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A review by jarrahpenguin
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
4.0
Breasts and Eggs is an unusual, insightful, powerful and accessible novel about cis women's bodies and reproductive choices. The protagonist, Natsuoko, is a writer living in Tokyo, struggling with her craft, her class, her interpersonal relationships, and her relationship to her body. The first part, originally published as a novella, tells about a weekend visit by Natsuoko's older sister and niece from Osaka, as her sister considers breast augmentation surgery. It's exceptional: tightly woven, complicated and poignant. The second part, added on in this expanded, now full-length novel, shows us Natsuoko eight years later, as she weighs whether to conceive a child via sperm donation.
The second part of the book is considerably looser and more meandering than the first, and sometimes it's warranted. This section spans much more than a weekend and is more about the protagonist's inner turmoil and really teasing out every nuance of the debate over conception via sperm donation - a debate which I understand to be much more intense in Japan than North America, where it's become kind of shrug-worthy. Even if you might not think of the issue as especially controversial, the way Kawakami details Natsuoko's thoughts and motivations keeps you invested. Although some characters' interventions in the debate feel a bit heavy-handed, most times the points do land. There are several scenes where a character expresses powerful insights that make you look at the world a bit differently.
My main quibbles with the book were the feeling of disjointedness between the two parts, the occasional feeling of everything dragging on in the second part, and the far too pat ending. Through part one and most of part two you are really pulled along with characters' messy emotions and life situations and while part of you want Natsuoko to get a happy ending, there is an underlying sense that life just doesn't work that way. It makes the eventual conclusion feel a bit too contrived and robs the reader of what I think was the intended sense of satisfaction.
The second part of the book is considerably looser and more meandering than the first, and sometimes it's warranted. This section spans much more than a weekend and is more about the protagonist's inner turmoil and really teasing out every nuance of the debate over conception via sperm donation - a debate which I understand to be much more intense in Japan than North America, where it's become kind of shrug-worthy. Even if you might not think of the issue as especially controversial, the way Kawakami details Natsuoko's thoughts and motivations keeps you invested. Although some characters' interventions in the debate feel a bit heavy-handed, most times the points do land. There are several scenes where a character expresses powerful insights that make you look at the world a bit differently.
My main quibbles with the book were the feeling of disjointedness between the two parts, the occasional feeling of everything dragging on in the second part, and the far too pat ending. Through part one and most of part two you are really pulled along with characters' messy emotions and life situations and while part of you want Natsuoko to get a happy ending, there is an underlying sense that life just doesn't work that way. It makes the eventual conclusion feel a bit too contrived and robs the reader of what I think was the intended sense of satisfaction.