was 13 her mother died, then her grandmother died 2 years later, and through it all her big sister tried her best to take care of her. As a big sister myself, as a mom of daughters, as a woman with women in my life I connect with, this book hit all!my!buttons!This book is written with such feral honesty, which comes across all the moreso considering the setting is Japan, where women are typically presented as perfect, pretty, young, good, and happy. It comes as such a freaking relief to read about women who are self-aware enough to figure out how they want to be, and own it.I could not believe how hard I laughed at the part when Makiko was obsessed with breast implants, laughing but also cringing in terror for her. I love that there is an element of low-level hysteria or insanity humming throughout this book, it makes for suspense, realism, and truly happy endings. It is a good message to send, that people can survive periods of craziness, and come out all the better for it in the end.Extra points for just plain feminism like this: "So, basically, to become a Buddha, you have to be reborn as a man first. What the hell is that?" Another thing I loved about this book was all the characteristic detail evoking life in Japan, that could never be mistaken for another country. The train lines and the stations, your local okonomiyaki stand, the feelings the smells the procedure at the public bath, pressing the home button on the phone!I am so glad I got assigned this to read for a book club discussion, otherwise I would have stopped reading Kawakami after Heaven, which was a bit heavy handed for me.

Breasts and Eggs is a Tokyo-based story set in two different parts. The first section (Breasts) follows the narrator Natsuko as she is visited by her older sister Makiko and her teenage niece Midoriko. Makiko has come to Tokyo to look into breast augmentation surgery, and Midoriko is having a hard time with this, alongside all the other horrors of being a young teenage girl on the verge of a whole load of body/hormonal changes. The second part of the book (Eggs) follows Natsuko on her own, around 10 years later, as she continues to pursue her career of being an author and looks into finally having her own child via IVF which is complicated in itself as a single woman.This story was just so interesting and well-written with a character who I felt was peeled back and revealed to us layer by layer as she continue to dive into the core of her being, and examining her wishes and desires. First off, the translation of this book is really excellent. I'm no expert by any means but I found it just so easy to read, the language and writing flowed really, really well. Absolutely seamless.I thought the exploration of Natsuko in this book was so thought-provoking and hard-hitting as well as just all kinds of raw. The book very much explores what it means to be a woman, particularly in Japanese society, and everything that comes with that mark of being a woman - being young and beautiful, and if not young, making yourself look as perfect as you can through beauty treatments and invasive surgery. The fears of growing older but also just growing up - how terrifying it can be to be on the periphery of girl to woman, and knowing all the different things your body will go through for years and years, and feeling disconnected from that body somehow because of the horror of it all. And then making decisions about motherhood, how womanhood and being a mother are linked in different ways whether you have a child, or remain childless. How it can define you even if you don't want it to.One of the things I found very interesting was the discussions around IVF/sperm donation and women choosing to have children without a partner. I didn't know there was so much red tape for single women who wanted to have a child and the sometimes dangerous ways women would have to choose to have a child via sperm donation if they want one. Loads of big questions here too around the population of the world and if it's ethical to have any children at all seeing as no-one asks to be born. You can take a lot from that, and everyone will probably have a different opinion.Natsuko goes through a lot in this book, and I feel like we just see her on the edge of a lot of things all the time. I just wanted her to keep going, and trying and believing in herself. I always felt like she could give a little bit more to everything.I did think for a while this would be a 5-star read for me but it did lose me near the end, as I felt just a little bit fatigued by the story I think. I also did miss the inclusion of Makiko and Midoriko in the later story as I felt like they were so interesting in the first half and they both had great but different dynamics with Natsuko.

Llegó en tiempo pero maltratado

my daughter love reading the book over and over again

Prodotto come da foto, bella lettura. Consegna puntuale.

I just read the first chapter and i loved it so much. The book came in amazing condition. No issues

Livré en bon état, hate de le lire