From the Bookshelf of Reading with Style…

Kitchen

Banana Yoshimoto,

Megan Backus (Translator)

Start date: September 1, 2010

Finish date: November 30, 2010

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What Members Thought

Aug 18, 2022 ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ marked it as to-read

I'm so totally sad that I've not been much more attentive and diligent at learning Japanese. I am very much sure that I'm missing quite a lot of context here because of reading this one in translation which is unfair to the writer.

I am very much sure this is NOT about the stereotypical Japanese housewife having the life of her dreams in the kitchen or about the women's general predisposition that we supposedly have for cooking and homemaking and being cozy and sheltered ... *gag*.

There's so much ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 05, 2017 Eman rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, japanese-literature, short-stories

beautifully written. the tone of this book is melancholic and fragile- family and love creep up slowly and feel so heartbreakingly delicate and significant. the loss of family and the agony that follows is incredibly relatable- the darkness of it, the attempts to be normal.
this book just felt like a remedy to my soul.

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2021 Meg rated it liked it

Shelves: literary-fiction, contemporary, magical-realism, borrowed, asia

Not bad at all, but I'm not totally sure I got the point. I enjoyed the second novella (moonlight shadow) in this book more than the first (kitchen) ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 09, 2020 Charlotte rated it liked it

3.5. 3 for the first story (Kitchen) and 4 for the second (Moonlight Shadow). I liked the tone of this book but I didn’t really understand the first story, and it felt a bit dated. I didn’t feel anything for the characters and couldn’t believe their relationship. Moonlight Shadow was lovely though.

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