Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

by Asako Yuzuki

Rika had never considered that kind of life for herself, but she could see the power such women bestowed upon their families. Every night, those women would clean out the toxins that had built up in their partners’ bodies and souls over the course of the day – toxins that, if left untouched for too long, would eat a person away.

I only want to spend my time with people who know the real thing when they see it. People who truly understand the value of the real thing are few and far between.

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

‘There is nothing in this world so pathetic, so moronic, so meaningless as dieting.’

‘Women’s obsession with work and independence and so on is the source of their dissatisfaction. When women surpass men, their chance for romance slips away from them.

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.’

‘Don’t you think that’s a disease of the contemporary age? It feels like these days our value is determined by how much effort we make on a daily basis. That matters even more than our results. After a while, the concept of effort starts to become mixed up with things feeling difficult, and then you reach the point where the person seen as the most admirable is the one suffering the most.

Even if there was nobody to care for them, they could have cared for themselves.

Them is ourselves

‘Cooking is enjoyable, but the moment it becomes a duty, it grows boring. The same is true of sex, and fashion, and beauty. When you’re forced to do something, it becomes a chore, and the pleasure disappears.’

‘You need a place like that, don’t you? Everyone does. Life is hard when you don’t have a place where you can feel safe, and it’s easy to find yourself stuck.’