Read the first chapter together with my friend and we both laughed so hard at this selfish and therefore unfortunate and miserable creature. Whatever she decides, afterwards she regrets it - the grass is always greener on the other side, no matter whether she had previously been on that side already.
My friend‘s opinion is, just like cat‘s, that she wants to be associated with a man that everybody likes and holds in high esteem, in order to raise her own status and maybe even to use a man as a stepping stone to an even higher level (e.g. by getting together with a New York politician etc afterwards), and also that she is more concerned about her female friends‘ opinions than about her own, which is a very Japanese point of view.
How selfish can this woman be? It’s incredible. She is not interested in this dude at all, she is just interested in being regarded as important and being taken care of. Although she touched upon some interesting thoughts, especially when she reflected about her relationship to her husband, and that she was basically only unhappy with their sex life, I thought that maybe this might resolve itself with some interesting solution, but the way she framed her thoughts, it was mainly about her being “desired” or “regarded as important” and not about her (let alone her husband) being happy. I think I’d be pretty much fine with her going down in flames.
I decided to join in for this as well and just finished chapter 1. 麻也子 is… very frank with her thoughts and opinions, to put it mildly. I enjoyed the dinner scene with the lawyer guy and how quickly the tables flipped from her enjoying her superiority and deigning to give him her consideration at last to how bothered she got when he announced he was getting married. That was was very satisfying to read.
She seems to care a lot about what her friends and society thinks — I am positive that’s going to lead her to some unhappiness, but I am here for the ride.
I’m not even sure that’s the root cause for her affair. Basically she goes on and on about how important it is for her to have a husband who is perceived as “high-value” both from her surroundings and from her, and how she is working hard to be seen as “high-value” as well, and how she wants to improve her social position.
My Japanese friend (who is reading the book with me) keeps saying that it’s a very typical book for the period of the “Japanese bubble” (in the early 90’s), where the most important features for choosing a husband were 1. graduate from a high-ranking university, 2. high salary, and 3. tall stature. Whatever floats your boat, I guess
Wasn’t that hilarious! All the things she had envisioned for herself, like being able to go to New York and maybe even meet a higher-ranking person that she could later use to increase her social standing even more, she then turned onto that poor girl and claimed that she thinks in that same way, basically accusing her for that
I finished chapter 2. Ooh la la. I did enjoy reading the restaurant scene with 野村. The creeping tension with them playing footsies had me on the edge of my seat waiting for some adultery to go down. どきどき！I laughed at the part where he “mixes up” 合コン and 強姦, though. Classic mistake. The only unsatisfying part of the night is that he doesn’t pay for her taxi! Oh no, how tragic! We have a bubble era princess on our hands.
I have read a few other 林真理子 books before so I already knew she does great 心理描写 and that I like her writing style. This one is no different. So far I’m having a lot of fun!
We also both enjoyed that so much! They are both experts in playing “the game”. “Oh his hand did not move! Oh but now it moved three millimeters! And luckily his hands are not hairy!”
The author is doing an amazing job here, she transports the atmosphere so well! Sometimes I feel even called out regarding some thoughts that had surely crossed my mind at some point
The cheating has officially begun! I liked how the chapter set the stage for the action to happen in the beginning with the narrators husband rejecting her for sex so she had a justification. Then she met with a friend for “advice” so she was educated about the pitfalls of cheating. I think this book is doing a good job of exploring the psychology of the act and why someone may cheat, the thrilling feeling they get, how they feel towards and treat their spouse after, et cetera. I can understand the motivations well.
We already got to the first cheating scene in the third chapter, so I am curious how things will develop. There is a lot of book left.
I absolutely adore our main lady. She’s horrible. She wants sex and attention, neither of which she feels she’s getting from her husband, and he’s also not presenting as high value as you both have called out. TBH a big part of sex is psychological so I think to her good sex is a subtlety played game of cat and mouse flirtation with a man who fits certain emotionally/psychologically-satisfying-to-her criteria. Just handsome man + physically enjoyable won’t cut it.
Also my gosh the line about the taxi bill - I laughed out loud. She’s an utter brat
Absolutely! Especially her constant self-justification, her sudden doubts (“oh this is quick! I thought we’d chill at the bar first”), her attempts to find a way out (“oh we could just do some petting and that would be it” with a man like Nomura ) and then throwing it all overboard in the first second. Very relatable!
The only thing I found a bit overdone was regarding this scene:
麻也子は自分が再び、たっぷりした液体をつくり出し、流すのを感じた。
Or maybe I’m taking this too literal here?
I laughed out loud at the imagination that Kouichi indirectly kissed Nomura via Mayako. Very funny and well-played out.
No, I also found that a bit weird too. I know exactly what you mean, haha. Maybe there is some room for the statement to be more about the mood in the moment and less literal, but yeah.
This lady remains to be unbelievably selfish. „Oh, actually his sex is a bit boring, can I get some more excitement please?“
When thinking about meeting him for the second time
And then when she discovered that there is actually a „rival“ in the shape of his young lover who in fact was there first and whose relationship she had actually invaded herself (!), she could think about nothing but how much she had been hurt by him
Finally she seems to have found a way to let her experience some more „interesting“ aspects of having sex with him - sadly we don’t learn anything about it yet…
My friend continues to be a treasure trove of interesting information regarding the bubble Apparently there is a publisher (called Hoichoi Production https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ホイチョイ・プロダクションズ ) who specializes in media (mainly magazines and movies) regarding having affairs and stuff The movie listed first on that page became super popular and evoked a real skiing boom in Japan - everybody would head to the pistes on Saturday afternoons (after work) and return on Sunday nights, causing huge traffic jams either way. The men who were most skilled in attaching snow chains to the ladies‘ cars at the foot of the mountains apparently became super popular with the ladies
I put down this book in the middle of chapter 4 for a few weeks since I had some life stuff going on, but now I am back and in the middle of chapter 5!
Strangely, I never have the urge to read this book, but once I do start reading it I enjoy it very much and feel completely drawn into the world of the book. I think I really like it so far, despite lacking the urge to pick it up once I set it down.
Spoilers up until 54% / page 154:
Right when 野村 starts getting boring, a new challenger appears! It seems we are evolving from an affair that is just physical to 麻也子 needing an emotional aspect. Some of the things in this book about how men and women talk and interact with each other are so frank, but I find myself really understanding parts of what the author/麻也子 are saying. I still find her quite unlikeable, though. Maybe it’s that mirror effect where you dislike something that reminds you of a bad part in yourself - she’s the part of us who isn’t happy with what we have and doesn’t know what she truly wants deep down, which is not “admirable” behavior. I’m not sure?!
Ok, I got totally sucked in and blew past chapter 6 and just finished chapter 7.
This is all…so messy. I feel like I’m watching relationships break down in realtime and seeing all the ugly emotions come out. In particular, the scene where 通彦 demands 麻也子 break up with her husband and her entire internal monologue on her birthday and while she listens to her husband speak to her mother in law… Nobody is at their best! And yet I can’t look away.
I guess I will probably find out but I’m not sure if 通彦 would even be a better husband. I’m sure different things about him would annoy 麻也子 and I’m not sure if they are more compatible on a fundamental level. It seems like she just loves her idea of him, but maybe everyone is like that at the start of a relationship before the honeymoon period wears off. We can only pray his mother is less overbearing. I would love to see 麻也子 do a little self-reflecting and grow as a person, but knowing her it’s not in the cards…
That’s been mostly my impression of the book and I really enjoyed it.
(My opinion otherwise was that it was more about her having unsatisfied desires that led to making mistakes rather than all the discussion in this thread about her looking for higher status, but it’s very possible I just missed it)
I think in the first chapters it does seem like she is interested in status, but as the plot progresses it does become more obvious that she is unfulfilled and unsatisfied and she kind of ends up out of control due to that, making all these crazy mistakes to justify her own bad behavior. Or perhaps it’s all about the importance of having a good mother-in-law. I not quite to the end yet but I think will end up really liking the entire book, despite my slow start. I appreciate how raw and real all of the characters feel and it’s nice to be a part of their world.
Whatever floats your boat, I guess 
So far I’m having a lot of fun!
I liked how the chapter set the stage for the action to happen in the beginning with the narrators husband rejecting her for sex so she had a justification. Then she met with a friend for “advice” so she was educated about the pitfalls of cheating. 
The men who were most skilled in attaching snow chains to the ladies‘ cars at the foot of the mountains apparently became super popular with the ladies 
I still find her quite unlikeable, though. Maybe it’s that mirror effect where you dislike something that reminds you of a bad part in yourself - she’s the part of us who isn’t happy with what we have and doesn’t know what she truly wants deep down, which is not “admirable” behavior. I’m not sure?! 
Nobody is at their best! And yet I can’t look away.