Book Talk | All the Lovers in the Night

I found this book when I was looking through a table set at Barnes & Nobles with a sign that read something along the lines of "Translated Japanese Novels." Of course, I had to take a look. This one caught my attention not by the cover, but by the title. It intrigued my interests, so I put it on my list of books to read and I was happy to be able to find a copy at one of my local bookstores. Here's a little bit about All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami.

About the Author

Meiko Kawakami is a Japanese writer and poet from Osaka. Her work has won prestigious Japanese literary awards in several genres including the 138th Akutagawa Prize for Chichi to Ran (Breasts and Eggs), the 2103 Tanizaki Prize for Ai no yum to ka (Dreams of Love, etc.), and so much more. 

Kawakami published All the Lovers in the Night in 2011. In 2022 is when it was translated into English by Sam Bett and David Boyd. 

About the Book

Fuyuko Irie is a freelance copy editor in her mid-thirties. Working and living alone in a city where it isn't easy to form new relationships, she has little regular contact with anyone other than her editor, Hijiri, a woman of the same age but with a very different disposition. When Fuyuko stops one day on a Tokyo street and notices her reflection in a storefront window, what she sees is a drab, awkward, and spiritless woman who has lacked the strength to change her life and decides to do something about it.

As the long overdue changes occur, painful episodes from Fuyuko's past surface, and her behavior slips further and further beyond the pale.

Book Talk

Never judge a book by its cover, or in my case, by its title.  All the Lovers in the Night is not what it appears to be about, but that doesn't mean I was disappointed. Actually, far from it. I was surprised at how real and raw our author chose to be with our main character, Fuyuko. As we are reading along with the story, we are given glimpses into Fuyuko's psych through her interactions with other characters. We see how submissive and unwilling to break the status quo she is when it comes to people that she works with, while we see her spiraling into an alcoholic abyss with her love interest. Fuyuko is a character with many layers that we as readers get to unpeel as we go through each chapter. 

Besides Fuyuko, we meet two other women, the old best friend and the new boss. All three of these women can be interpreted as different representations of Japanese women in society. We have Fuyuko, the lonely woman who struggles making deep connections with others. then we have Hijiri, she is the resistance, the one who wants to break away from societal norms, at a price though it seems. And then we have her old best friend from high school, who is a woman going through the motions of being a "normal" Japanese woman; having a family, being a doting wife, even though she's having an affair because she's in a loveless marriage. 

 Overall, I found All the Lovers in the Night to be about dealing with existential crisis and how no one is ever as they seem on the outside. Our main character unfolds throughout the story and ultimately learns to, not solve, but overcome and deal with her issues that she's been holding in for years. If you need something out of the ordinary, pick this one up. Otherwise, I'll see ya'll on the next blog!  

 

Happy Reading,

Amanda