The “Diary of a Void” short story was pretty confusing at first, but very interesting to read. It’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t, whether she had a baby, or she didn’t. It’s interesting, and really saddening however, that she only gets treated better around her workplace when she announces she’s pregnant, as if they respect a life that doesn’t exist yet (and perhaps never did in the context of the story) more than they do the actual living person in front of them. Perhaps that’s a stretch, but I think it’s still a real issue. In “The Lonesome Bodybuilder”, I found the main character to be pretty inspiring. For me, it's how the main character navigates her struggles for purpose before she really is able to claim bodybuilding as a passion of her own. The husband wasn't likeable at all to me, and I personally just found him really insecure. Not a big fan of how he suddenly changes in the end, but it is pretty hopeful.
The Woman in the Purple Skirt was a rather funny, yet kind of creepy story to me. It’s basically just the main character stalking the woman in the purple skirt, but it doesn’t seem to be in a harmful way. Actually, despite not ever talking to her, the main character helps her in some very kind ways. I find it interesting how the story ends around when the woman in the purple skirt actually speaks. It’s almost as if the main character was merely interested in the mystery of her. Once even a little bit of that mystery was unraveled, she stopped (?). I'm not actually too sure on this one, but it's how I first interpreted it. “The Most Boring Red on Earth” is like the other stories in that it is pretty absurd, but this time it’s perfectly clear what this story could mean (to me at least). To me, her coming to find her period beautiful is her coming to embrace a part of her femininity. As a cis man, I’ll probably never truly be able to understand, but I liked it nonetheless.
“Breasts and Eggs” was a particularly interesting story to me, and I got pretty emotional over it as well. Naruse was just an awful person to me, and I feel horrible that Natsuko had to dedicate so much of her love and consideration for him. The only boundaries he considered was his, and it shows from him cheating on her for his own satiation, to him pushing his own ideals onto Natsuko years after they had broken up. It’s also just awful to see Natsuko’s asexuality go unconsidered by Naruse as well. For her to go along with sex, despite her extreme aversion to it, because she feels as though it’s the role she has to play for Naruse is also just so painful to read. “Naked” was also a really interesting story to me as well, particularly Izumi’s relationships with other characters and how they change post-unemployment. It’s pretty awful to see how differently people treat her after being unemployed, but to me it’s Yamamoto’s commentary on how a woman’s worth may be conflated with her work.
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