On “Breast and Eggs”
“On ne naît pas femme: on le devient.
One is not born, but rather becomes a woman”
I haven’t read a lot of contemporary Japanese fiction, but after reading about Mieko Kawakami and reading the book review in the NY Times, I checked to see if my public library had it available in an electronic format and waited.
Originally published in 2008, but now available in English, “Breast and Eggs” explores womanhood, experiencing poverty, and self-actualization in modern Japan through small family interactions, female friendships, and motherhood.
Natsuko Natsu (who has to consistently reassert that her name isn’t a nom de plume), is a determined young woman who is continuing to flesh out how she understands herself, her body, and the world. In Book One, we meet Natsuko’s little family consisting of her older sister and her sister’s daughter. The mother is obsessed with getting work done on her breasts and the daughter is willfully mute. Throughout the awkward few days, each person’s role within poverty and in “womanhood” is explored. Some of the most devastating pieces of prose for me was Natsuko’s niece pondering why life has to be so hard as a poor person who is also a girl.
Book Two dives deeper into Natsuko’s interior life and her conflicting desires to be a successful writer and potentially to be a mother. Throughout this section, the tension of whether motherhood is noble (to whom) or worth it (again, to whom) is explored by a variety of characters and Natsuko’s world, and thus the reader, is opened up to people of different classes and options who view motherhood and being a woman in different ways.
I’m at the age where close friends and acquaintances are beginning and continuing to bring children into their lives. I brought my ambivalence about participating in motherhood to this novel, as well as, thinking about friendships among women. This novel will resonate with a variety of women at different life stages and offer a glimpse into the interior lives of the women you encounter through your casual encounters.