★★★★★ 自分のために幸せになるのは実はかなり気合いがいる。人の意見を振り払い、色んなのものを破棄しないとたどり着かない。その先には自分が美味しいと思うものを美味しく食べる、高価なバターのような贅沢な濃厚な時間がある。

★★★★★  For a woman to eat oily food, gain a few kilo and have a fun life is a shameful thing. She must give up a lot, including her sanity, to go beyond. Then, there is a place where she can eat what she wants, a life of rich and luxurious butter.
Jump to English review below ↓

🔽 基本情報 🔽
BUTTER
柚木麻子, 2017
Butter
Asako Yuzuki
592 ページ
2025.11 読了

🔽🔽 読書記録 🔽🔽

とうとう読んだ Butter
元ネタの殺人事件を知らなかったのだけど、知ってたら比較したりともっとミーハーな気持ちを強く楽しめたかも。

このストーリーの魅力はやっぱり容疑者カジマナの強いパワー。マーガリンとフェミニストが嫌いなカジマナ。
それに完全に振り回される主人公である女性記者理香との微妙な力関係。
いや、力でいうとカジマナが完全に勝っている。
主人公の親友との関係も、恋人との時間の過ごし方もそのあとにどこで何を食べるかも、人間関係全てにおいてカジマナの白い柔らかい腕から伸びるぷっくりとした手が鷲掴みにした。

この本、世界中でもちろん人気だけど、女性の体重に関する社会のデリカシーのなさと、見た目を気にするようにプログラミングされた日本人女性に一番響くのは間違いない。
自分のために幸せになり、好きなものを食べることが咎められる日本。
脂っこいものをたまに食べ結果多少体重が増えても、自分にとっての適度な楽しい人生を手にするのが、特に女性が手にするのは、悪いことである日本。

自分のために幸せになるのは実はかなり気合いがいる。
人の意見を振り払い、色んなものを破棄しないとたどり着かない。
その先には自分が美味しいと思うものを美味しく食べる、高価なバターのような贅沢な濃厚な時間がある。

単なるフェミニストな小説なんかではない。
女性の容姿に関わる世間の身勝手な期待という呪縛からの解放、そこは大前提であるがそれに伴い男性だって男らしくあれという呪縛からも解放される。
ミステリーでありながら、社会問題の本質のところを突き止める。

🔽 買えるところ / あらすじ、詳細 🔽
●●● 楽天 ●●●
BUTTER （新潮文庫） [ 柚木 麻子 ]
価格：1,045円（税込、送料無料) (2025/11/21時点)


  
●●● アマゾン ●●●

BUTTER (新潮文庫 ゆ 14-3)

— English —

★★★★★  For a woman to eat oily food, gain a few kilo and have a fun life is a shameful thing. She must give up a lot, including her sanity, to go beyond. Then, there is a place where she can eat what she wants, a life of rich and luxurious butter.

🔽 log 🔽
Butter
Asako Yuzuki
Read in 2025.11


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

Finally read Butter, the book everyone is talking about, in Japan, in the UK and beyond.

The power of Kajimana is the core, a pale chubby middle aged woman with an undeniable attraction, who is a suspect of murdering her lovers - she hates two things, margarine and feminist.
The book is about the power struggle between the two women; Kajimana and Rika a journalist.
Well actually no, it is always Kajimana who has the control over everything Rika does, including when she sleeps with her boyfriend and what she should eat afterwards when and where, as if her pale chubby arms is grabbing the life of Rika.
It's a struggle to escape the chubby arm of control.

It's a bestseller worldwide, but this is very Japan.
You'd enjoy it more if you know how horrible Japanese society is to women, even today (and if you know how expensive butter is there)
It's a very normal thing to criticise or joke about the weight of a woman in public, and a woman is expected to worry about her appearance constantly and forever.
For a woman to eat oily food, gain a few kilo, have a fun life is a shameful thing. God forbit.
So especially in Japan, for a woman, to have a good life for herself requires more energy.
You must give up a lot, including your sanity, in order to get there.
But as you get there, there is a place where you can eat what you want, a life of rich and luxurious butter.

This book is not merely a feminist book, that'd be an easy observation.
As women become free from the society's cruel and unrealistic expectations, men are also freed from the unreasonable expectation of manliness.

The novel is based on a real life crime in Japan, but before you know it it becomes less about the crime and the mystery but more about you and me and the society we live in.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Butter: The Cult Japanese Bestseller about a Serial Killer Cook (Food and Murder) 

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Butter: THE No. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING SENSATION

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Butter (italiano)