Book Review: Butter
I don’t want friends… I don’t need friends. I’m only interested in having worshipers
There were points in the book where I came rather close to DNFing. But I am someone who is rather stubborn and refuses to quit. I’m not 100% sure it was worth it, as I'm still digesting the ending. This book was a runaway bestseller in Japan and flooded the book market in the West as the next bestseller.
Rika has a strange fascination with a female serial killer, Kajiimana. She is a female killer, which is a rare occurrence, but she is also objectively unattractive by Japanese societal standards, something which the press and the public focused on because her victims were her lovers. How can a woman so unattractive, fat and repulsive enthral so many men? Rika successfully gets in touch with Kajii after asking for one of her recipes, and thus, the twisted saga begins of manipulation, betrayal and delicious food.
Let’s start with the good stuff: social commentary. Japan is very focused on image; like Korea, they have spectacularly high beauty standards for women, but those same standards are not reflected in men. Something that is highlighted in the book when Rika starts putting on weight, much to the consternation of her boyfriend, colleagues and boss. While they frame it as being worried about her, they’re really fat-shaming her and sending some of the same vitriol that Kajii got to her.
Food is very central to the plot, as it was how Kajii aimed to seduce her lovers, and I personally wouldn't recommend reading this book on an empty stomach. The odyssey that Kajii sends Rika on is seen as a way for Kajii to live vicariously through Rika, but it is really a manipulation tactic to gain her trust and make it appear that Rika has Kajiis. Food becomes semi-sexualised as Kajii isn't framed as exactly beautiful, but how she sexualises herself to men to become appealing and uses food to manipulate Rika into diving into her own sexual appetite.
Kajii is probably one of the more interesting ‘femme fatales’ out there. For starters, she is a supposed serial killer; the fact of her guilt is never truly confirmed. But in modern culture, not only in the West, there is a woman who is anti-feminist and sees her role as being at home; she hates women, despises feminism, but also longs for female company. Men are just blameless babies who need to be cared for and the attention of a good woman who will feed them decadent food, to the point where she engages in a sexual relationship with their abuser. Kajii is probably one of the most well-written narcissists I have ever come across, not only using femininity but also loneliness as a weapon to manipulate others and eventually kill them off when they are no longer useful to her or they do not appreciate her domestic efforts. Rika doesn't see her manipulation coming, even when Kajii declares, “I don’t want friends… I don’t need friends. I’m only interested in having worshipers” Kajii actively tries to destroy her, but is ultimately unsuccessful. Kajii will always be alone, even surrounded by her ‘worshipers’, for they are not friends, they do not care about her, but rather her “mystique”.
Now, whilst I am not typically a fan of translated materials, Polly Barton does a brilliant job. Japanese customs, societal expectations, and culture bleed through the pages without disrupting or changing the author's original voice, which can often happen. I’m not sure I’d read this book again. While this is an excellent feminist text, there were moments where the book deviated and became a little too long-winded in its pacing. It needed to be a little snappier - but then again, that may be a cultural difference between Japanese and English writing.