Summary

Chapter 8, “Where’s Your Ambition?” (125), is the first chapter in Book 2 of Kawakami’s novel. The chapter opens with a question posed by someone named Aya, who asked a group of women that included Natsuko whether they would give a kidney to their husband if he was dying. Natsuko explains that the group, which was meeting in a shop that served galettes, consisted of acquaintances from her old job at a bookstore. She notes that Aya’s question applied to everyone except her, as all the other women were married. In the meantime, she was distracted by the inadequacy of the galettes as a main course. The women who responded all said that they would give their husband the kidney for different reasons — financial support, sharing of marital duties, the best interest of a child. However, after the gathering broke up, Natsuko spoke...