“Why does the night have to be so beautiful?
All the Lovers in the Night
As I walk through the night, I remember what Mitsutsuka said to me. ‘Because at night, only half the world remains.’ I count the lights. All the lights of the night. The red light at the intersection, trembling as if wet, even though it isn’t raining. Streetlight after streetlight. Tailights trailing off into the distance. The soft glow from the windows. Phones in the hands of people just arriving home, and people just about to go somewhere. Why is the night so beautiful? Why does it shine the way it does? Why is the night made up entirely of light?”
I really loved this book. The first book I read by Mieko Kawakami was Ms. Ice Sandwich, which now was so long ago I don’t really remember it very clearly. But when I started All the Lovers in the Night, I was immediately pulled in by the narrator, the gorgeous prose and the emotional depth of a story such as this.
Fuyuko Irie is a freelance editor living in Tokyo. She once worked for a larger publishing house, but despite her best efforts, she had trouble interacting with her coworkers. Feeling socially inept, when she received the opportunity to do freelance work from home full time, she jumped on the opportunity. But due to the nature of her work, her life became lonely and solitary. Outside of the main editor who sent her work, Fuyuko Irie interacted with no one, spending most of her day working and then going to sleep. The only special moment she carries in her life is a nightly walk on her birthday- Christmas Eve.
One day, she sees her reflection in a window and realizes her life will always remain this way unless she does something to change it. But she lacks the courage to go out on her own and choose a different life. Eventually, she shows up at a cultural center to begin to find a class to take, wanting to learn about something she never knew about before. But she gets drunk beforehand, and while there she gets ill and vomits on the shoe of another person, Mitsutsuka.
Yet Mitsutsuka doesn’t seem upset with her, just concerned. Despite their age difference and different backgrounds, the two strike up an unusual friendship. They talk little of themselves, Fuyuko still coming to terms with some earlier traumas of her life. They talk often of light and the way light is viewed and transmitted. They talk of memory. Their conversations become meaningful, and Fuyuko learns more about herself, how to be herself than she did before.
This book kind of hits you a certain way because it’s a subtle reflection on loneliness, on feeling emotions you would rather bury, and on accepting yourself. This book is emotional and heartfelt, it grabs at the heartstrings and pulls you in. It’s a gorgeous novel. I’m completely in love with Mieko Kawakami’s writing style, and I am really looking forward to reading more of her work.
Of Worlds Forgotten 
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