Breasts and Eggs

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Both Rika and Aizawa inspired and encourage Natsuko to consider, reconsider, and re-reconsider her approach to giving birth, raising a child, writing fiction, and simply how she looks at the passage of life and time.

This allegory articulates the fear of the “what if” scenario common to motherhood debates with an honesty that is chilling. It gives an entry point to discuss guilt, pressure and the term “unconditional love” that comes after birth. It suggests the need for a deeper introspection, rather than thinking of motherhood as an obligation, by making one confront the genuine possibility that their child might be the one in 10. As a reader who is progressively identifying with, and adhering to, their own gender less and less, this resonated with me in a loud and powerful way.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. Mieko Kawakami. “ A Feminist Critique of Murakami Novels, With Murakami Himself”. Literary Hub. 07 April 2020. a b c Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. (1 March 2009). Britannica Book of the Year 2009. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. p.269. ISBN 978-1-59339-232-1.

The issue of womanhood is more universal, and Kawakami's take is particularly intriguing with her de-sexualized protagonist. If you want to know how poor somebody was growing up, ask them how many windows they had. Don't ask what was in their fridge or in their closet. The number of windows says it all. It says everything. If they had none, or maybe one or two, that's all you need to know.” The story follows a weekend visit from her older sister, Makiko, who brings along her young teenage daughter Midoriko. Makiko’s main reason for visiting Tokyo from Osaka is not really to see her sister so much as it is to consult a plastic surgeon about breast enhancements.

For decades, Haruki Murakami defined contemporary Japanese literature for the Anglophone reader. In such bona fide masterpieces as “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” and “A Wild Sheep Chase,” the author created a surreal world of talking sheep and lost cats, jazz bars and manic pixie dream girls.

Midoriko puts it most bluntly -- "It feels like I am trapped inside my body" -- but it's what all three of them are dealing with. You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" She exhaled through her nose. "It's really simple, I promise. Why do people think this is okay? Why do people see no harm in having children? They do it with smiles on their faces, as if it's not an act of violence. You force this other being into the world, this other being that never asked to be born. You do this absurd thing because that's what you want for yourself, and that doesn't make any sense.....I know how this sounds. You think I sound extreme, or detached from reality. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is real life. That's what I'm talking about - the pain that comes with reality. Not that anyone ever sees it...Most people go around believing life is good, one giant blessing, like the world we live in is so beautiful, and despite the pain, it's actually this amazing place” She's also saved enough that she could raise a child, so at least financially it wouldn't be crushing hardship (as it was for her mother). Natsuko's isn't a question of gender-confusion -- that isn't the issue -- but she still struggles to figure out her identity as a woman, whereby societal pressure, of lineage, and the roles of sons and daughters within the family, play a significant part.It’s not often that a book comes garlanded with both lavish praise and laughable criticism, but Breasts and Eggs has been labelled “breathtaking” by Haruki Murakami and “intolerable” by Shintaro Ishihara, the former governor of Tokyo. Mieko Kawakami’s novel reportedly riled conservatives and the literary establishment in Japan on publication in 2008, but went on to become prizewinning and bestselling. 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. In Book One of Breasts and Eggs, Natsuko took on the role of the observer, with her sister and niece taking centre-stage. Discussion of Japanese writers inevitably swings around to the ‘I-novel’, the ubiquitous literary genre centred in first-person ‘confessional’ narratives and honed to an exceptional degree in 20th and 21st century Japanese literature. While Kawakami’s work falls into that genre, what renders it exceptional is the fierceness of its social critique. Breasts and Eggs has a ferocity that is neither didactic nor exceedingly obvious; it is, rather, conveyed through an extreme honesty and candor that erodes norms by questioning and revealing the contradictions they disguise. Kageyama, Yuri (25 March 2008). "Writer blogs her way to top literary prize". The Japan Times . Retrieved 19 October 2020. Breasts and Eggs is a two-part novel, with book one -- essentially the Akutagawa Prize-winning novel 'Breasts and Eggs', published in 2008 -- set on a few hot summer days in 2008 and book two beginning eight years later, in 2016.