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

[ziva razpet]

sicer nimam rada romanticnih knjig (no, saj ni tak ful v resnici, zelo japonsko) ampak nadpovprecno luskano. zdi se mi, da se glavna ideja malo izgubi, ampak ni tak motece. vseeno prijetno za brat, v bistvu zelo progresivna knjiga, glede na to, da je bila izdana na japonskem 1988.

[Lili]

To ni bila moja prva knjiga japonskega avtorja, a vendar me je presenetila s svojo "liričnostjo". Vsak stavek, tudi najmanjša manlenkost, je bil opisan prav pravljično.

Knjiga govori o Mikage, ki ji umre babica, njena edina sorodnica. Tolažbo najde pri znancu Yoichiu in njegovi materi Eriko, ki je nekoč bila moški. Mikage pri njiju ostane nekaj meseev, potem pa se preseli na svoje. Tu se polavje konča in novo prične z nepričakovano smrtjo Eriko. Mikage skuša Yoichiu pomagati prebroditi žalost in ob tem razmišlja, ali bo iz njunega prijateljstva zrastlo kaj več.

Zgodba je obenem prijetna za branje, na trenutke šaljiva in predvsem čudna s svojim hitrim odvijanjem dogodkov. To zgodbo spremlja še ena krajša z naslovom Moonlight shadow. Obe zgodbi govorita o izgubi in žalovanju, ter kako ti osebne tragedije spremenijo pogled na svet in h kakšnim in katerim načinom/mehanizmom posegamo, da bi naše življenje ohranili v neki "normali". Mikage je svoj mir našla v kuhinji in kuhanju, medtem ko je oseba iz druge zgodbe potrebovala neki zaključek/slovo od osebe, ki jo je izgubila.

[Barbara]

Hecna knjiga, ne vem čisto, kaj naj si o njej mislim. Zgodba, motivacije oseb, potek dogodkov, nič ne štima na klasičen način, kot si vajen, vseeno pa te potegne, ima nek čar, nisem pa prepričana, da ravno čar zame.
Spomnim se, da sem jo brala že enkrat prej, zato me ni niti presenetila toliko njena nenavadnost.

[neža ✶⋆.˚]

ne morem se odlocit a bi dala 3 al 4 zvezdice. ne dogaja se veliko zunanjega, ampak notranjega. lepo je napisana, lepo so opisane vsakdanje majhne stvari, samota, izguba…vsec mi je

[Darija]

preveč čudovita in comforting
prva knjiga ki sm jo zveseljem prebrala 2x, in še veckrat jo bom
obcutki so tako krasno prikazani, vse tako domace
LJUBIM!