PositiveThe White Review... a capacious, contrary novel about pregnancy which is inflected with anti-natalist ideas ... Poverty, menstruation and childbearing are depicted as entrapping cycles, reinforced by Natsuko’s painful memories of her and her sister’s childhood ... Makiko’s stories about work draw a vivid picture of male privilege and the costs and demands of low-paid, physical labour on the body. Kawakami’s depiction of exhausting work made tolerable by female friendship recalls that of Natsuo Kirino’s Out, a superb thriller set on the night shift in a packaging factory in Tokyo, although Breasts and Eggs doesn’t take the same murderous direction. Like Makiko, the women who end up working at the bar must invest more money into staying there as their bodies and faces age, spending money on plastic surgery with their diminishing pay ... Kawakami is largely uninterested in exploring conflicts between the processes of art and mothering ... As is typical of this strange and unwieldy book, we’re presented with the most complicated and radical positions just as the narrative veers towards a less challenging and somewhat neat denouement.
