I’d like to say that this is probably the last Banana Yoshimoto’s that I would read. I read Lizard a while back and didn’t quite like it. I don’t understand how she got to be so famous outside of Japan (or in), because I think her stories are nothing but ordinary. Ordinary. Ordinary. And the way she explain things is just plain weird. Take this for example:

She had been gentle and smiling with me, and then, as soon as she was alone again, she… if I had to describe it, I’d say the expression on her face was like that of a demon turned into a human who suddenly caught herself feeling emotions and was warning herself that she wasn’t permitted to.

I mean, what the hell was that? A demon? Turned into a human? Caught herself feeling emotions and was warning herself that she wasn’t permitted to? (Okay I’m repeating myself. That’s how weird I think the description is.) And in the story, she’s just a plain girl. Nothing demonic nor strange. Yoshimoto also describes a lot of the environment and the weather, and the melancholy effects that they have toward the characters. I can’t help feeling that all of her stories are directed to adolescents or early youths. She tells stories about loneliness and deaths in much too obvious ways. Threw in a transsexual too to heat things up a bit. (It doesn’t)

The Kanji characters on the front cover is 台所, read: dai dokoro, literally means kitchen. In Kitchen, there are 2 stories, one Kitchen, and one short story titled Moonlight Shadow. Both about people facing deaths of closed ones. About loneliness and love. I’d like to see the movie based on Kitchen. Sometimes if the book is bad, the movie turns out better.

In conclusion, I think Banana Yoshimoto’s works are just blah. There are so many other good authors and good books out there, so I would not try her books again. Two chances are good enough. I actually picked up Kitchen because it’s so small I thought I wouldn’t spend much time on it anyway if it turned out bad and I can cross off a book for my Japanese Literature Challenge.

Rating: 3 out of 5
Pages: 150

First line
The place I like best in this world is the kitchen.

Last line (Kitchen)
I launched into what time I’d be in and what platform I’d be on.

Also reviewed by

A Striped Armchair

Update 30 Jan 2009

My wrap-up post here.

Dolce Bellezza is running the second Japanese Literature challenge. Yay! I’ve been waiting for this one, since I missed the first one.

The rule is to read 3 Japanese Literature between 30 July 2008 and 30 January 2009.

Bellezza has some books to recommend on her site. A few look pretty good. I’m not sure what I’m gonna read yet. I think I’m gonna keep it open and add them as I go. I know I’m gonna read another couple of Murakami’s, but I also want to expand a little and read authors whose books I haven’t read yet.

Apart from that, I’m interested in the Japanese lits in the 1001 Books list. So I can sort of go through them at the same time =P. I stroke the ones I already read. The ones in blue are the ones I read for the challenge.

The original 1001 Books (2006)

28) Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami [review] 3/5
64) After the Quake – Haruki Murakami
78) Sputnik Sweetheart – Haruki Murakami
125) The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
362) The Sea of Fertility – Yukio Mishima
744) Kokoro – Natsume Soseki

The additional Japanese lits from the 2008 version of 1001 Book

0003 : The Tale of Genji . Murasaki Shikibu
0258 : Rashomon . Akutagawa Ryunosuke
0480 : A Thousand Cranes . Yasunari Kawabata
0498 : The Sound of Waves . Yukio Mishima
0602 : Silence . Shusaku Endo
0666 : The Twilight Years . Sawako Ariyoshi
0700 : Almost Transparent Blue . Ryu Murakami
0819 : Kitchen . Banana Yoshimoto [review] 3/5
0897 : Deep River . Shusaku Endo

I think I’m gonna keep track of both lists. I’m especially pissed that they took out Never Let Me Go. Not only because it’s a good book, but also because that’s the first one I read for my 10 out of 100 out of 1001 Challenge. This new list just makes things complicated. Especially that they took out a whole bunch of books from no 1 to 100. I’m of course still going to continue with the challenge, but I’m not so sure what to do after that. We’ll see.

Anyway, rather than bitching about the dropped out books, let me just point out a few interesting additions. The thing with the additions are that almost, if not all of them are by International authors (by International I mean non US non UK). I’m especially interested in addition of Japanese or Chinese writers.

Pre 1800
0003 : The Tale of Genji . Murasaki Shikibu
0004 : Romance of the Three Kingdoms . Luó Guànzhong
0005 : The Water Margin . Shi Nai’an & Luó Guànzhong
0013 : Monkey: A Journey to the West . Wú Chéng’en
0054 : A Dream of Red Mansions . Cao Xueqin

I’m not sure if I will ever read The Tale of Genji. I started Tale of Murasaki before (it’s about Murasaki, the author of Tale of Genji), and it was boring so I couldn’t finish it.
Romance of Three Kingdoms is GREAT addition. This is a book that my father claims is (should be?) a required reading in a lot of countries around the world, in schools and army.
I grew up with The Journey to the West. I read illustrated books and watched countless tv series about it. Also a great addition. Although I didn’t know that they actually have a real book on that. I thought it’s more like a myth or folktale, which got told over and over, brought over many generations over various forms of entertainment medium.

1800s
No Asian authors

1900s
0258 : Rashomon . Akutagawa Ryunosuke
0376 : Rickshaw Boy . Lao She
0480 : A Thousand Cranes . Yasunari Kawabata
0498 : The Sound of Waves . Yukio Mishima
0602 : Silence . Shusaku Endo
0666 : The Twilight Years . Sawako Ariyoshi
0700 : Almost Transparent Blue . Ryu Murakami
0738 : Leaden Wings . Zhang Jie
0782 : Half of Man is Woman . Zhang Xianliang
0819 : Kitchen . Banana Yoshimoto
0829 : Paradise of the Blind . Duong Thu Huong
0897 : Deep River . Shusaku Endo

I’m happy with the addition of Banana Yoshimoto, Shusaku Endo, Ryu Murakami, Yasunari Kawabata, and Yukio Mishima. I haven’t read any of their books, but would like to and have heard good things about them.

2000s
No Japanese or Chinese authors, a few Indians. These are the ones I have on my shelf:
0972 : The Namesake . Jhumpa Lahiri
0991 : A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian . Marina Lewycka
0996 : The Inheritance of Loss . Kiran Desai

I’m surprised that with these many additions, Gao Xingjian and Pearl S. Buck’s books are still not there. Both won Nobel Prize in Literature. (Buck is not Chinese, but she grew up in China)

Talking about Japanese authors, 2 of Haruki Murakami’s books have been dropped out: Sputnik Sweetheart and After the Quake. Kafka on the Shore and the Wind-up Bird Chronicle stay.

Curiously Sarah Waters’ books -2 of them- have been totally dropped out (one author that I’m actually interested in). I wonder which other authors that have been completely dropped out of the list too. I mean I understand if they took out some books from the authors that previously had multiple books in the list, to make rooms for other authors. But to completely drop all books by one author is kinda weird. It’s like saying today some of your books are so important that everybody must read them before they die, and the next day, well no, none of your books are important anymore.