Butter by Asako Yuzuki

Translated by Polly Barton; 464 pages; Published by Fourth Estate - 29/02/24; Dimensions: 13.5 x 4 x 21.6 cm

The cult new Japanese bestselling novel

If you are looking for something different, enjoy food and, of course, butter, this book would be great. I do not recommend this if the sight or taste of butter is a concern to you.

Do be prepared to read about food on pretty much every page. It is unusual mixing a murder mystery with many senses and food but it is a combination which has made this so sought after, with female Japanese writers storming the international literary market recently.

I generally enjoyed Butter’s uniqueness from cover design to the story. I was naturally drawn by its title and visual effect. I love that the book itself does resemble a large block of butter. I personally love butter and won’t touch margarine or any spread.

A great addition is the shiny, shimmering bloody handprint to show us that this novel is offering something sinister. I did however feel with that the book is way too long.

For someone who suffers their whole life with ARFiD, I did struggle with all the food, descriptions and meals and recipes. I’m much better now and reading this book didn’t not cause any stress or anxiety.

With my hands and health conditions I physically struggled holding and getting comfortable with the weight of this huge brick of paperback and the fact that you have to open it so wide to read the text that starts right at the centre of a binding made it very tricky, it does have a slight margin on the right so it would’ve been easier and more enjoyable for myself has the text gone up to that edge, instead of the middle.

For a 400+ page book, though, it does keep its pace and does read extremely fast. I believe this will be down to the brilliant translator Polly Barton.

I started reading Friday night in bed and fished Saturday. This is quite a physically big book to be carrying around on the move if like me you don’t go anywhere without your book.

Butter from its cover appears to present itself as a thriller, but I do believe it touches on many thought provoking themes, such as social expectations, loneliness and isolation, gender roles, and even body image.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but sadly too much food in it for me which I felt got in the way of a good story. It was mainly the lengthy, sensory descriptions of the food with which there is wonderful use of various perfect adjectives and so many brilliant words to cover all senses, but slightly too much for me.

My favourite bit of Butter has to be the cover, its slickness and overall visual appearance and its cult image.