Madeline
Just as foreign films are very different from Hollywood films, foreign books are very different from the “Hollywood” books. In this case, a Japanese book called Breasts and Eggs that takes on the topic of being a women in Japan. This book highlights the same boring things women know about being a women in their culture and explores it from the Japanese culture.
Premise of Breasts And Eggs
The story is broken into two parts and revolves around three women. In the first part, Natsu is visited in Tokyo by her sister, Makiko and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. This book is focused on Makiko and Midoriko, their individual experience of being a women and their relationship as mother and daughter. Makiko is obsessed with the idea of getting breasts implants. She discusses with her sister the size she wants, how much they cost and how quickly she could get them done, the doctors she has scoped out, and why her breasts are inferior.
Midoriko has stopped talking to her mother due to her mother’s obsession with getting breast surgery. But Midoriko has her own obsession that is expressed through her journal. Her friends are getting their periods but Midoriko has not. She talks about this in a curious way and goes as far as to discuss the egg that goes along with having a period. These are the Breasts and Egg of the first part of the book.
The second and longer part focuses directly on Natsu and it comes out that she has a desire to have a child of her own. Since she is unmarried, she has a few choices: adopt, find a man to have sex with and get her pregnant, or find a sperm bank. Although her preference is to find a sperm bank, it is nearly as possible to be approved by a doctor if the women is unmarried. Sex is painful for her, she does not enjoy it, and therefore that option is out. And she wants her own child, which means adoption is out.
A big part of the second book is exploring her options to find a way to get sperm and once she finds it, how will she get that sperm inside her? Through a doctor? A syringe? She could attempt to trick a Japanese sperm bank to donating to her. But it may be easier to a foreign entity or find a “private donor.” The book follows all the what ifs Natsu goes through.
With a few minor exceptions, the book is entirely full of a cast of women. The only many who is brought to color, is done so with purpose. He is brought into the story with his own story of not knowing his father. His relationship with other’s also adds to his purpose of being in the story. And then, at the end of the book, his real purpose of being in the story is uncovered.
Women in Japan vs. Women in America
I am not saying that this book represents all women in Japan or that I represent all women in America, but there are some parallels I would like to draw from my conclusions of reading this book. As a women with breast implants and who has many friends with breast implants, I find the topic a bit over done in Breasts and Eggs. To me, this was a simple decision and not one to toil over.
Then there is the topic of having a baby. Although I have no children, I do know American women have options. It may be more difficult for a single women to have a baby rather than a married one. But I feel as though this is not as tough as a topic if Natsu was in the United States.
Final Thoughts
Nothing really happens in this book. It is just a series of detailed events that highlight some of the things women go through in Japan for breast implants, young women about to get their period, and women trying to have a baby. It was a much different book than most, if not any, I have ever read before. Is it the Japanese aspect or just that it was different. That I do not know? Perhaps I should read more Japanese books.
