![luce [is reading]](https://wishfullyreading.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/9429655-1.jpeg){kind=small}
-
Marie’s Proof of Love by Mieko Kawakami
“Love doesn’t belong to any of us—it exists elsewhere, complete, from beginning to end. We simply have the privilege of coming into contact with it every once in a while.” The dreamlike mood permeating this short story by Mieko Kawakami is reminiscent of Elisabeth Thomas’s Catherine House, Sylvia Plath, and Fleur Jaeggy’s Sweet Days of…
abuse, all girls school, boarding/private school, dreamlike quality, female authors, GRIEF, heartbreak/breakups, JAPANESE AUTHOR, loneliness, Marie’s Proof of Love, melancholy, Mieko Kawakami, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, published in 2021, read in 2022, sapphic, short stories, the female malaise, trauma, unnamed country -
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami
Previously to reading All the Lovers in the Night, I’d read Breasts and Eggs, Heaven, and Ms. Ice Sandwich, by Mieko Kawakami. While I was not ‘fond’ of Breasts and Eggs, I did find her other books to be compelling. As the premise for All the Lovers in the Night did bring to mind Breasts…
1st pov, 2010s, 3.25 stars, addiction, Adult, All the Lovers in the Night, anxiety, atmospheric, Booklr, books about books, bullying, Contemporary, DEPRESSION, endless monologues, female authors, female friendships, friendships, identity, introspective, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, loneliness, Longing, melancholy, Mieko Kawakami, mumblecore, navel gazing, philosophical, psychological, published in 2022, re-reads, read in 2021, read in 2022, SLICE OF LIFE, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, surreal, tokyo, TRANSLATED FICTION, work culture -
Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami
Unlike Breasts and Eggs and Heaven, Ms Ice Sandwich makes for a perfectly breezy read. This short story is narrated by an unnamed boy who is in 4th grade. His mother seems always too busy to pay attention to him and his elderly grandmother is dying. Unlike the protagonist of Heaven, the narrator in Ms…
1st pov, boyhood, Contemporary, elementary school, female authors, first love, friendships, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, light reads, LITERARY FICTION, Mieko Kawakami, Ms Ice Sandwich, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, PUBLISHED IN 2017, read in 2021, SLICE OF LIFE, TRANSLATED FICTION, unnamed narrator, unrequited love, uplifting reads, YOUNG ADULT -
Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
A few weeks ago I read Mieko Kawakami’s acclaimed Breasts and Eggs and suffice to say that I was not a fan. While Heaven was clearly written by the same author of Breasts and Eggs (both novels implement similar imagery and even use the same metaphor comparing the legs of a young girl to poles)…
1st pov, 2000s, 3.5 STARS, Adult, ALIENATION, ANGST, boyhood, bullying, coming of age, Contemporary, existentialism, female authors, friendships, Heaven, HIGH SCHOOL, introspective, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Mieko Kawakami, navel gazing, netgalley, philosophical, published in 2009, read in 2021, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, TRANSLATED FICTION, violence -
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami
i deleted my review after getting one too many comments misreading my various criticisms (either calling me “too woke” or implying that i do not respect women who want to have children or, and this gets the cake, “an anglo saxon liberal chauvinist” which makes me wonder if angry commentators such as these even take…
1st pov, 2 STARS, beauty, books about writers, Breasts and Eggs, class, Contemporary, existentialism, female authors, feminism, japan, JAPANESE AUTHOR, LITERARY FICTION, mental health, Mieko Kawakami, motherhood, mothers & daughters, navel gazing, plastic surgeries, pregnancy, published in 2019, read in 2021, SEXUALITY, SISTERS, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, social issues, TRANSLATED FICTION, trying and failing @ feminism, work culture
luce [is reading] 