Kitchen in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jul 21, 2021 Alison Rose rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: poc-authors, read-in-2021, women-authors, 2-star-books, translated-works

Here's the thing: There's no reverse statute of limitations on bigotry. I get very irritated when people say things like "Well, it's okay because it was written X years ago" as though the group being denigrated only became human sometime after that. No, dude, they only started being human to you sometime after that, and that doesn't mean shit.

I understand that you can't expect to see modern sensibilities reflected in older texts, but 1988 (when this was first published in Japan) is not exactly a Here's the thing: There's no reverse statute of limitations on bigotry. I get very irritated when people say things like "Well, it's okay because it was written X years ago" as though the group being denigrated only became human sometime after that. No, dude, they only started being human to you sometime after that, and that doesn't mean shit.

I understand that you can't expect to see modern sensibilities reflected in older texts, but 1988 (when this was first published in Japan) is not exactly ancient times. It's not even older than I am! Thus I'm left rather perplexed by the reviews lauding this book for its depiction of trans characters when, to me, it bordered on atrocious. Yes, Eriko is portrayed as a sympathetic, kind, vivacious person, and that's good. But the amount of "she's really a man" or "she used to be a man" shit grated on my last poor nerve. On top of that, her transition seemed to be a reaction to the loss of a relationship, which.................no. Plus, neither the author nor the translator seem to understand that there's a difference between "transvestite" and "transgender," and I'm sorry, but again, in 1988 and 1993 (when this was translated into English) these were easily understood as different things.

Speaking of the translation, I don't know a lick of Japanese but even so, this felt like such a clunky and rough translation. I've read a few reviews from readers who do understand Japanese and saw the same issues raised. Word choices that didn't make sense or felt awkward, emotions that felt out of place, and a rather amorphous sense of the characters' maturity levels--sometimes I felt like this was a young adult book, other times it got very briefly dark and deep and it was like being in the mind of a drunk French existentialist. There were some moving lines about grief and loneliness and the difficulty of interpersonal relationships when one is sunk down into those things. I appreciated seeing that turmoil, but it could be so jarring to go from that to twee stuff about kitchens and ramen.

I don't know...I just do not see what so many others raved about with this book. I didn't hate it, aside from the garbage ideas about trans people, but I didn't really enjoy it and can't imagine recommending it. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2025 Duygu rated it it was ok

Shelves: aty-2025, japan

Started off strong but then fell flat less than halfway through. Felt a bit angsty and emo. Also, the third part was a completely different stand-alone story with some supernatural elements that felt lacking.

Like · see review