Breasts and Eggs

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Natsuko is far from satisfied, however. There is a slow, creeping need that is slowly closing in on her: to have a child of her own. Things continue at a drifty pace, the novel largely made up of Natsuko’s occasional interactions with women who offer differing takes on motherhood. 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. Her days pass “like a row of white boxes, all lined up, the same shape and the same weight”. But Kawakami writes with ruthless honesty about the bodily experience of being a woman, from menstrual leaks to painful nipples. She carefully reveals how poverty exacerbates the suffocating pressures on women within a society where “prettiness means value”. The mysteries of procreation hold both anxiety and allure across the two parts, although Kawakami remains thoroughly unsentimental – motherhood can be “miraculous”, but it can also be oppressive. Two separate characters even suggest that to give birth is a selfish act of violence, an argument pursued with fearlessness, given voice both in teenage nihilism (“why did any of us have to be born?”) and via an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse, convinced that the only way to be sure you don’t inflict “excruciating pain” on an innocent child is to not have one. Sperm, eggs, sex, procreation, all of these things trigger in her a reaction of disgust and hate, and this hate has spilled out, leaving her literally speechless in the face of her mother’s obsession with breast enhancement. And she isn't really that worried about money, recalling that the female companionship of the three generations she grew up as part of and the sense of family were what really mattered: Kawakami, like Yoshimoto, is more firmly rooted in reality, yet both engage in occasional, brief and controlled descents into fantasy as a technique to further character development. To truly develop a character it is necessary to understand them both in the real world and in the dreamy fantasies into which we all drift.

This is perhaps the greatest thematic strength of Breasts and Eggs: perspectives on womanhood and motherhood. Mieko Kawakami explored womanhood in a visceral and agry way with Book One. Several people assume the catchy if unlikely 'Natsuko Natsume' is the pen name she adopted, but, as she assures them, it really is her name.)The first section of the novel, set in 2008, revolves around a rare visit by her considerably (almost a decade) older sister, Makiko, and Makiko's daughter, Midoriko, to Tokyo. 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).

In Book One of Breasts and Eggs, Natsuko took on the role of the observer, with her sister and niece taking centre-stage. Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Makiko is dissatisfied with how her breasts look -- and not just their flatness -- while Midoriko is just hitting puberty and is having difficulties with the physical changes she is undergoing: she's not thrilled about the budding of her breasts, and anxious about the onset of her period, which she hasn't yet had, but many of her classmates have.

It feels like I’m trapped inside my body. It decides when I get hungry, and when I’ll get my period. From birth to death, you have to keep eating and making money just to stay alive.”

Yuriko’s philosophy is similar to that of real-world philosopher David Benetar, an anti-natalist who believes that, since life is so difficult and painful, we should not force our children to have to go through it themselves. She refuses to say a word to her -- which now also goes for aunt Natsuko, when she is in Tokyo (though she continues to speak with her friends and teachers at school). Men are secondary characters who are portrayed as unequivocally terrible. With straightforward honesty, Kawakami skilfully reveals men’s misogyny. Men who abuse their wives and daughters, sexually aggressive strangers who manipulate women and “well-intentioned” men who cannot put aside their mansplaining tendencies are all examples. The impact of this exclusion of male characters is subtle yet powerful, giving the women space to position themselves as individuals rather than in relation to men. It is worth noting that Breasts and Eggs was translated by men. Even though the book remains impactful, one cannot help but wonder how different it would have been if a woman had translated it.

Male figures do not come off well in Breasts and Eggs; they are also notable by their absence -- fathers who are unknown or disappeared, in particular, but also generally: Natsuko has very little to do with any men throughout the novel.

The two sisters' mother and grandmother struggled -- with the father fairly good-for-nothing, for as long as he was part of the family -- and after they died the two girls had difficulties getting by. 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. They can't do anything around the house without making a ton of noise, not even close the fridge or turn the lights on.My monolithic expectation of what a woman’s body was supposed to look like had no bearing on what actually happened to my body. The two things were wholly unrelated. I never became the woman I imagined. And what was I expecting?” Translation as an Exercise in Letting Go - An Interview with Sam Bett and David Boyd on Translating Mieko Kawakami 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” Section two, the bulk of the book, is digressive and reflective. Natsuko is working on a second novel. She wants to have a child but her body cannot tolerate sex, which disquiets and grieves her. Artificial insemination is forbidden to single Japanese women: she must either go to a sperm bank outside the country or make illegal arrangements with a donor. This section is made up of conversations as Natsuko passes time with a fellow writer, an editor, a former co-worker, and briefly, Makiko and Midoriko.