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.

that you just wanted a soft, warm-bodied member of the opposite sex to call your own.

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

‘For what purpose, exactly, do you want to lose weight? Are you worried about not being attractive to men? Because in that case, you have nothing to fear. Men are naturally attracted to shapely, full-figured women. When I say men, I’m of course referring to real men, who are emotionally mature, affluent, and capable of generosity. Men who favour women with bodies like skinny children are the ones with no confidence in themselves. They’re without exception servile, sexually and emotionally immature, with no capacity for financial generosity, either.’

Kajii simply didn’t permit the people who wouldn’t accept her into her field of vision. That was how she was able to remain so full of confidence.

At the end of the day, men were not looking for a real-life woman, but a professional entertainer.

Rika was starting to believe that women who were expected to accompany men in their pursuit of self-satisfaction had the right to make demands of their own.

‘Life is hard without someone to admire or yearn for though, don’t you think?’

‘Do you not think you need to learn to love yourself more? That way you’ll come to realise that it’s a waste to diminish yourself by going on dates with people you aren’t matched with. Your estimation of yourself is too low.’

wonder whether I can do that, though. If I give this guy up, I don’t have any confidence I’ll find someone else. He’s a good person, generally speaking. I feel that all women would like to learn to love themselves the way you do, to act with confidence, but it’s actually the hardest thing of all.’

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.

If you were accepted by just one person, then you didn’t need to be someone whose beauty was acknowledged by everyone.

‘I think not taking care of yourself properly is a form of violence.’

If she could hone her powers of decision-making about the rest of her life choices, was it possible that she’d find the time to cook, and read, and bake quatre quarts for fun at the end of the working day? Maybe that was the kind of wall that Kajii was talking about.

Mothers around the world didn’t put in the work of coming up with and then cooking the day’s menu because those foods were what they themselves wanted to eat, but because they were thinking of their family.

My attraction to Ryō, the man who resembled my beloved Melanie, had been immediate.

‘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.’

The idea that a single home-cooked dish could save a person was a delusion. But how much suffering, how much bondage did that delusion cause for women?

you find someone you truly like then that person is enormously lucky, and if you told them how you felt they’d be pleased, regardless of whether it develops into a romantic relationship.

preconception that women are creatures who are forever comparing themselves with one another.

‘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.’

Blaming herself brought a comfortable kind of pain.

She knew that she should ask somebody for help, but she also knew that nobody could save her.

I was letting other people determine my tastes, without realising it.’

However beautiful she became, however well she did at work, even if she got married and had children, society didn’t let women off that easily.

I’m going to take care of myself physically, and make sure I enjoy my life.