Kitchen

by Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus (Translator), Noguchi Rika

Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her a sensation in Japan and all over the world, and Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine of Kitchen, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, she is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who was once his father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale that recalls early Marguerite Duras. Kitchen and its companion story, "Moonlight Shadow," are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.

Genres: Fiction, Japan, Japanese Literature, Short Stories, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Asia

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 1988

About the author

Banana Yoshimoto (よしもと ばなな or 吉本 ばなな) is the pen name of Mahoko Yoshimoto (吉本 真秀子), a Japanese contemporary writer. She writes her name in hiragana. (See also 吉本芭娜娜 (Chinese).)

Along with having a famous father, poet Takaaki Yoshimoto, Banana's sister, Haruno Yoiko, is a well-known cartoonist in Japan. Growing up in a liberal family, she learned the value of independence from a young age.

She graduated from Nihon University's Art College, majoring in Literature. During that time, she took the pseudonym "Banana" after her love of banana flowers, a name she recognizes as both "cute" and "purposefully androgynous."

Despite her success, Yoshimoto remains a down-to-earth and obscure figure. Whenever she appears in public she eschews make-up and dresses simply. She keeps her personal life guarded, and reveals little about her certified Rolfing practitioner, Hiroyoshi Tahata and son (born in 2003). Instead, she talks about her writing. Each day she takes half an hour to write at her computer, and she says, "I tend to feel guilty because I write these stories almost for fun."

Reviews

[Anna]

Hende skal jeg læse mere af.

[Pallas]

Forevigt varm og håbefuld.

[Tobias Cramer]

Kitchen er to fortællinger om tab og den efterfølgende sorg. Begge historier er enkle, rørende og fortalt med en form for langsommelige indlevelse.
Yoshimoto skriver med en sans for det ordinære og formår at fortælle om kærlighed gennem forholdet til møbler og mad. Det ordinære bliver dog også udfordret af kønskifteopererede transpersoner og natklubber for bøsser, men selv disse lidt voldsomme og særprægede fænomener, behandles sagtmodigt i Yoshimotos bog.
Problemet er dog, at sagtmodigheden også kommer til at stå i vejen for en bog, der tør at folde sig rigtigt ud. Den bliver i det stilsikre og bliver derfor aldrig virkelig gribende.

[Karoline]

Ja, jeg har grædt til en bog om køkkener. “Kitchen” er to meget rørende noveller samlet i en bog, der virkelig dykker ned i sorg og det at miste. På alle måder ukonventionelle og alligevel så charmerende karakterer, hvor man ikke kan undgå at holde af dem

[Sarahmaria]

God still men kan bedre lide en lang novelle end 4 små

[alba]

Den version jeg læste var oversat lidt mærkeligt den havde ligesom nogle fejl så det ødelagde det lidt, men den var så god.

[Kajsa]

Forstod ikke helt hvordan den sidste historie hang sammen med de forrige, men elsker måden hun skriver på

[Halfdan]

Rigtig hyggelig afslutning, men desværre lidt overbærende skrivestil. Jeg synes ikke forfatteren overlader nok til læserens fantasi.

[Laura Kirstine]

Melankolsk og fin. En lille bog om sorg, kærlighed og det at finde noget trygt i hverdagen igen

[Ying]

Rørende fortællinger. Fantastisk story telling, simpel men touching

[Eva Damkjær]

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