Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa @ Wishful Endings to spotlight the books we can’t wait to read. Typically, these books are yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, which was previously hosted by Breaking the Spine.
It’s the start of a new month, so I figured it’d be fun to participate in a book meme to add variety to my posts. This April, I’ll be featuring books that I’m really excited to get my hands on from the genres I usually read (contemporary fiction, mysteries/thrillers, romance, and Japanese literature), and I’ll talk about what intrigued me about it. While putting these posts together I realized that most of my highly anticipated releases are coming out this April, so I’ll be focusing on those first.
This week, I’m starting off with a book I’ve had on my TBR since February: Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs.
Book Information
Title: Breasts and Eggs
Author: Mieko Kawakami
Translators: Sam Bett & David Boyd
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Europa Editions
Expected Publication Date: April 7, 2020
Goodreads Synopsis
An earlier novella published in Japan with the same title focused on the female body, telling the story of three women: the thirty-year-old unmarried narrator, her older sister Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter Midoriko. Unable to come to terms with her changed body after giving birth, Makiko becomes obsessed with the prospect of getting breast enhancement surgery. Meanwhile, her twelve-year-old daughter Midoriko is paralyzed by the fear of her oncoming puberty and finds herself unable to voice the vague, yet overwhelming anxieties associated with growing up. The narrator, who remains unnamed for most of the story, struggles with her own indeterminable identity of being neither a “daughter” nor a “mother.” Set over three stiflingly hot days in Tokyo, the book tells of a reunion of sorts, between two sisters, and the passage into womanhood of young Midoriko.
In this greatly expanded version, a second chapter in the story of the same women opens on another hot summer’s day ten years later. The narrator, single and childless, having reconciled herself with the idea of never marrying, nonetheless feels increasing anxiety about growing old alone and about never being a mother. In episodes that are as comical as they are revealing of deep yearning, she seeks direction from other women in her life—her mother, her grandmother, friends, as well as her sister—and only after dramatic and frequent changes of heart, decides in favor of artificial insemination. But this decision in a deeply conservative country in which women’s reproductive rights are under constant threat is not one that can be acted upon without great drama.
Breasts and Eggs takes as its broader subjects the ongoing repression of women in Japan and the possibility of liberation, poverty, domestic violence, and reproductive ethics. Mixing comedy and realism, it is an epic life-affirming journey about finding inner strength and peace.
Why I’m Excited for It
Haruki Murakami, the monstrously famous Japanese author who also happens to be one of my favorite authors, called Kawakami as his “favorite young writer”, so… I don’t really need any more convincing than that. This novel also seems more explicitly feminist in themes than some of the Japanese female authors I’ve read, and I’m very curious as to how feminism is expressed in Japanese literature.
Is this work on your TBR? What book releases are you looking forward to? Let me know in the comments, or feel free to leave a link to your own Can’t-Wait Wednesday post! I’d love to hear about it.
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Gil Reads Books 
This work is definitely on my TBR now! I’m so interested in these themes: mothers, childless women, puberty. I love all of it. Thank you for bringing this book to my attention! It’s quite long, but I’m hoping it will be an enjoyable read.
You’re welcome! It definitely looks like an interesting read, though I’m also intimidated by the length.
I’m intimidated by the mixed reviews on Goodreads! I’m slowly learning to ignore Goodreads, though…I tend to agree with whatever niche opinion is on there, which is very…odd.
You’re not alone, though. The works of fiction that tend to have high ratings were frankly underwhelming (e.g., Miller’s works), and there are some books with lower ratings that turn out to be 4.5-5 star reads for me. I’m hoping this one’s one of those!
Ooh, this was not on my radar but it sounds very appealing! I will have to keep an eye out for reviews!
Yay! I hope it turns out as good as the premise makes it sound.
This sounds like such an interesting book! I hadn’t heard of it before, but I think I would enjoy it- and I love how blunt the title is😂
Lol you’re right, I never thought of it that way! 😂 Hope you like it if you do get to pick it up!
Like!! I blog frequently and I really thank you for your content. The article has truly peaked my interest.