Monday 3 June 2013

Devouring Books: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

"In the uncertain ebb and flow of time and emotions, much of one's life history is etched in the senses. And things of no particular importance, or irreplaceable things, can suddenly resurface in a cafe one winter night."

I put Kitchen on my birthday list almost on a whim- I wanted to read more Japanese authors because hellooooo, Murakami! and also because in Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, Nina Sankovitch waxed lyrical about Moonlight Shadow, the second story in this really teeny book. I think I'd also seen another of Yoshimoto's books reviewed somewhere in the blogosphere, and I super vaguely remember it being a nice review, and so yeah. I took a shot in the dark with Kitchen.

And oh my gosh. I was kind of blown away, because everything about it- and I mean EVERYTHING- was kind of all the things I love from a book- really lovely writing (even in translation, which kind of seems rare) melancholy and sadness, and, you know, Japanese food. I love it so much that I almost don't even want to talk about the ways I love it for fear of putting you off of it because you are not me, so instead I'll talk about the stories? Yes, let's do that.

So. Kitchen is split into three parts, the first being Kitchen, and the second the aforementioned Moonlight Shadow. They both deal with death and grief and just the not-knowing that comes with the death of someone who was your everything. This doesn't mean that the characters just sit around and cry a lot, though, but more that they're people who are lost and looking for something to replace what they've lost, even if they don't know what that is. And I realise that sounds like a downer but these are things we're all going to have to face in life, and who wants to go into that unprepared by literature?! Not me.

Kitchen, then, follows Mikage Sakurai as she tries to deal with the death of her Grandmother, her last living relative. As she goes through this, she is invited by almost a total stranger (Yuichi) to move into his house with him and his trans mother Eriko which she does and I've just realised I can tell you almost nothing else because spoilers. But let's just say there are some shared dreams going on (of COURSE) and apart from being about grief, it's also just about a young woman trying to learn how to live, as well as live with the new fact that she's responsible only to herself now that she doesn't have any family. Apart from her new strange family.

Anyway. It's really good even if I suck at ever explaining anything properly, and I actually think I liked the second half better than the first because Mikage gets to help Yuichi just as he helped her and it's all very wonderful and oh yeah, did I mention how good the writing is? I mean, I think we all know how much I love some Murakami, but I think that purely in writing terms (on a words level) Yoshimoto has it. Or possibly just has better translators, but I don't think that's what it is. 

Moonlight Shadow, though. Now that was amazing. Firstly it feels like more of a complete story than Kitchen (not that incomplete stories are bad, necessarily! And I still really like Kitchen. But this one, maaaan...) and it's just so sad, and so almost mystical and weird and just excellent all round, really. It's the story of Satsuki, (another) young woman whose boyfriend has just died in a car accident, in which his brother's girlfriend was also killed. Satsuki and said brother Hiiragi have struck up a friendship because it seems like they're the only two people who knows how it feels to have suffered such a loss, and THEN these awesome and eerie things happen and oh my gosh you really have to read it so we can discuss it properly because ugh, I loved it.

And I really hate to keep going on about Murakami because I don't want to be like 'Japanese authors! They're all the same!' But Moonlight Shadow definitely felt Murakami-esque in its strangeness (and, you know, sadness) although now that I think of it, it was written before basically any of his major works, so yeah. That's interesting. But anyway, that definitely made me like it better, that it was weird in a sort of familiar way, and it was really just amazing and I want to tell you WHY but also I don't want to and oh, the conflict.

Just read this book, ok? And then be prepared to want to read ALL THE YOSHIMOTO because I'm already onto my second book and there really aren't that many and some aren't even translated so I'm obviously going to have to learn Japanese. Dammit.

12 comments:

  1. Ahhh! I've always wanted to read Banana Yoshimoto's work but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Reading this post really motivates me to finally get around to reading her work. I think I'll tackle Kitchen first and then petition the publishers to translate her other works, hahaha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yaaaay, do eeeeet! Kitchen really is excellent, and I'm assuming everything else is as well! SOME of her other stuff is translated, but not all of it, according to wikipedia, so yeah. We need to make that happen.

      Delete
  2. How great is Moonlight Shadow? Like, soooo good right?! I usually have a terrible memory for books I read years ago, but that one is still clear as day!

    And ooooh which book have you moved on to? I have N.P sitting on my desk waiting to be read - I think it may be my next book seeing as how all I want to do now is read Kitchen again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Moonlight Shadow is PROPER haunting. Obviously I remember it cause I only read it a couple of weeks ago, but STILL I remember it with a weird clarity which I think is because it was really vivid and really strange like a fever dream!

      My next one is Lizard which I have bought but not yet started. I had this bookshop voucher and was having a CRISIS of indecision, and I was like 'Oooh! Yoshimoto!' and then they only had TWO of her books (not even Kitchen!) and the other one (I think, Amrita?) was all mushed up so I just got Lizard! Isn't that the funnest anecdote you've ever HEARD?! ;)

      Delete
    2. It is one I will remember until the day I die and then it will be inscribed on my gravestone, or whatever technological version of a gravestone we are using at that point in time.

      Delete
  3. I don't know why, but this author has always intimidated me a bit. Sounds like Moonlight Shadow isn't very good though. *ducks the flying tomatoes thrown in my direction*


    :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MOONLIGHT SHADOW IS THE BESSSSSSSSST! I definitely always feel a bit intimidated by authors who don't write in English, I think, but this was actually pretty accessible. In a completely awesome way, of course.

      Delete
  4. Woo, you should definitely learn Japanese! Hehe.

    Kitchen was one of the first novels that I read in Japanese, and to be honest I think that it was probably a bit too difficult for me at the time (I couldn't read it fluently enough to enjoy it properly I don't think).. at least, that was the case with kitchen.

    Moonlight shadow was amazing though. :D I can remember being kind of blown away by it.

    Yoshimoto Banana is definitely somewhat similar to Murakami in Japanese, in that the writing is quite simple and not full of show offy sentences if that makes sense?

    I find it interesting that the front of your book says 台所 - the original Japanese word for kitchen, pronounced "daidokoro", whereas the book in Japanese is actually called "kicchin", as in the word kitchen which has been adopted into Japanese... yeah, that isn't interesting for anyone but me! Haha.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooooh, maybe you should read Kitchen again now that you're all super awesome at Japanese? It's definitely sort of... not too show offy in English, too, and I just find it lovely? And isn't Moonlight Shadow SO GOOD? It feels like a kind of an ancient tale, if you know what I mean, like a story you've sort of known for ever even though it's the first time you've read it? (Does that even make sense? I don't know, I'm really tired!)

      But dude, all of this Japanese languagey information is totally interesting! At least to me, so you know, keep leaving me comments like that and I will be pleased! You can tell me how the symbols for Lizard are wrong when I read that, too hehe. Also, fun story- I got this book for my birthday and the English bit (Kitchen, obvs) is quite faint, and everyone was like 'ooh, what's that?' and my nan was all like 'I don't know, I can't read it' and I was like 'it says kitchen right there! Did you think the whole book was in Japanese?' and apparently she did! Like I'd secretly learnt Japanese somewhere! Madness.

      Delete
    2. I should!! My copy of it is in England though. Hmm. Maybe I can persuade my mum to send it to me. I know what exactly what you mean about Moonlight Shadow! After reading Kitchen I didn't really get why people said the the book was so good, but I totally did after Moonlight Shadow. :D

      Hehe, the symbols aren't necessarily WRONG for kitchen, as they both mean the same thing, it's just interesting that they chose to go with the Japanese Japanese version instead of the loan word Japanese version. I guess that writing it in Kanji (the Chinese characters) looks better than Katakana (one of the two syllabic writing systems that Japanese uses). Hmm, Japanese is confusing.

      I think you should secretly learn Japanese and surprise everybody! I like reading in Japanese on the train in England, people have such weird reactions to it :D

      Delete
  5. I'm going to have to add this to the TBR pile, but throw this book on top! Japanese writers have melancholy down pat - this ought to be good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Japanese writers DO have melancholy down pat. You are SO right. And YAY for reading this! It truly is pretty awesome :)

      Delete