Review of The Story of a Single Woman by Chiyo Uno

*The Story of a Single Woman* by Chiyo Uno (1972). Published by Pushkin Press Classics.

If you’re new here and found this blog through the mysterious powers of the Internet, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I’m a dedicated reader and movie watcher who thought to turn this website into a little digital archive of sorts.

I was watching and reading so much that I wanted to keep track of it all, so I began blogging as a way to keep these books as memories somewhat forever.

That said, I recently fell into a period of unemployment, and this blog was a solace for me. Not only was it a way to make a little bit of money when there was nothing else coming my way really, but I found, after getting my finances in order, that I enjoyed sitting down to write blog posts when I had nothing else to do in my day.

I’ve been dubbing this period as funemployment while I look for a job, but the job market isn’t looking too great right now. Regardless, I spend a lot of time in my local library, and because I am such a big fan of simple living, I enjoy the little moments where I can find a book for free here or there, while also supporting such a critical aspect of my community.

While I do love a good book from the library, being funemployed has led to another new discovery: I can finally catch up on all of the advance copies I receive! In the past I found myself inundated with advance copies, which led me to realize I need to be a bit more picky and choosy about what kinds of ARCs I was inviting into my life.

I decided to tackle my list of advance copies during this period, and I managed to get through a good portion of them! I tend to blog about most of the books I receive, if not all (I can’t recall any that I haven’t reviewed lately, but that could be my memory failing me here), as I want to put out what I thought about these books before I forget I even read them (hence why I started this blog to begin with).

My blog has forever and always been focused on Asian and pan-Asian literature and movies/shows, so when I saw that The Story of a Single Woman was available as an advance copy, I knew I wanted to read it. Older Japanese literature tends to hit my sweet spot, especially if it was published between 1930-1990. For some reason, those kinds of books just really appeal to me—it also probably explains why I did a master’s thesis on Korean literature largely from that period.

Anyways, this is a bit of a short read, so I read all of it one night while unwinding after a day of job applications. It feels like both a sport and a job in itself.

Let’s get into the review! This intro is getting quite long, and I don’t want to bore you so soon.

A young woman leaves home in search of love and independence in 1920s Japan.

Our main character in this novel is Kazue, who grew up in a family that had quite a bit of prestige. The novel is about her reflecting on her coming of age as an older adult. Her father came from a wealthy family specifically, but by the time Kazue was a young teenager, the money was slowly running dry.

It also doesn’t help that her father is very much a gambler, which doesn’t help when he does eventually pass away and Kazue’s mother has to learn to provide for her siblings and her.

But before he dies, Kazue’s father arranges for her to marry her cousin. This cousin is in the wealthy side of the family, and Kazue, upon going to her aunt’s house, learns that if she goes down this path, her marriage isn’t going to be a happy one.

So when her father is ill, she goes back to her house, and when he dies, she refuses to go back to her aunt’s.

This kickstarts Kazue’s independence streak. Upon finishing school she becomes a teacher, and despite not needing to move out of her mother’s home, she gets a place for herself. We see how Kazue is respected by her students, starts wearing makeup and dressing up nicely, and starts having romantic affairs.

When she looks back in on her siblings and childhood, she realizes that after her father died, her siblings were able to live a less strict life than the one she had when she was a child.

Considering this is 1920s Japan, Kazue is still a child in some ways at the beginning of the novel (or at least by modern standards), but because of her desire for independence, it leads her to make some rash and sometimes outright stupid decisions.

Said decisions come from her immaturity and lack of experience with life, but we see how she has some hard lessons throughout the course of the novel. There isn’t a ton of conflict present in the story itself, but rather it’s following Kazue as she has her coming-of-age and meanders through her memories and experiences.

I found nothing wrong with this at all, as I enjoy novels like these. I’m also familiar with Japanese novels from this period, so I know what to expect from it.

I can see how a modern reader not used to this, especially if you haven’t been exposed to such kind of novels, might not like this. However, I enjoyed it a lot.

Overall Thoughts

As I mentioned in the last sentence written, I enjoyed this novel a lot. It’s short and sweet; if it were longer, I feel like I might not have liked it as much as I did. It has good pacing, and where it ends feel appropriate in some ways. Kazue is lost on the path of life still at the end, jaded by what she has experienced. But in other ways, she’s successful, having had moderate success with her writing.

I feel bad for her as a character, but I can see how it was a cycle that began when she was a child. She didn’t see what a healthy relationship looked like when she was a kid, and what she went through with her father’s death can be traumatic (although more normalized in this period). If she were born in the modern day, things would have been easier.

But what Kazue did really was groundbreaking for a woman, even if people in the novel outright don’t understand her or her decisions. She’s revolutionary by coming from a poor family and building something up for herself, or even cutting her hair in a bob the way she did. It’s also modeled after Chiyo Uno’s own life, which makes this more remarkable.

All of this is to say pick this one up if you’re interested. If it sounds like something you might want to read, you might find yourself enjoying this one a lot! Support your local indie bookstore or library, too, when acquiring your copy.

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