464:: "For decades, Haruki Murakami defined contemporary Japanese literature for the Anglophone reader ... But in the decades since the publication of those novels, Murakami's tropes haven't always aged well. In particular, his depictions of women have seemed, at least to some of us, troublingly thin." Locating Kawakami within a new generation of Japanese women writers, Kitamura said that "unlike her forebear, Kawakami writes with a bracing lack of sentimentality, particularly when describing the lives of women." Furthermore, she lauded the book's tackling of difficult and intimate subjects pertaining to women: "Kawakami writes with unsettling precision about the body—its discomforts, its appetites, its smells and secretions. And she is especially good at capturing its longings, those in this novel being at once obsessive and inchoate, and in one way or another about transformation."
432:, said that Kawakami's structure might be hard to follow: "Yet the ending is hardly tidy. The entire book is shaggy, and readers seeking neat closure should stay away. Kawakami leans into her digressive structure, trusting that if her narrator is singular and compelling enough, the reader will follow her wherever she goes." However, she also says that such a structure is to the benefit of Kawakami's world in which there are many questions but few answers: "This structure also enjoys a strange resonance with Kawakami's motifs. There are many ways to be a woman, and many paths are worth wandering until, suddenly, they're not."
444:, remarked firstly on Kawakami's own voice: "Her writing is sometimes beguilingly strange and peppered with evocative imagery ('sunlight pinched our skin'; strips of cloud are like 'marks left by a tired finger')." Regarding the translation itself, however, she said that "David Boyd's translation seems to reflect Kawakami's smoother control over her material, although there's some heavy-handed exposition and the curiously detached Natsuko doesn't always make for a thrilling narrator ... But it can also be flat, thickened and slowed by banal repetitions in Sam Bett's less-than-invigorating translation."
320:. Midoriko has not spoken to her mother in six months. Midoriko's journal entries are interspersed and contain her thoughts about becoming a woman and recognising the changes in her body. In the second part, set years later, Natsuko contemplates becoming a mother and the options open to her as an older single woman in Japan.
423:, one experiences the pain of women coming to terms with what they do and don't want, almost too acutely. The book's narrator rejects the conventional desires a woman is supposed to have, yet she cannot or will not say what she might want in their stead—a refusal that suggests not just ennui but something more provocative."
36:
477:
looks at the various moral, practical and bureaucratic factors that need to be accounted for while deciding to bring a new life into the world. It is a sharp critique of biopolitics under neoliberalism ... The book neither passes judgement on individuals' choices nor gives any solutions to the
401:
criticised the "flat" English translation, writing that
Kawakami's writing style is "lost on Anglophone readers, and her frank talk about class and sexism and reproductive choice is noteworthy primarily within the context of Japanese literary culture."
478:
difficult questions it poses. It will, however, make you confront complex questions about life, identity, love, kinship and death and will stay with you long after you are done reading it, showing the value of fiction for sociology."
353:. The second half is a continuation of the narrative. It is considered a sequel to the original novella, using the same characters and settings. The first half was originally published in the March 2019 issue of
316:, an aspiring writer in Tokyo. In the first part, Natsuko's sister, Makiko (巻子), and her 12-year-old daughter, Midoriko (緑子), arrive in Tokyo from Osaka. Makiko has come to Tokyo seeking a clinic for
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praised the "bracing and evocative" narrative of the novel's first part, but felt the second part faltered into an "overlong and chatty" narrative.
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288:. It is a completely different work from the novella, which has not been translated into English. The novel received the 73rd
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631:"Translation as an Exercise in Letting Go: An Interview with Sam Bett and David Boyd on Translating Mieko Kawakami"
375:, a translation of the original novella's title. Bett and Boyd's translation was published in the United States by
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768:"Fiction Book Review: Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, trans. from the Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd"
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in July 2019. It features a completely rewritten version of
Kawakami's 2008 novella
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The novel is divided in two parts and is narrated by
Natsuko Natsume
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896:"A Japanese Literary Star Joins Her Peers on Western Bookshelves"
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is a completely rewritten version of the original 2008 novella
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on 7 April 2020. It was published in the United
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359:. The second half was published in the April 2019 issue of
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523:"毎日出版文化賞の人々：／上 文学・芸術部門 川上未映子さん／人文・社会部門 関根清三さん"
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578:""このように書かれなければならない"ものを 書くために──作家 川上未映子"
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165:Print (hardcover and paperback), e-book
928:Sowrirajan, Gayathri (5 April 2022).
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930:"Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami"
685:"Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami"
496:"Best Books 2022: Publishers Weekly"
658:"Breasts and Eggs - Mieko Kawakami"
456:, began first with a reflection on
857:Williams, Holly (5 October 2020).
290:Mainichi Publication Culture Award
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711:McNeill, David (18 August 2020).
467:Gayathri Sowrirajan, writing for
934:The Sociological Review Magazine
795:Chihaya, Sarah (29 April 2021).
629:Braden, Allison (1 April 2020).
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1089:First-person narrative novels
803:. Vol. 68, no. 7.
801:The New York Review of Books
416:The New York Review of Books
1040:All the Lovers in the Night
584:(in Japanese). 12 July 2019
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462:Japanese literary scene
16:Novel by Mieko Kawakami
943:10.51428/tsr.nbst8521
1079:2019 Japanese novels
343:. The first half of
102:March/April 2019 in
392:English translation
383:on 20 August 2020.
367:English translation
318:breast augmentation
175:656 pp. (paperback)
173:552 pp. (hardcover)
56:Original title
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1084:Bungeishunjū books
900:The New York Times
558:. 20 November 2020
453:The New York Times
413:Sarah Chihaya, in
387:Critical reception
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965:- Europa Editions
797:"All Over Desire"
773:Publishers Weekly
748:. 26 January 2020
636:Asymptote Journal
501:Publishers Weekly
460:'s impact on the
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604:"川上未映子ニュース"
533:28 December
324:Publication
193:(paperback)
1073:Categories
1007:Novels by
780:22 October
752:22 October
724:3 November
696:22 October
669:22 October
642:22 October
588:9 February
562:8 February
556:Nippon.com
507:29 October
482:References
361:Bungakukai
356:Bungakukai
188:(hardback)
105:Bungakukai
86:David Boyd
81:Translator
908:0362-4331
871:0261-3077
809:0028-7504
614:6 January
112:Publisher
99:Published
835:Observer
582:Lexus.jp
429:Observer
207:Japanese
94:Japanese
91:Language
84:Sam Bett
913:29 July
876:29 July
842:29 July
814:29 July
381:Picador
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215:Hepburn
155:Picador
1059:(2019)
1051:(2013)
1043:(2011)
1035:(2009)
1032:Heaven
1027:(2008)
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46:Author
305:夏目 夏子
170:Pages
137:Japan
915:2024
904:ISSN
878:2024
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816:2024
805:ISSN
782:2020
754:2020
726:2020
698:2020
671:2020
644:2020
616:2024
590:2021
564:2021
535:2023
527:毎日新聞
509:2022
296:Plot
268:lit.
225:lit.
181:ISBN
938:doi
338:夏物語
263:乳と卵
211:夏物語
70:夏物語
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