Flipping Through Pages #35 - Butter (A Book Review)

 

“Maybe spring was a good season to take up a new hobby.”

Today’s climate has put women in a weird position of dichotomy. Shedding centuries of being associated with domestic work, and building careers and individual journeys – often this contrast is impossible to bridge.

Rika, the center character of this story, is an ambitious journalist who has career as her focus, changing the scoop of the decade by trying to interview notorious “serial killer” Manako Kajii. She is someone who sees relationships and food as a matter of convenience, with one notable exception – her friend Reiko who gave us a promising career to focus on family.

And this is the scenario in which the author drops us, where the roles of women are cross-examined and seen through the misogynistic lens of the male individuals around them. Whether it be about marriage, about weight, about relationships – everything Rika and the other women do in the story is reviewed.

And in between all of this is Kajii. Based on a real story, she is an individual who has confounded all by being at the center of a litany of rich individuals falling for her and her food, and dropping dead mysteriously. The novel doesn’t serve to help us completely understand Kaiji and that is where it misleads us. Kaiji’s life and whether or not she is a murderer wasn’t the goal of Rika’s journey – it was understanding her own in life.

Food becomes a catalyst of the journeys all characters take. For Kajii it is supposedly the greatest service of a woman, while for Rika it is a journey of personal growth. These contrasts, including theirs and Reiko’s relations with their respective families, remain consistent till the end of the story. We go through all variations of food, the ones eaten over sinks, the ones in opulent surrounding, the ones in cooking schools and finally the ones with loved ones.

Butter, good butter, as per Kajii is an essential member of this gastronomic journey – but as Rika learns, delicious layers on the actual food might not reveal the dish underneath. Sometimes, you need to excuse the butter and dig in.

7.5/10