Book Review: Breasts and Eggs

Breasts and Eggs, lengthened from its original version, is a breakthrough piece for Mieko Kawakami, but also for the literary world. Her masterful prose is able to capture the attention of any reader, and draw anyone into the worlds she creates. The book is centered around a family of low-income Japanese women, battling their way through life and facing poverty, the image of their bodies, each other, and their desires for the future. Each conversation is written as if it's taking place in the readers' living room, and each sense is captured on every page. Kawakami works through seemingly every contemporary issue effortlessly, putting each piece into place within the story, instead of unnaturally breaking the flow of her storytelling She plays with issues of fertility through a character whose journey should, on paper, be shocking and different than anything readers have seen, but does it in a way that makes it feel real and beyond possible. The book is so fantastic that it could be read in a day if readers can't make themselves put it down, but it would be a rollercoaster of a day.