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SPOILER ALERT: Please do not read if you don’t want to be spoiled by the content of the book. I do see that this book must be enjoyed and read without any spoilers as spoilers likely will ruin your experience.
Today I finished Butter, a book that had created ripples all over the world written by Asako Yuzuki.
First of all, I want to comment that my expectations were obscured by the short phrase on the cover of the book: A book about food and murder. I envisioned, before reading, a lot more murder and less food content.
The actual story was the reverse: more food and no absolute conclusion on the murders. The truth about the murders were never revealed. Rather, the end of the novel illuminates the idea that no one really knew the truths and that everyone had their own version of truths.
Nonetheless, the novel was outstanding. It pushed me to get over my expectations and stuck through with it to the end, to realize and immerse myself in the message that the novel was trying to get across.
This novel is an onion with layers of meaning and as I peeled through the layers to find the many stories and meaning behind them.
At its core, I would say Butter portrays the struggle of women trying to survive, making real connections within a society where women are expected to play the domestic role in a family setting.
All of the women in the story were victims of that domestic expectation which, I observe, strained them of their livelihood and of themselves. Further, it seems that women were pitted against each other in comparison to this vague standard where they were supposed to measure their value. Anyone who tried to go against this standard eventually was seen as murderers, outcasts, and an embarrassment not worthy of value.
Men criticizing women is one thing, but women go against other women and dragging each other down is another level of pain and lowness that goes deeper than most. Where women were supposed to support each other and bring each other up, the arbitrary domestic expectation of women vehemently put them against each other in a hollow that they could not get out of even though they desperately needed the connection and desired the relationships with other women.
This standard also put their relationship with food a heavy and ruined connection. Rika, the main character, could not cook any food until she met Kajii when she learnt to appreciate food with pure enjoyment. Reiko saw food as her domestic role to fulfill. It was not until Kajii and the cooking class Le Salon de Myzuki brought out the pure joy of a woman connecting with food that Rika was able to reconcile with food and the act of cooking. She learnt to understand the meaning of cooking, enjoying food, making her own recipe, and enjoying food with those who loved.
This is such a deep layer of meaning as I am one with struggles with cooking. I thought I would never be a good cook because I am not the domestic type. However, that is far from the truth. I can cook, and I can cook great food if I let go of the comparison, the expectations, and the stress that this society imbues upon me. (Yes, I am cooking a bit more nowadays and realize how much I enjoy it.)
Beyond this core lawyer of meaning is the relationships between Rika and the other characters. Each of their stories was illuminating.
Her friendship with Reiko was a particularly interesting one. Reiko was her own character, one that was far from perfect, but Asako made her journey one that inspired me. I guess Asako’s talent was bringing all of these flawed characters together at the beginning in a disarrayed and messy way through this journey put them through this treacherous journey to face their deepest fears, trauma, internal fights and put them back together at the end in a more resilient and stronger version of themselves at the end of the book.
Murders aside, expectations aside, fears and trauma aside, they rose up heroically with new insights, stronger confidence in themselves and the relationships they held, with more understanding of each other, testament of their trust and beliefs in each other, supported each other up from the ruins.
No one character in the novel was criticized and looked down upon, even the Kajii convicted of murders, the one betrayed Rika, the one that set her up and grilled her on the front page of the newspaper with the support of Kajii’s new husband who was likely profiting off of the relationship and stories with Kajii.
At the end, Kajii once again was likely the victim of a man she confided in and lost out in a genuine female friendship. Kajii, a role model for many women, who defied traditional domestic expectation at the end had to carry the conviction and had her life locked away and separated from her love for food and her friends. I shared the empathy with Rika for Kajii, Kajii is likely the most pitiful woman in the story, we never knew the truth whether she killed those men; nonetheless, she lost her freedom for playing the role of a domestic woman too perfectly with her god-given skill and love for cooking.
In a way, Shinoi’s reconciliation with his daughter was also the reconciliation that Rika had with her dead father after his untimely death which Rika blamed herself for and for the longest time branded herself as the murderer for his death. Honestly, the men in the novel also were portrayed in an empathetic light; they were quiet but raw with pain, with flaws, and with desire for connections and atonement for past mistakes. Therefore, even though the story focuses on the struggle of women, the underlying layer shows the struggle of humanity including these men, women, and everyone in between against societal norms. This aspect of the novel therefore is the humanity side of the novel and the shared struggle transcending genders.
The ending offers a message of hope. Putting Kajii’s turkey rotting away in the fridge and to be found days after her arrest versus the turkey that Rika made which was shared among her loved ones, the rest of turkey that later on would be used for an adapted Japanese breakfast for her mom, Shinoi and his daughter, this shows Rika’s ability to recover and rise beyond the damaging norms of society and claimed her own recipes, her own take on life being a young Japanese woman instead of falling victim to those societal standards.
To make such a great story, Asako’s depiction of the recipes, the cooking, the food was outstanding, I wonder if she tried these recipes herself, I guess she must have and must have immersed herself in the joy of cooking, of taste, of the act, to be able to make those recipes and cooking alive and vivid. A great writer is a great communicator and a great persuader. Asako is a wonderful writer.
I hope you will enjoy the book as much as I did.
Happy reading!
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