toki

really powerful, haunting ruminations on the effects of child abuse throughout your life. i think labelling this book as "weird girl lit" or anything similarily reductive is doing a huge disservice to the way murata portrays disassociation, trauma, and a society that inherently neglects children & fosters their abusers. heart-wrenching, stomach-turning, nail-biting, but ultimately a very tragic and sorrow tale about abuse.

"But in the Minotaur’s world it is far easier to kill and devour seven virgins year after year, their rattling bones rising at his feet like a sea of cracked ice, than to accept tenderness and return it."

maybe one of my favorite books of all time. heartbreaking prose about loneliness interrupted with touching moments of human connection. the way sherill depicts isolation is subtle and moving.

kind of insane how depoliticized / de-socialist-ized this book became in the public conscience. every page is about how poor & depressed the family is, and the novel ends with calls for a worker's uprising. mr. sinclair, i am so sorry!

beautiful, haunting, filled with dread, & extremely important.

delicious, electric style; ozeki's documentarian past shines through her characters. every character feels real & whole, even the wives that are featured for only a chapter or two. especially love how, as jane's faith in the meat industry dwindles, her narration becomes more interested in people rather than recipes.

despite ozeki's good work, it left much to be desired. for one, with how many parallels are set up btwn jane & akiko, you would think they would have more than one paltry face-to-face conversation. same thing for akiko & the vegetarian lesbians. though, i am fond of how woman-centric the latter half of the book became post-des informational session.

the racial commentary, at times, feels pushed aside, especially regarding discussion on colorism. in ozeki's attempt to portray how black people are often pushed aside, she inadvertently pushes them aside.

otherwise, a thrilling exploration of wifehood & meat consumption

Whatever else he may be, man is a social and an historical actor who must be understood, if at all, in close and intricate interplay with social and historical structures.

the late & great c. wright mills! passionately written, with a lot of charm. lots of pertinent observations, especially regarding the role of the sociologist & direction of the social sciences. fantastic work.