Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

by Asako Yuzuki

In principle, all women should give themselves permission to demand good treatment, but the world made doing so profoundly difficult.

Wasn’t the great tragedy of Kajii’s victims that they had mistaken a service, for which they should have paid a professional, with a woman’s natural kindness and consideration?

‘Anyway, we live in an age where knowing what’s a good amount for you gets a bad rap.

‘Nobody has to be fully satisfied by just one thing, and nor do they have to aim to be like everyone else. It’s plenty if people can enjoy things a good amount, and be satisfied with their life overall. Enjoying a cigarette after a meal is okay, and putting on a little weight isn’t anything to merit fussing about. I guess some would see that as a slacker’s take, though.’

Never eat anything you don’t want to. When you take the decision to live that way, both your mind and your body will commence their transformation.’

‘How can I explain it? The yardsticks by which women are measured, I guess? The reason the cooking school received as much attention as it did is the preconception that women are creatures who are forever comparing themselves with one another. But that only happens because men try and use their yardsticks to establish some kind of order among women. I feel like Kajii was more man than she was woman.

Was it not in those details that a person’s soul resided?

She wanted to see Kajii again too. She wanted to meet her and tell her that this world deserved to be lived in. Or, no – that this world deserved to be tasted, greedily.