Infinite Books

I’ve always had a weakness for misfits and loners in novels. Hence, no wonder, after a few pages of the book “All the Lovers in the Night” by Mieko Kawakami, I realized that I really liked the main character, Fuyoko Irie. She is a 34-year-old woman living alone in Tokyo, whose days are filled with working at home as a proofreader. Fuyoko lives by responding to other people’s interests and needs, but she does not initiate new contacts or changes in her life. A very introverted person, she looks at the world as an observer, not a participant, noting the colors, sounds, people, and scenes. Her social life consists of hanging out occasionally with Hijiri, her elegant and exuberant friend and the total opposite of Fuyoko. Despite Fuyoko’s organized days, the outside world grows increasingly hostile. Soon she discovers that she can only deal with it in a state of daze, so a carry-on thermos filled with sake becomes her companion.

The novel has other young women: a former school friend Noriko, now a housewife with no particular plans for the future, and Kyoko, a former co-worker. There is also a man: 50-year-old Mitsutsuka, who introduces himself as a professor of physics and with whom Fuyoko starts meeting regularly in a coffee shop.

Struggling, Fuyoko’s real, poetic personality, hidden under her armor, slowly begins to emerge. A world, according to Fuyoko, might be utterly different from ours, but it’s a fascinating world, and I tremendously enjoyed stepping into it.