Butter by Asako Yuzuki is a bewildering yet captivating decent into food, feminism and murder. Going into this book I misunderstood that I’d be reading a crime novel. That was not the case. What Asako has done is craft a cast of characters exisiting and reacting to the world and its influence. It is an extended character study that is equal parts weird, wonderful and scathing in commentary on what it means to be and exist as a woman.
“Your problem is you’ve decided that butter is bad without even understanding what it tastes like.”
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“There is nothing in this world so pathetic, so moronic, so meaningless as dieting.”
BLURB:
The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.
There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.
Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.
Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?
Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, “The Konkatsu Killer”, Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.
@wilddinosaurr I don’t know yet but I can’t wait to find out! It’s so good. Half way through Butter!! Thanks @HarperCollins Australia for the gifted copy. #butter #booktok #newbooks #bookworm #crimenovel #translatedfiction #japanese ♬ original sound – RealOfficeLife | Office Comedy
REVIEW:
However beautiful she became, however well she did at work, even if she got married and had children, society didn’t let women off that easily. The standards were getting higher, and assessments harsher.
Butter is a slow burn book, it luxuriates in its drawn out prose and conversations between characters. It is dense, and not a fast read for me, but in a way that meant I had to really sit with the story and its characters, slowly forming my opinions and wishes for their arcs.
Inspired by a true story (The Konkatsu Killer), journalist Rika wants to try and get an interview with the aloof Manako Kajii, the gourmet cook convicted of killing several wealthy older men. With her case going to retrial, Rika see’s securing an interview as a career defining opportunity. The only issue is Kajii refuses to see her. That is until she asks for one of her recipes.
Rika then begins her decent into Kajii’s world, desperately trying to understand her motives, and at one point, attempts to befriend her. In trying to determine Kajii’s thoughts and view of the world, Rika is swept up in the madness and deliciously concerning activities that push her off the path of traditional expectations of women in Japan. Shockingly, Rika begins to transform, beginning a journey to explore what is ‘just the right amount’ for her, in food, love and life. Of course, the book is not without drama and anxiety in the second half when her best friend decides to step in and ‘help’ Rika solve the case. Butter takes several twists and turns that had me reading on despite its slow pacing. The description of food is tantalising, so much so that I started grabbing a snack or two to enjoy while I read.
Asako doesn’t shy away from some blunt and scathing remarks on society and its treatment of women. At times it is confronting, unrelenting and brutally honest about the pressures Japanese women have to conform and constrict themselves to fit the beauty standard of society. Early in the book she writes that the true horror the public felt about Kajii wasn’t that she’d supposedly murdered several men, but that she was ‘fat’ at 70kg, and that someone as ugly as her couldn’t possibly have been ‘loved’ by these men as she claimed they did. Rika’s own internal struggle with her weight after discovering the pleasure of eating good, flavourful food carries through the book, with her boyfriend and those close to her at times making awful remarks about her weight and changing shape.
There are many ideas Asako aims to impress on her readership, but what was clear to me is the idea that as a woman you should live for yourself first and foremost. Society expects women to sacrifice their time and bodies for others, and in Butter Rika learns to say no, to step back, and define her own worth and path outside of Japan’s expectations for her. Is it easy? Of course not. But that kind of liberation of oneself never is.
Until next time,
Rating: 4 Stars
Genre: Fiction – literary
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