May You Have Delicious Meals is a heartwarming and delightful read. Through its vibrant storytelling and charming characters, Takase captures the essence of food as not just sustenance but a source of connection and joy. The book beautifully explores themes of love, friendship, and the comfort of a shared meal, making it both relatable and uplifting.

I had high hopes for this but it wasn’t for me.

It had some amusing and relatable observations of office life and the associated food culture but was also kind of a bummer.

All of the characters were the worst and it was incredibly misogynistic and a little ableist. I was very surprised to see it was written by a female author!

This is an odd one, and I really liked it!

I love novels about food, and I am a huge fan of Japanese literature, so I knew I had to read this book as soon as I first heard of it!

May You Have Delicious Meals is a short novel about Japanese office culture, especially when it comes to food. It pointedly begins with our main character Nitani refusing to go out for lunch with his boss, which marks the beginning of this unhinged ride. The book is centred around a quartet of characters: Nitani, two women he works with—Ashikawa and Oshio—and food, intertwined with the politics of working in an office.

Ashikawa is described as being archetypically a "good" person and, more than that, makes an effort to be perceived that way (e.g. bringing treats for everyone at work), but also acts as this really fragile individual who just can't handle the same workload as everyone else, which makes some people quite annoyed with her (i.e. Nitani and Oshio), even if secretly. Nitani feels very much bothered by her way of thinking about food and overall attitude (which always seem to be linked in this book); he is, in many ways, her opposite, which is evident by his favourite food: Pot Noodles, showing his different outlook on life. Oshio, in a way, gives voice to this other side of Nitani, his toxic side, and they become kind of friends, meeting up to drink and talk badly of Ashikawa.

May You Have Delicious Meals, then, seems to link the characters' attitude to food with their attitude towards life and work in a very unhinged way, which I found really intriguing (and I don't know what that says about me). The book touches on gender dynamics and expectations in Japanese society and seems intent on deliberately unsettling readers with its flawed, judgmental and, sometimes, misogynistic and ableist characters, using food as a way to get the core of who they are and how they go about life.

Thank you so much to Hutchinson Heinemann for the proof and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

This book is the small package good things come in. A short but powerful and memorable story about the absurdity of modern life and corporate culture.

A dramatically larger than life peek into the inner workings of adults in the office, their personal lives seeping into work, conflicts, crushes and of course, complex power dynamics. From pot noodles, to protein pills to freshly cooked soba, the story uses beautifully described food as a metaphor to playful and thoughtfully explore power and responsibility.

Each character was just so very human despite their eccentricity — some flawed, judgmental, outdated, desperate or manipulative but so very real in their imperfections. There was an intriguing, strange flow to the story as one narrator uses first person and another third, so it both creates an interesting but at times annoying read especially when it lulls occasionally into mundanity and endless walls of conversation. From misogynistic, ableist and just unlikeable characters, at times it felt like these features were written to showcase them as failings, to show how men have viewed women as stereotypes and give us a look through their lens to show it's ridiculousness - but admittedly a risky move as it could read as just being sexist itself.

A complicated strange little read.

A short novel that deals with office dynamics, power play, modern life and the routine of food, May You Have Delicious Meals piqued my interest since I really enjoy cosy translated Japanese fiction… especially if food is involved!

Dreamlike and dreary in equal measure, May You Have Delicious Meals is a funny little slice-of-life novel that simply doesn’t make it anywhere. The cast of characters are awfully unlikeable and the protagonist seems misogynistic, never missing a beat to speak badly about herself and about women. Takase uses food and meals as a device to synthesise with office politics and dynamics. Ashikawa is the sort of woman that Nitani believes he’ll marry. After all, she’s sweet, meek, mild, and she’s trying to convince him to stray from his Cup Noodles addiction. Yet the more time they spend together, the more Nitani struggles to respect her. In fact, it’s uncomfortable reading at times. I can see what the author is trying to do here, but it falls flat and the workplace is a mighty boring setting for an equally boring story.

An uneven but inventive examination of office politics presented via the interaction of three people assigned to a small department in a regional offshoot of a large Japanese company. Junko Takase’s award-winning novella revolves around newly-transferred Nitani and his evolving relationships with co-workers Oshio and Ashikawa. Natani’s quietly disgruntled, desperate to evade the bonding rituals fundamental to Japanese corporate culture, particularly the shared meals that serve to enforce unity. His colleague Oshio’s equally dissatisfied. But neither feel able to voice their objections – except to each other.

Takase’s story’s told from Natani’s third-person, and Oshio’s first-person perspectives – although Oshio’s contribution operates more like a critique of Nitani’s. The third member of their awkward triangle is Ashikawa. Unlike them, she’s cheerful and outwardly content. Her managers admire her graceful appearance and adherence to traditional feminine ideals. Their belief in her underlying vulnerability means Ashikawa’s excused from anything deemed potentially overwhelming: from meeting with demanding clients to tasks that might prove too tiring. As a result, Oshio and Nitani find themselves shouldering much of Ashikawa’s workload. Their hours are long, often bleeding over into the weekend, a situation that stirs resentment and increasingly rebellious fantasies.

Ashikawa’s an intriguing creation, an enigmatic figure presented solely from Oshio and Nitani’s points-of-view. But, for all three, their respective attitudes towards food seem key to deciphering their personalities and motivations. For Nitani food is essentially fuel, an imposition which takes up far more time than he’d like, for Oshio food’s simply there to be enjoyed. For Ashikawa, who loves to cook, it’s somehow tied up with gift-giving. She regularly brings in elaborate, homemade cakes and sweets, ostensibly compensating colleagues for tolerating frequent absences and shorter working days. This endears her to numerous managers and fellow staff. On the surface, Nitani and Oshio support this view of Ashikawa as decent and nurturing. But Takase encourages us to read between the lines, and question whether Ashikawa is really what she seems.

Gift-giving is central to Japanese culture but it's usually scripted. However, Ashikawa’s approach’s not strictly bounded by convention despite its ritualistic flavour. Ashikawa insists on gathering everyone together to taste her treats, a process that requires them to praise her skills and, in keeping with social norms, publicly perform pleasure as they eat. Ashikawa may just be thanking colleagues for sacrificing on her behalf but there’s a suspicion she’s actually more intent on manipulation. It seems no coincidence these are calorific, cloying rather than nourishing dishes. Is Ashikawa generous or cleverly gaming the system, trapping coworkers in networks of obligation and displays of gratitude? It’s not as if anyone can refuse to complete Ashikawa’s assignments. And how does she find the time to bake when everyone else in the office is beyond overloaded?

Takase never directly addresses these issues instead she gradually positions Oshio in opposition to Ashikawa. Two very different women, two very different modes of femininity. Ashikawa conforms to male expectations, Oshio struggles against them. Ashikawa presents as cute and in need of protection while Oshio’s viewed as outspoken, aggressive and nonconformist. Oshio complies with the company’s excessive demands even though her labour goes unrewarded and largely unacknowledged. But Ashikawa effectively evades responsibility. Nitani’s caught between the two, mired in internal conflicts – as he is about his entire existence. Through their experiences, Takase deftly shifts focus from workplace dynamics to gender roles in contemporary Japan, inviting us to reflect on the restraints and possibilities shaping working women’s lives. Translated by Morgan Giles.

This is definitely an interesting read! At first, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it—it started off a bit slow 🦥, and I wasn’t immediately hooked🔗. It kind of reminded me of those moments as a kid when you try to read an “adult” book but just don’t find it interesting 😮‍💨. But as I kept reading, it did get better, and ended up liking it a bit more than I thought I would! 😄

One thing that really stood🧍🏽 out to me was the focus on food🍜. It’s a central theme, and surprisingly, I enjoyed the way food 🍙 was woven into the story, and it added a unique layer to the narrative.

Ashikawa is portrayed 🗒️ in a really delicate🥀, almost childlike👩🏻 way—there’s this line about her having the “thinnest, narrowest shoulders of any woman he'd ever touched,” and it definitely gives her a very fragile vibe. She does come across as a bit immature 🥴 at times and annoying🙈.

On the other hand, Nitani is interesting👀. His thoughts and feelings are written well, and his annoyance😤 is honestly pretty funny. 😂 I found myself enjoying his perspective👁️ the most, and it added a nice balance⚖️ to the story.

Thanks Netgalley and the author for the ARC 🍁💫🕊️

This was definitely a different read for me and it surprised me. I enjoyed seeing the Japanese office culture come to life on the page.

A strange and intense exploration of office power play and its impact on personal relationships as we see a trio of young japanese colleagues interacting in and out of the office. The tedium of office life is succinctly depicted, the impact of actions taken in work and whether anyone is going to break free of a future doing the same things for the next forty years, and the consequences of not conforming are covered very briefly but with nervy depth. The relationships are conventional on the surface but scratch deeper and they take on a strangeness all their own. Enough to put you off cake and take up a pot noodle, as food plays a very central role.

Nitani works in an office He lives on his own and generally eats pot noodles so he doesn't have to spend his precious free time cooking.
Ashikawa works in his office and they fall into a relationship. She is a good cook and is determined for him to eat healthier. At the same time she is bring in homemade sweet treats into the office which irritates him.
He makes friends with another girl in the office and when they meet up they discuss Ashikawa in derogatory terms.
A strange little book!

Not much of a plot here, sadly disappointing. People are working in an office, we never even find out what the company does, and one girl brings in baked treats to share. The main character has an issue with food, preferring pot noodles above all else. So he puts them in the bin, another Co worker puts them on the baker's desk. That's it! After all the lovely books coming out of Japan from the last few years, this was a real let down.

One thing I love about Japanese novellas is that there is often a lack of discernible plot and the main focus is instead a sort of character study. The characters Takase has conjured up in May You Have Delicious Meals are no exception. There were several office characters that were easily recognisable; the "too nice" colleague, the slacker, the resentful co-workers, and the ignorant/oblivious boss. The dynamics between these colleagues was, usually, as mundane as most until a hyperfocus on the behaviour of one particular colleague starts to seed resentment.

Nitani was the most interesting character to me. He seemed to be more resentful of Ashikawa's baked goods and cooking than anything else and yet continued to have a relationship with her and even hinted at marriage at the end of the story. What struck me throughout the novella was that despite being annoyed at Ashikawa leaving early and being delighted at her baked goods, nobody seemed to link the two and think the only reason she was able to produce so many baked goods was precisely because she didn't work as hard. Oshio was another interesting character; she didn't beat around the bush and her very forward suggestion that she and Nitani team up to bully Ashikawa was shocking as it didn't seem to fit with her otherwise quite reasonable character. This served to show that she really must have hit the tipping point into finding her unbearable.

May You Have Delicious Meals was a banal office drama with hints of satire but overall unmemorable.

This is an unusual book which uses food to help describe office politics and personnel dynamics. I've never worked in an office, but could empathise with the frustration regarding the worker who never pulls their weight but provides culinary treats and is supported and covered for by some colleagues. In the end though, for me, it didn't build on its unusual storyline enough to keep my interest and I never felt the characters really grew with the story.
Thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.

Japanese office culture and the power dynamics governing the approach to food, Junko Takase disseminates it all in a vivid tale of three individuals in their Saitama office navigating modern life. In this deceptively simple, slim volume we follow intertwining narratives around Oshio, a bold, dedicated office worker who despises the weak and goes out drinking with the male lead, Nitani, and Nitani whom the reader follows in third person. How apt that Oshio’s fierceness is told through the first person, her snide voice lending a distinct spice to the otherwise bland story emerging from the third person, incredibly impersonal view of Nitani. He is largely apathetic to it all, working overtime and subsisting on pot noodles, knowing one day he will meet his family wishes and settle down with a nice girl, without much backbone who will cook and clean for him, and continue his life basically unchanged. He never experiences many passionate emotions, nor feels much ambition, pursuing the job his family and his social setting expect him to pursue, a nice, respectable white collar job, nothing more, nothing less. Except suddenly he does find himself experiencing strong emotions, the line between love and hate is so fine, and when he stops respecting another office worker, the weak willed, gentle, doe eyed Ashikawa, is when he starts fantasing of her. She comes over to his apartment, they engage in physicalities, life goes on. Except one day he realises he hates her and her habits, how convenient that so does Oshio. The two of them go to bars, he drinks a beer, always, Oshio whatever she feels like that day, and they talk about how unbearable they find Ashikawa.

Ashikawa starts bringing baked goods to work, her way of making up for what Oshio feels is a pathetic inability to simply suffer work like they all do and move on. Ashikawa leaves early when she has a headache, Ashikawa feels stressed and anxious when she has to talk to clients, everything is just a bit much to her. It drives Oshio, capable, intense Oshio insane. How is it possible that this girl, who is so weak, manages to manipulate everyone around her into following her bidding? Everyone stays and works until 11, gives up weekends, and yet this girl uncomfortably makes her apologies and leaves at 18, doesn’t come in any other day, and everyone just lets this go, even though they have to work harder to cover for her. Just once Oshio wants to slap their boss in the face for catering for her, for being so understanding, and say, it’s just a headache, take a paracetamol. And those baked goods, what a cheap way to make everyone fawn over her, Ashikawa this, Ashikawa that. This is what prompts her to one day irrationally turn to Nitani, rumoured to be dating Ashikawa, and say, won’t you bully her with me?

Nitani retains a pause, and then says sure. Because he too feels the kind of desire to hurt and violate women that I feel Margaret Atwood captured in the Handmaid’s Tale, that sense of outrage at the smallest things. What do you mean she wants to take care of him? What do you mean she nags him about having proper meals? Why would she come over and cook for him four times a week? As the narrative progresses the hatred they feel towards Ashikawa really starts to taint even the reader’s perspective, but we ought to disentangle and disengage and take a breath and process for a moment, just how insane this is. This is literally just a woman living a normal life, she likes to bake, and yes she’s not like the other office girls in her weakness and headaches and sensitivity, but she seems to be doing her best. How is it that suddenly this is not enough?

May You Have Delicious Meals is incredibly provocative. It urges us to explore our own feelings of hatred, it incites us into violence and makes us think, since when is this the norm? Since when do we too want to shake someone by the shoulders, hit them, smack them, say pull yourself together? The novel pushes us towards the darker parts of ourselves, the parts that make us want to agree with Oshio and Nitani, but at the same time, the good side of us, the nice side, the rational, tells us this is vile behaviour. There’s a bit of both in here and in the novel, at times we see Ashikawa is being manipulative. Or is it that we’re being manipulated into hating her? There’s a lot to unpack, but not just in the story, in yourself too.

In that regard this is a very gritty, often unpleasant novel. As tends to be the case with novels that tell us to admit the worst parts of ourself. This is not a flowery, ooh follow your passion, your job should be doing what you like type of novel. This is very much a, look these are people who are doing this job, and who have to do this job type of novel. Live and survive on what you have. The passage about literature just cut so deep that I had to pause and breathe for a bit before continuing. Junko Takase tells it as it is, she invites scrutiny, and she tells us to stop thinking about the what ifs. This is the life of the characters, this is what they’re living like now, there is no what if, there is only now.

Oshio and Nitani are both outsiders, Oshio towards the end feels much more developed, not just a hater, but someone with their own distinct personality. Nitani on the other hand…. These are people who notice very well the prevailing social rules of their setting and the absurdity of it all. There is a very fine examination of the customs surrounding baked goods, the expected praise, the lavishing praise of someone who went to the effort instead of getting a ready meal. They make a good point. But is the dislike fully justified, surely if they liked Ashikawa they would have genuinely enjoyed her baking and admitted it’s delicious?

The hatred repels. But it also attracts, because it is rare to see novels follow such characters, characters with the same level of spite as Holden in the Catcher in the Rye but with more grit, somehow characters that hit closer to home, and modern culture. Nitani in particular is just so aggravating. This is the fine specimen of a modern beer belly corporate average white collar worker who hates on everyone around him. Frankly he does not deserve any of the women in his life. How is it that they find themselves attracted to him? Takase makes a very fine point with his character. He is so dislikable because he is so average neither here nor there, content to point out everything that’s wrong with society and yet do nothing to stop it, to assimilate it. Frustrating, every interaction with him is just extremely frustrating.

The ending left me really riled up, but also physically gasping while thinking about the consequences of the final bombshell decision. Up until the middle of the book, this was deceptively simple, but then things started to come together, and we saw the various themes become clearer. This is I think a very feminist novel, but one that is more focused on making us think of female roles in society, and the ways in which different women have different positions to play. I think it also shows us in a way that no matter what you do, you can’t win, and I think it’s one of the freer realisations that helps Oshio come into her full vibrancy. I wish we had more time spent with her, I wish we also had Ashikawa’s perspective. But in so few pages, this foundation was already not a bad start.

It’s a fabulous pick for a book club because there is so much to unpack, that this mini spoiler free review can only give you a taster. The novel feels to wrap things up nicely, but it does leave you wishing more elements were explored, threads wrapped up, avenues walked down. I wouldn’t say it’s a new favourite, but out of contemporary Japanese literature I’ve recently read, this is certainly a strong contender.

I struggled to get into this book which surprised me as from the description I had expected to love it. I largely struggled with the lack of clear plotline.

On this occasion it's a no from me.

This was an interesting view on Japanese culture through the lens of an office, and through food. I enjoyed the mundane setting and the petty complaints the the characters had against each other, which was in contrast to the tension and emotion, which seemed to be turned up to 100. Intriguing, unsettling and simmering!

I wasn’t at all sure what I was getting into when I started reading this and then found that I had to devour it (😜) in one sitting. A sharp and satirical look at office politics, social expectations and food culture, this novella cleverly explores the social mores that rule and distort all three.

If you have worked in an office you will recognise some of the tropes and will recognise the frustrations of the unacknowledged worker picking up extra work from the department slacker who somehow gets given undeserved leeway.

When Oshio asks Nitani to go for an after work drink and then proposes a joint campaign against Ashikawa, we feel repulsed. Yet as time passes, the sickly sweet vapidity of Ashikawa begins to emerge and you want to shout at her “forget the baking and just do your job!”

It is obvious that Oshio and Nitani are better suited to each other, yet you know that he will still end up with Ashikawa, whose cooking and baking he despises and who he actually holds in contempt. Like the others in the office he, too, will do the polite and expected thing rather than what he actually feels, allowing the only person he can be honest with to take the blame for his transgression and then walk away.

With thanks to NetGalley, Junko Takese and Random House UK, Cornerstone, Hutchinson Heinemann for an arc of this book.

This is not a plot based book; it focuses on three people who all work in the office and the odd relationship dynamic they have with one another and food. I found the commentary on Ashikawa who is delicate and cannot work hard, so bakes items for the office to be interesting. How one person can be so coddled and protected by a group causes resentment amongst those who see the favouritism. Oshio's dislike of Ashikawa is a very real element that happens in a workplace, when one needs to pick up the slack. I'm not sure about Nitani, I related to some of his thoughts regarding cooking, food and time. As a non-foodie it was nice to see them written out. But his relationship with both women in relation to food was odd. I don't really understand why he continued to date Ashikawa when he resented her.
I am unsure if it was due to the format of the digital ARC i had but the writing was jarring at times. It would switch persepctives without notice and the occasional first person pronouns being thrown in a section I believed to be third person often caused me to jump out of the story. This could have been due to the translation that was at times clunky.

A novel about office pettiness, unreasonable loathing and sweet treats driving people mad, love it.

I'll start by saying the blurb of this book doesn't really do it justice, the premise is simple but the story telling is excellent. It's injected with dry humour and sarcasm which makes you question if it's supposed to be funny, or just a dark commentary on life.

The whole book is to the point, there's no messing around and each character is presented at face value - a draw back for me, as i would have liked to see some more complexities amungst the characters and really dive into the stories which are hinted at throughout. At parts, your mind starts turning about what dark secrets they could be hiding and i genuinely started playing detective and trying to find clues, then questioning if they really are clues?!

Overall this is a solid read, it's enticing and easy to read, written really cohesively with language and ideas we can all relate to. It was missing something for me, perhaps an extension of some of the ideas presented, or, as i mentioned more complex characters, but regardless, this is an excellent book. 4 ⭐'s for #MayYouHaveDeliciousMeals

A book that had a lot of promise for me personally, being a japanese novella and centered around food! so fun! but it missed the mark and I felt it really fell flat when it could've gone so much further into the story. Safe and easy? Probably, but also entering into bored territory too...