Breasts and Eggs

By: Mieko Kawakami

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi

The story of three women by a writer hailed by Haruki Murakami as Japan’s most important contemporary novelist.

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 & 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 30-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 10 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.

©2020 Mieko Kawakami (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Good Story

This was a good story it gets a little drawn out in part 2 but it was good overall.

Compelling and important window

A new view into working class women in Japan, beautifully told An important discussion of the meaning of childbearing.

Great story — very fresh; no rose colored glasses

I loved how the book started with the theme of windows not being a thing you think about when you’re poor. (Yes I listened to the whole book!) Overall wonderful and the narrator was great but I struggled with everything sounding like it was foreshadowing doom., like in a noir film, almost to the point of absurdity. There is a lot of harsh reality in this story. To the point where I had to take breaks. But there is hope, too. And bravo for non-traditional lifestyles!! There is no single formula for happiness and positivity contributing to the world!

Feminine perspective of Japanese femininity

Fabulously detailed story telling, from many different intimate perspectives. More dialogue between characters than I can usually stand, though interesting enough to hold my attention.

Felt like a series of essays

This felt less like a full story and more a series of essays in the form of conversations. Writing was wonderful and I’ll read more from this author but this story didn’t feel fully cooked yet.

Thanks

Honest, thought provoking, deeply engaging

I found parts of myself in these characters I didn’t have a name for. At times i wanted to scream at these characters, other times I wanted to buy them a beer. Absolutely worth the listen.

Remarkable range

Ranges from dark depths to glowing light. Literary but without pretension, she captures both mundane life and poetry in solid everyday language. Moving and emotional yet unsentimental, it’s the most startlingly feminine book I (a man) have ever read. And excellent performance.

Interesting

This story, set in Japan, was centered around the experiences of people on all sides of sperm donorship. It gave us the thoughts and feelings of donors, hopeful parents, and the children of donors. Their depictions were sensitive and insightful.

New points of view

I haven’t read a contemporary novel in a long time but keep track of reviews from the New York Times and decided to try this after reading several music biographies In prep for writing my own. I wanted to listen to a novelist’s voice and someone who uses words artistically as opposed to just getting the point across. She definitely has her own voice and writes beautifully. She writes about several things and with a point of view I’ve never encountered before which is a really good reason to read this book. That said the book seems a bit deliberate and like the product of somebody who studied writing as an academic subject, Iike a talented grad school student. There’s always a sense of the tremendous amount of hours that went into crafting this and covering the territory in a way meant to be unique and stand out in the crowd. That’s a shame because it’s something you should never think about when reading a great novel. I will be interested to read a few more well reviewed modern novels and see if I have the same observation.

Unbelievable!

I could not stop listening to this book - so captivating and heartfelt. I will recommend it to all of my friends!