At its essence, the book unravels as a mesmerizing tale, intricately weaving the realms of food, pleasure, and obsession. It fearlessly explores the unsettling facets of misogyny, obsession, romance, and the unconventional pleasures embedded in Japan's culinary tapestry. Rooted in true events, particularly the haunting serial murders in the Tokyo metropolitan area, the book transcends its gastronomic allure. It evolves into a poignant examination of societal challenges, addressing themes like lookism, self-esteem, and the intricate struggles confronted by working women. As guided by the skilled hands of Asako Yuzuki, the protagonist, the story transforms into an immersive journey. Yuzuki's narrative finesse seamlessly melds the delights of the palate with a profound exploration of the intricate complexities inherent in the human experience.
It's important to highlight the outstanding work of Polly Barton, the translator, who consistently delivers excellence in her craft.

Butter is the first novel, of several award-winners by Japanese author, Asako Yuzuki to be translated into English by Polly Barton. After many frustratingly unsuccessful attempts to visit convicted serial killer, Manako Kajii in the Tokyo Detention House, a suggestion from a good friend finally gains Shumei Weekly journalist, Rika Machida, access to this enigmatic woman.

Kajii gained notoriety when, over a period of six months in 2013, three of the wealthy men she found via an online dating service, on whom she lavished attention with gourmet meals, and who handed over large sums of cash, or funded lessons at the exclusive all-women cooking school, Le Salon de Myuko, all died, apparently by suicide or accident.

Kajii was convicted after a misogyny-tinged trial that seemed to ignore alibis and evidence, and two years on, is awaiting retrial. It felt to Rika that Kajii was tried for her appearance (not young, not beautiful, too fat) and her attitude to men, wanting “‘a mature man, with the capacity for both emotional and financial generosity”, and attacking her concept of chastity. “A woman who didn’t hide the fact that she used her sexuality as a weapon was met with such fierce scorn, and even a kind of terror.”

Rika’s clever request for the recipe that Kajii fed her last victim results in conditional approval for a visit: nothing at all about her trial or conviction may be discussed. Instead, Rika comes away with a recommendation for a very simple dish that requires top quality butter, a commodity currently scarce due to the widespread occurrence of mastitis in cows. She’s still hopeful that at a later visit she may be permitted an interview.

Meanwhile, Rika, with “taste buds are like a child’s. I’m perfectly happy with convenience store bento boxes and curry from cheap restaurants” tries the recipe and is hooked. “Soon enough, just as Kajii had said, the melted butter began to surge through the individual grains of rice. It was a taste that could only be described as golden. A shining golden wave, with an astounding depth of flavour and a faint yet full and rounded aroma, wrapped itself around the rice and washed Rika’s body far away.” Eventual further visits net recommendations for other dishes, and eating establishments to try.

Rika wonders if “To make something yourself that you wanted to eat and eat it the way you wanted – was that the very essence of gratification?” But her best friend, Reiko Sayana observes that Rika seems to be in thrall to Kajii: “You don’t try to see anything she hasn’t shown you”, and Rika admits to herself that she has doubts about Kajii’s guilt, although thinking that her victims displayed “the excessive self-pity felt by lonely men” feels a lot like victim-blaming. Was she losing her powers of judgement?

Some of Kajii’s opinions, though, seem valid: “Japanese women are required to be self-denying, hard-working and ascetic, and in the same breath, to be feminine, soft and caring towards men. Everyone finds that an impossible balance to strike, and they struggle desperately as a result.” But Kajii disabuses Rika of the notion they might become friends: “I don’t want friends. I don’t need friends. I’m only interested in having worshippers.’

Reiko is fascinated with her interactions with Kajii, while continuing to express her concerns over Rika’s mental and physical health, which does give her pause, but Rika is unaware of what her best friend is up to behind the scenes. Will Rika get her exclusive interview? Will the true fate of those men be revealed?

Yuzuki’s tale takes several unexpected turns over the twelve months leading up to, and beyond Kajii’s retrial, and examines the status of women in Japan, and the expectations to which they are subject. Her varied cast of support characters includes a childless housewife, a boyfriend with a girl-band fetish, an industrious mother, opinionated colleagues, a well-known older editor who mentors, and a dairy farmer. Not one of the significant characters has a conventional loving childhood and youth: each is carrying emotional baggage, grief or guilt, creating problems in their relationships, be they romantic or filial.

The only thing missing from this intriguing story is a few detailed recipes: as they consume it, readers will be hungry; those familiar with Japanese cuisine won’t be the only ones salivating. An interesting and entertaining read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and 4th Estate

Butter ,by Asako Yuzuki,is the story of the relationship between journalist Rika Machida and convicted serial killer Manako Kajii. The incarcerated Kajii has always refused to speak to the press about the murders so Rika approaches her on another subject,her love of gourmet food and cooking , hoping to win her trust then eventually get a big scoop on her crimes.
Rika is initially overwhelmed by Kajii,a manipulative and sultry figure, and finds herself feeling almost seduced and emulating the epicurean convict trying to win her favour. Researching Kajii's background ,sometimes with the help of friends who don't see her in the same way as she does, Rika discovers as much about herself as her subject.
This is quite an amazing book,on the surface it's the story of a reporter looking for the truth about a convict claiming to be innocent,which isn't overly original. It's much more than that with the book being more about Rika finding her place and direction in life with Kajii often an unusual and unaware mentor balanced by Rika's small circle of good friends and acquaintances.
It's a hard book to categorise, food plays a very big part and Rika's experiences of it are almost allegorical with her changing life. It's more about self-awareness and personal growth than a crime novel,it's about friendship and differing perceptions as well as manipulation and narcissism. Some of the revelations about Japanese society are deeply disturbing,not least the attitudes towards teenage girls and to a slightly lesser extent women in general.
While there is a criminal and her crimes as a big part of this book it's not a crime novel and if you think it's going to be you'll be disappointed. If you want to read something a bit different and very special,the writing is beautiful,something that will slowly draw you in and make you think,you'll enjoy this.

"Butter" by Asako Yuzuki is a fascinating read. Translated into English from Japanese, I think the translator did a good job. If you like food and crime as much as I do then this book is for you. Perhaps a longer read than I was expecting (most Japanese books I've read have been fairly short) but I really got into the descriptions of butter and the recipes that were being tested throughout the book. I liked the way that Rika gained confidence throughout the book and this was reflected in her cooking and her friendship circle and how she interacted with them.

Wow!
I never thought that I would be giving positive feedback to a book called Butter, which has recipes of how butter enhances your food, running throughout the book.
This book, however, is not just a recipe book, although the recipes and their results are an essential part of the plot.
This book is a psychological thriller that works on lots of levels, each interdependent on the other.
The book contains insights into a different type of life in Japan to any that I have read in other books.
I loved every aspect of it, the happy parts, the sad parts, and all of the linking bits.
I don't know how the author is going to follow up this book, but I would love to find out.
This book is worth reading whatever you favourite genre of book is, it has a bit of most things.
Fantastic!
My thanks to the author for the hours of enjoyment that the book has brought me, I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

“I was so determined not to be a burden on the people around me. But it turned out that I wasn’t superhuman.”

Out 29/2/24

Thank you @netgalley and @4thestatebooks for the opportunity to read this eARC.

Rika Machida is a journalist in a male dominated office, working long hours and feeling the pressure of succeeding as a woman and conforming with Japanese society’s views on women. Then she starts covering the case of Kajii, a gourmet cook accused of killing several men after she drained them of their money. Rika’s life starts to change dramatically and she starts to see that there’s more to life than work the more time she spends interviewing Kajii.

Whether you like Japanese food or not, this book will make you hungry, the descriptions of food throughout the book were superb. Most of the characters are unlikable at the beginning but by the end you can’t help but love them a little. Although it felt long at times, the second half really sped up with some twist in the plot and I wasn’t expecting it to be that sort of narrative so it took me by surprise in a good way.

At the core of this story is a discussion on (Japanese) society’s expectation on women. How to succeed in a work environment you have to act and look a certain way. Right at the beginning our main character stops to change her look to meet someone because that way she’s more likely to be taken seriously and that is a re occurring discussion throughout. We see how the media portrays the murderer as a vile “fat” woman because she doesn’t take as much care of her appearance as it’s expected. As Reiko gets more and more involved with Kajii we see her question these unspoken rules and start to break out of the mild she’s been in.

There’s also some talk on the pressures of marriage and having a family which is something I’ve seen a lot in Japanese and Korean literature.

Overall this was an interesting read, a bit long at times but not so much that it put me off. What I will say, there should be massive trigger warnings about talk of body weight!

“How much comfort the thoughtfulness and home-made food of another person could bring to a tired body and dried-up heart.”

The case of Manako Kajii had intrigued Rika ever since her arrest, accused of killing three men whom she met through a dating service and extorted money from. Kajii has refused to speak to the press about her case, but when Rika writes and asks her for the recipe of the beef stew she made for one of the victims the night before he died, she discovers that Kajii is only too willing to talk about food. And Rika, heading towards becoming the first woman on the editorial desk of the magazine she writes for, seizes the opportunity, but before too long she too begins to fall upon Kajii's spell...

Butter is a story that defies easy categorisation, but I would describe it as a character study of Kajii and Rika. As Rika sets out to find out who Kajii really is, behind the sensationalism and misogyny of the media coverage thus far, she inadvertently ends up discovering more about herself, and the life she really wants as opposed to the life she thinks she should want. This is a story that is not just set in Japan, but is steeped in Japanese culture and customs, in ways that make it a fresh and interesting story for this British reader, but also a slightly bemusing one. The Japan that Asako Yuzuki depicts sets higher expectations for women than for men, and is especially exacting about the size that women should be, seeing weight gain as a sign of laziness. As a result, Butter uses both its premise and its gastronomic focus to explore the misogyny and social transgressions of its setting. Yet, for a reader who isn't familiar with this culture, the characters and their concerns were not always easy to understand.

I enjoyed and appreciated much of what Butter has to say, but I did find the pace a little slow at times, and the length of the book a little unnecessary. I think maybe the way it has been marketed as a book about murder is slightly misleading, as I didn't find it particularly dark or overly interested in the murder case at its heart. I do think it is an interesting story, and I found the portrayal of Japanese culture particularly thought-provoking, but I have to admit that if I wasn't reviewing this one, I would likely not have finished it.

I found Butter to be incredibly immersive and easy to get excited by - and more daring than many of the Japanese novels I have read over the years, in its depiction of women, sex, feminism, domestic life. We follow Rika, a journalist who decides to investigate Manako Kaji, currently in prison for the murder of three men, who is awaiting a retrial.

Rika becomes so fascinated and obsessed by Kaji, an ordinary-looking woman, that she throws herself completely in her life. She manages to visit Kaji in prison, and follows the instructions Kaji gives her: she'll reveal it all if only Rika goes and tries proper butter, she'll give an interview if Rika tries buttery ramen eaten after sex, she'll share more secrets if Rika visits that restaurant... There's a lot of social commentary about women and the pressure to be a good domestic wife, which we see in the comment of people who can only think Kaji seduced men with her cooking, since being overweight it cannot be her looks, and which is also reflected in Reiko, Rika's repressed friend who gave up her successful job to stay at home, clean all day, cook for her husband and try for a baby.

The story of Kaji and the crimes she committed remains somewhat unclear at the end, I was not completely sure I understood them when I finished the book, but I found the chapters focussed on Rika and her discovery of cooking and her thoughts about women really intesting to follow. There are, as expected, many descriptions of food and cooking, so much that it could have become tedious but I found them really well-written and appetizing. There's a lot about women, sexuality, body image and fitting in which I don't see written so explicitely very often in Japanese literature.

This was a lovely surprise and a book that is easy to throw oneself into for several hours - I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in something different and something that felt both profund and weirdly joyful. It is also well-written and the translation by Polly Barton reads

Butter is a novel about food and women in Japan, as a journalist tries to uncover the secrets of a gourmet cook who seemingly killed three men. Rika is a journalist who lives off instant noodles and convenience store food, focused on her work and getting tips from a connection she has, whilst keeping in touch with her old friend who is trying to build her life as a housewife. Meanwhile, Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre, refusing to talk to journalists, until Rika tries asking her for a recipe. Suddenly, Rika has a way to catch Kajii's attention, and her gastronomical life is changed by Kajii's instructions, but soon Rika and Kajii are caught in a strange game of fascination and food.

Told almost entirely from Rika's point of view, this novel could just be a generic crime story about a journalist uncovering the truth, but actually, it is far more focused on food, society, and women's roles within both, considering desire in terms of food and sexuality and exploring different kinds of relationships between people. For a book that is seemingly a crime novel, it has a slow, languishing plot, and is packed full of description, particularly of food and cooking, and it really does capture the titular butter and its impact on both protagonists' lives through this. It also critiques Japanese society's beauty standards and ideas about what makes a woman successful, in a way that is quite obvious, but as we've seen from things like the Barbie film, still a message that resonates with a lot of people.

Some of the subtler elements and points were more fascinating, like Rika's own past and feelings of guilt around her father's death, her best friend's complex relationship to being a wife and looking to have a child, and generally the way that the wider cast of characters interact with each other and what they feel like they can do. There's an undercurrent of female desire, and particularly queer female desire, that sits at odds with the images of heterosexual romance that characters want to perform, and though these elements are small, it's interesting how they are hinted at. Another part that isn't really addressed, but is running underneath the novel is ideas of Japanese and Western cuisine—particularly French cookery—and how these may or may not sit nicely alongside one another in modern Japan. Maybe these parts could be more overt, but I like how a novel that is quite big and obvious in its main points can also have these subtleties.

This is a novel that makes you hungry. People looking for something similar to other popular translated Japanese authors like Sayaka Murata may be disappointed, as it is far less transgressive than something like Earthlings, but instead it is a slowly simmering novel about people finding different places for themselves in Japanese society whilst also talking a lot about feminism and food.

Probably the most intense book I’ve read. Between the culture, the food and the crime this is an unputdownable feast for any fan of immersive thrills.

"What the public found most alarming, even more than Kajii's lack of beauty, was the fact that she was not thin. Women appeared to find this aspect of the case profoundly disturbing, while in men it elicited an extraordinary display of hatred and vitriol."

Butter is an esoteric, absorbing story that sinks its teeth into our collective hidden curiosities about death and darkness and exposes them for all to see through the words of a killer. Our narrator also takes devilish pleasure in exposing the deep misogyny that still holds roots in society and how dangerous female rage can become when it’s pushed to breaking point. It becomes even more peculiar when we find this is inspired by a true case of crime in Japan.

The narration was slow, deliberate, although at times it felt the story didn’t need to be as long as it eas - we walked through daily life with Rika as she worked and met her friends, and the odd relationship she develops with Manako as she await trial in prison with thoughtful and leisurely storytelling and quietly letting the strange, obsessive intrigue sneak into the storytelling and a suffocating atmosphere as Rika’s thoughts and desires are consumed by desires and questions.

With the most intricate, indulgent, almost sexual depictions of food that really gets into the pleasures it brings and significance it can provide especially in some cultures, as well as the complicated relationship internal sexism and standards can warp our relationships with food. At times it was a little gratuitous, almost uncomfortable with the length and detail in these sections. And the somewhat oppressive body standards voiced by some of the characters were definitely made to sting - and reflect the standards forced upon women constantly by showing the sheer rage and hatred society has towards women they deem fat or ugly. Now there were some jarring sections about imposing old gender roles, but I liked the way they were approached treating femininity as a different power, not a lesser one.

A subversive and striking tale about desire and obsession, weird but such a wonderful way.

This one left me cold, like left-overs. It was far too long and the food descriptions, which were on every page, did not interest me at all. I have never tried Japanese food and am not particularly interested in doing so (I do love butter and roast turkey, though!) I appreciate the themes and issues it dealt with, but for me it was "lost in translation".

“...you don’t have to get through everything alone. You don’t have to always be growing as a person either. The far more important thing is just to get through the day.”

This book made me so hungry because of all the descriptions of delicious food. I’m inspired to try out the recipes and meals mentioned once I can get my hands on some quality butter. But surprisingly, this is not a feel-good eat-pray-love kind of novel about food. The protagonist is a journalist working for a big media company, and she wants to get an interview with an alleged serial killer, a professional mistress to rich old men who was arrested after three of her suitors died.

Meeting the killer completely upends the journalist’s life as she has to unlearn her internalised misogyny and confront her feelings about her deceased father. She undergoes a physical and mental journey as she pursues the truth of what really happened between the killer and the men who died. This requires her to unearth the past, and she grows an attachment to the killer that puts her own reputation in danger.

There’s actually A LOT going on in this book. I resonated most with the discussions of disordered eating, fatphobia and thin culture, the importance of female friendships, and how unsustainable hetero relationships have become because of patriarchy. It would make a good addition to a Gender Studies module in university.

Butter follows journalist Rika who becomes fascinated by Manako Kajii, who is in prison for murdering three men who she apparently seduces with her cooking. After Rika writes to Manako and asks for the recipe for one of her dishes, Manako agrees to meet with her.

This is translated from Japanese and had lots of snippets of Japanese culture and details of the cuisine that I found really interesting but the book was a bit too slow for me.

I went in to it thinking it was a book about a woman who killed men, but really it was a book about food which happened to feature a woman who had killed men.

It didn’t quite resonate with me but I can see why people will enjoy it.

I found parts of this book incredibly gripping, and if it were shorter I think that would have carried through the entire plot. Unfortunately parts felt quite repetitive and I had to stop myself from skimming some pages. I loved to read the relationships between the food and the characters and the description of the cooking and ingredient was fantastic in how intense it made you feel

A slow start but builds nicely. Understanding a different culture and attitudes to marriage, weight and food. Forms of different friendship are central to the story.
Led by meeting and interviewing convicted murderer who killed the men in her life but wasn't there when they died.
An interesting story that will keep you intrigued to the end.

Really wanted to love this one but felt very disconnected from the stories and the characters. It was incredibly slow and I really wasn't interested by all the food descriptions.

This was a really interesting book and not something which I would normally read. The cultural descriptions were excellent (as were the descriptions of food) but I just felt it was overly-long.

Initially, this was a gripping book. The premise had me interested and the writing was gorgeous, especially the descriptions of food and cooking. However, as the book continued, I struggled to stay connected to the characters. It felt too long in my opinion, the book could have been 100 pages shorter and still had the same plot and ending. Speaking of, the ending wasn’t revolutionary or anything, but was a nice closing for the story. Overall, a well written and translated book, it just dragged a little towards the middle/end.

I was looking forward to reading this book, I've enjoyed visiting Japan in the past, experiencing a difficult culture, and really loved the food! There were some interesting themes in this book particularly around female friendship and, at the other extreme, misogyny. I also enjoyed the descriptions of cooking and food, less so the seeming obsession with butter (although I maybe should've expected it from the title). The story did seem to drag a lot in places and I would have preferred less detail. I also found the writing style/ translation quite stilted which didn't help me get into the book or an understanding of the characters.
Thank you to netgalley and 4th Estate for an advance copy of this book.