Breasts and Eggs

De: Mieko Kawakami

Narrado por: 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.

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.