Bouquet for Love and the Womb

A Bouquet for Love and the Womb: A Big Sister's Mother-Daughter Talk from the Night

“Bad Girl Fighter,” legendary writer Suzumi Suzuki’s autobiographical essay,
a rebellious book written before "The Limit Is a Start."
Peeling back the layers of labels society places on women, it sincerely reveals the struggles and pains of growth.
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★To truly understand rebellion, you must understand Suzumi Suzuki!
Rising writer Suzumi Suzuki extracts her life journey from age 18 to 32, using a sincere and playful pen to personally tear off the layers of identity labels society places on women, examining the myriad expectations projected onto them.
Suzumi Suzuki, a name labeled in various ways: a graduate of a prestigious Japanese university, a political and economic reporter for a major newspaper, a rising writer nominated for Japan's highest literary honor, a former nightlife hostess and public relations girl, a bad girl, a female fighter, the daughter of a professor and translator…
Drawing from her own experiences, Suzumi wraps her questioning of patriarchal society and moral order in a light, self-deprecating tone. She refuses to be entangled by the images of the praised innocent girl and the mature woman bound by motherhood, and also writes about girls and women who, like her, anger mainstream society.
★The contradictory confession of being a woman and a daughter, 26 essays on mother-daughter relationships from a fringe nightlife girl—
“No matter how old we women are, we are all betraying our mothers.”
Daughters and mothers love each other, yet precisely step on each other’s soft spots. Suzumi starkly dissects the thoughts of an unfilial daughter, examining the baffling mother-daughter relationship, and redefining the boundaries with her mother.
26 essays on mother-daughter relationships from a fringe nightlife girl—some things she wants to control but can’t, leading to fear; some things she wants to pour love into, but struggles to understand.
“While we feel we can do anything for our mothers’ happiness, simply existing and breathing hurts them deeply. Ah, how unfilial and difficult daughters are, and how naive and innocent mothers are. Is this truly a story of troublesome daughters and innocent mothers? Not entirely.”
★As women, isn’t our own conflicted wavering a mirror image of ourselves? Aren’t struggle and uncertainty our everyday?
In these words, feel Suzumi Suzuki’s pride and humility, confidence and panic, sincerity and pretense.
“We always think about facing things directly, and at the same time, we procrastinate again and again. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Through her writing, she sometimes saves herself, sometimes self-destructs, pricking the world with rebellion, and bravely forgiving her own wavering, broken self.
Isn’t Suzumi’s conflicted wavering a mirror image of ourselves? We share similar hesitations and uncertainties. Follow Suzumi’s memories and embrace our mutual imperfections and struggles. All small struggles are real and important.
★Translated and annotated with dedication by Lake, translator of "The Autobiography of a Geisha" × Book design by Shio.
The cover features this year’s popular color—vibrant magenta—to symbolize women’s vitality. The thorns represent the restrictions and taboos on women, and also a concrete representation of the mother-daughter relationship.
A 130*150mm square hardcover edition with a hollowed-out cover design, featuring Suzumi Suzuki’s handwritten signature.
It is a bouquet dedicated to love and the womb, and to the fragility and resilience of being a woman.
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Content Summary:
“We grow into our teens, twenties, and thirties, yet we remain powerless. Both others’ happiness and our own are so complex and hard to find.”
During her mother’s care, Suzumi Suzuki, author of "The Limit Is a Start," wrote this autobiographical essay, sincerely and incisively revealing several key life choices she made as a daughter, and sharing the stories of girls and women who passed through her life. Starting with the mother-daughter relationship, she frankly and nakedly discusses her rebellious teenage years and the nightlife world burdened by societal prejudice. Suzumi shows us the struggles and fragmentation experienced by women in their 30s, and their subsequent rebuilding and new beginnings.

2023-04-01

广西师范大学出版社

280

9787559858535