What do you think?
Rate this book
オパールの炎
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 20, 2024
I picked this book up because the cover was stunning and references the ban on the pill in Japan that lasted for so long. You can't really tell in the amazon picture, but the hardback cover had a luminescence that shone in light similar to the way an opal would.
The story opens with an interview of an elderly woman who once got a famous feminist to help her back in the 70s publicly shame her husband for infidelity. She describes the feminist, Hanawa Reiko, as an intelligent and fierce advocate who helps her get revenge in a society that largely disadvantages women. Hanawa Reiko leads a group of pink helmet-wearing women who swarm the husband’s medical conference to denounce him, using big roll out banners and speakers. Basically, this angry Greek chorus lays bare his 5 year affair in which he put all the housework and child raising responsibilities on his wife while going on business trips with his lover. They also shout how unforgivable it is that he is choosing to pay her only a small amount in alimony, acting as if he’s done nothing wrong and saying his wife can support herself since she’s a nurse.
And that's only the first story in a series of 17 interviews/confessionals. It’s wild that these kinds of public denouncement sessions were actually a thing in real-life under the name Chupiren (中ピ連). The real-life model for Hanawa Reiko is Enoki Misako (榎 美沙子). I knew about the helmet-wearing women from a feminism in Japan college course, but I didn't know the story of their founder. There seems to be a very thin line between reality and fiction. I had to double check the statement at the back that says this is a work of fiction. Then there's a line thanking Enoki Misako's real-life ex-husband. And the "mysterious disappearance" of Hanawa Reiko has an all too realistic answer.
Hanawa was calling for bodily autonomy through legalization of the birth control pill. But she also set out with the intention of not letting men who make women cry themselves to sleep get away with it. One newspaper article had Hanawa stating that men have dirtied the earth and should leave intellectual work to women or at least do their share of cleaning and cooking. p. 96 「勤めがつらいという男性が多いから、炊事、洗濯を代わってあげましょう。男性にも愛する人に尽くすよろこびを味わわせてやらにゃ」There’s just so much venom in the Japanese here. You know she must have had a LOT of enemies.
Some chapters introduce people who absolutely hate her like the bartender in Part II Chapter 5. The bartender guy complains about how his dad’s life and subsequently his own life was ruined by Hanawa Reiko. He also hates his mom that collaborated with her to publicly shame his dad for infidelity. I rushed through this chapter because it was so unpleasant to hear him talk. This is the kind of old man you’d find in a snack bar that closes in on you and you just have to shake your head in agreement because he’s clearly so convinced that he is imparting age-old wisdom onto you. Clearly men should be allowed to have a lover because wives aren’t women and god forbid they wear lipstick.
Next was an anonymous interview with a woman whose brother committed suicide after Hanawa’s intervention. She really hates Hanawa. Her brother broke off his engagement to his high school girlfriend when he met someone at his workplace that his boss introduced him to at age 25. She goes on and on about how outstanding of a person her brother was, like how he made it into a first-class bank, was so serious, the pride of his community, and so on. In the middle of the story, as an aside, she mentions her brother made his fiancé get an abortion twice, but glosses over it so quickly like it’s nothing. I mean, that’s probably why ピ会同 picked up the case in the first place but the sister has not seemed to connect the two, thinking he was wrongly targeted just for breaking off an engagement. I feel like each time someone who dislikes Hanawa tells a story, they mention the MeToo movement. This sister's defense of her brother feels like the message Brock Turner’s family kept giving to the media.
You have to read all the way to the end of this novel to see why the opal's flame dulled and was then gone. It's not a crime thriller. It's about who has power. It's about someone the public was made to forget.
The story opens with an interview of an elderly woman who once got a famous feminist to help her back in the 70s publicly shame her husband for infidelity. She describes the feminist, Hanawa Reiko, as an intelligent and fierce advocate who helps her get revenge in a society that largely disadvantages women. Hanawa Reiko leads a group of pink helmet-wearing women who swarm the husband’s medical conference to denounce him, using big roll out banners and speakers. Basically, this angry Greek chorus lays bare his 5 year affair in which he put all the housework and child raising responsibilities on his wife while going on business trips with his lover. They also shout how unforgivable it is that he is choosing to pay her only a small amount in alimony, acting as if he’s done nothing wrong and saying his wife can support herself since she’s a nurse.
And that's only the first story in a series of 17 interviews/confessionals. It’s wild that these kinds of public denouncement sessions were actually a thing in real-life under the name Chupiren (中ピ連). The real-life model for Hanawa Reiko is Enoki Misako (榎 美沙子). I knew about the helmet-wearing women from a feminism in Japan college course, but I didn't know the story of their founder. There seems to be a very thin line between reality and fiction. I had to double check the statement at the back that says this is a work of fiction. Then there's a line thanking Enoki Misako's real-life ex-husband. And the "mysterious disappearance" of Hanawa Reiko has an all too realistic answer.
Hanawa was calling for bodily autonomy through legalization of the birth control pill. But she also set out with the intention of not letting men who make women cry themselves to sleep get away with it. One newspaper article had Hanawa stating that men have dirtied the earth and should leave intellectual work to women or at least do their share of cleaning and cooking. p. 96 「勤めがつらいという男性が多いから、炊事、洗濯を代わってあげましょう。男性にも愛する人に尽くすよろこびを味わわせてやらにゃ」There’s just so much venom in the Japanese here. You know she must have had a LOT of enemies.
Some chapters introduce people who absolutely hate her like the bartender in Part II Chapter 5. The bartender guy complains about how his dad’s life and subsequently his own life was ruined by Hanawa Reiko. He also hates his mom that collaborated with her to publicly shame his dad for infidelity. I rushed through this chapter because it was so unpleasant to hear him talk. This is the kind of old man you’d find in a snack bar that closes in on you and you just have to shake your head in agreement because he’s clearly so convinced that he is imparting age-old wisdom onto you. Clearly men should be allowed to have a lover because wives aren’t women and god forbid they wear lipstick.
Next was an anonymous interview with a woman whose brother committed suicide after Hanawa’s intervention. She really hates Hanawa. Her brother broke off his engagement to his high school girlfriend when he met someone at his workplace that his boss introduced him to at age 25. She goes on and on about how outstanding of a person her brother was, like how he made it into a first-class bank, was so serious, the pride of his community, and so on. In the middle of the story, as an aside, she mentions her brother made his fiancé get an abortion twice, but glosses over it so quickly like it’s nothing. I mean, that’s probably why ピ会同 picked up the case in the first place but the sister has not seemed to connect the two, thinking he was wrongly targeted just for breaking off an engagement. I feel like each time someone who dislikes Hanawa tells a story, they mention the MeToo movement. This sister's defense of her brother feels like the message Brock Turner’s family kept giving to the media.
You have to read all the way to the end of this novel to see why the opal's flame dulled and was then gone. It's not a crime thriller. It's about who has power. It's about someone the public was made to forget.
Displaying 1 of 1 review