She’s been anointed by Haruki Murakami and has won her country’s highest literary honors.
Now Mieko Kawakami makes her U.S. debut with her feminist masterwork, Breasts and Eggs.
But the book is hardly arriving in a vacuum.
Europa Editions (2)
Kawakami, 43, has found many high-profile fans in her native Japan.
Her politics subversive, pointed, and feminist are embedded in deeply human stories.
Partly, you could say, it’s because she challenges the establishment.
“I don’t want to write anything that helps to reinforce that kind of a misunderstanding.
I made an effort to depict life as it truly feels to live it in Japan.”
Kawakami also possesses a poet’s soul.
The translation is by Sam Bett and David Boyd, experts on Japanese literature and culture.
(They also translated Kawakami’s interview responses for this story.)
(He’s since translated several Kawakami stories into English.)
Of her stature, he says the author is “one of Japan’s brightest stars.”
Adds Bett, “Mieko is a star, no question.
Think Zadie Smith and Taylor Swift, combined.
Breasts and Eggsmay take some adjusting to as a reading experience.
Yet this speaks precisely to its value.
Did you know she sang, too?
(She no longer sings in public.)
Now it’s all writing, all the time.
It hasn’t always been easy; she used to feel “overwhelming tension” in the process.
“I can be a real perfectionist,” she admits.
Good news for us.
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Breasts and Eggsis now available for purchase.
