Mild Vertigo is a stream-of-consciousness novel about a housewife in modern day Tokyo, exploring what makes up her life and how societal structures and capitalism impact it. Natsumi lives in an apartment with her husband and two young sons, and her days are made up of regular mundanity, like laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, observing and talking to the neighbours, and thinking about her family. Each chapter is a separate episode, generally focusing on a theme but moving around topics as Natsumi’s mind does, packed into a neat package like many of the things in Natsumi’s life.
The stream of consciousness element stands out a lot in this book, and the translation made this easily readable, unlike some stream of consciousness narratives, as sentences flow into each other and there is a real sense of things passing by Natsumi (especially in the grocery shopping parts). The other thing is the separate chapters: I found out after reading that these were all written separately, but also to be brought together into a novel. I wouldn’t have guessed this from reading, as I felt like the episodic nature made sense, apart from the two photography reviews which I also learnt apparently are real life reviews by the author. I found this part of the book hard to engage with as I don’t know much about photography or the people referenced, and was glad when it returned to Natsumi’s life rather than her reading these reviews (though it’s definitely an interesting concept to put in a book).
The book does well to depict the ‘mild vertigo’ of late stage capitalism and the ways in which Natsumi feels both a part of and external to things in her life. Not much happens, of course, as that is really the point, and as a short book it is easy to get engrossed in the reality and unreality of Natsumi’s life.
Fiendfully Reading 
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