Asako Yuzuki’s novel Butter first appealed to me as I was browsing a Hudson News on the way somewhere (I honestly don’t remember where at this point). The cover was bright yellow with a cow and some blood and a little bit of Japanese, and I was intrigued. Then the blurb made it sound even more interesting!
I did get the impression that this book was going to be a lot more about murder, but I think the real tone the author was going for was being unsettled. We follow Riko, a journalist on her way to becoming an editor at the magazine she’s been at for over a decade. She’s deemed a little unusual because she’s now in herearly thirties and has no solid plans to marry or settle down. She’s most invested in her career, and everything else in her life takes the backseat. All she really has is her childhood best friend, Reiko, who’s set to try and make a traditional life for herself with her new husband in the suburbs of Tokyo.
Riko’s life starts to take a turn when she gets the opportunity to interview Manako Kajii, a likely serial killer, even though she never laid hands on any of her victims. These men that she dated all took their own lives, but the deaths seemed unusual and Kajii was the last known person to be with them. Riko finds this fascinating, especially since Kajii is not described as your typical Japanese beauty. She’s “fat” and loves to cook. I died a little when converted Kajii’s weight from kilos to pounds, but as Riko later elaborates, she just doesn’t have the body of a child like most women in Japan. So I will take that with a grain of salt.
Kajii is a tough nut to crack, and even harder to interview. It’s clear that she is an outcast in many ways, but also a master manipulator. Although she may just be good at manipulating lonely people, of which Riko is at the top of the list. Kajii demands that Riko start cooking dishes with real butter, but that means Riko actually has to start cooking. Her world is opened up to many different flavors, and some of those come with different opportunities she never would have dreamed of before. As Riko’s own weight starts to creep up, she also comes to the realization that the only person she really needs to please is herself.
As she becomes more comfortable with herself, new relationships start to form in her life, while Reiko is a little scared of the changes that Kajii is responsible for in her best friend. But Riko’s transformation also makes Reiko aware of things in her own life that she wants to change. There is a section late in the novel from Reiko’s perspective that I quite enjoyed despite how random it came to be. Even from prison Kajii manages to destroy lives – she may not be racking up bodies like before, but she does leave devesatation in her wake.
If you’re looking for a clear answer on whether or not Kajii did kill those men, well, you’ll be left unsatisfied. I myself wasn’t quite prepared for the ride I got. And for the length of this book, it felt a bit boring at times, but I’m glad I read this. It’s outside of what I normally go for and offered a unique story. Honestly, I think it could do well adapted into a TV show one day.