Review: Breasts and Eggs

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Quirky and somewhat pointless, yet somehow intriguing from start to finish.

The story is broken into two parts, with the second containing two-thirds of the novel. The first part discusses the breast enhancement surgery Natsu's sister is considering, and is honestly kind of a mess. It's more about the relationship between Natsu's sister, Makiko and Makiko's daughter, Midoriko, which is fraught with tension. Midoriko's stopped speaking, so we get her journal entries instead and it actually took me way too long to realise it was Midoriko's journal and not that of a younger Natsu. I was very confused.

Part two is about Natsu's contemplation of single parenthood and the artificial methods involved. I found the moral questions quite interesting, though it was hard to tell where Natsu stood.

It wasn't until about 100 pages from the end that I realised what my major issue with - Natsu's complete lack of personality. It took her actually getting fired up about something for me to realise that she's so complacent and dull throughout the entire novel. It's hard to get any sense of personality from her, and being told in first person really didn't help her case.

There are a lot of feminist issues here, which I found quite captivating, but there's also that insight into Japanese culture to give it an angle I don't experience often. The role of caregiving is much more prominent in Japanese culture, so it was interesting to read this with that in mind.

There's no real plot to drive it, and there are a lot of ramblings and nonsensical moments that shouldn't have worked but somehow still did. I can't tell you WHY I kept reading, only that I did; almost compulsively as the novel drew towards its conclusion.

I think those more inclined to take their time with books and mull over the themes will receive this quite well. There's a merit to the writing style that it could entertain me with a story I otherwise would have found quite dull, so those intrigued by this kind of story should be happily entertained.


With thanks to Macmillan Aus for a copy

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