Yoshimoto~ Kitchen
- Zebra Reads
- Jan 25, 2024
- 3 min read
Banana Yoshimoto is the pen name for 58 year old author Mahoko Yoshimoto, a contemporary writer from Japan, where she still lives and works.
She gave herself the name Banana because of the banana flower, which she loves and also because it isn’t clearly female. Her first short story was Moonlight Shadow (in 1986) and it is now generally published with Kitchen, which was written in 1988 and was her second book. But she has since written a slew of other things. Kitchen has been made into movies and it won several awards.
Yoshimoto appears to be fairly private. There is a Wikipedia page on her and she has an old website that is no longer updated where she would share bits of her life in English for those who do not speak Japanese, but there is very little on the website any more. If you are interested, though she does have a Q & A still up where she responds to questions posed by her fans.
Overview: This is a love story in its essence, though it is sad, and travels slowly despite it being so short. Mikage has lost her grandmother, and is taken in by a family friend. She grows to love him (Yoichi) and his mother (Eriko), but manages to lose them both (and maybe a little of herself) along the way. For much of it there is nothing that seems to be happening, but yet somehow by the end everything has changed in very significant ways. And there is always food, which is the most important part, really.
My Take: I honestly quite loved this book. It was a very short and very quick read, but it packed in so much emotion and nuance that I never quite knew where it was going, until the end. And that is the thing about a good book, right? That you are wondering where it is going until the end, and in the end you realize that it got there in really the only way possible. Kitchen, was of all things very, very real. It wasn’t neat or tidy. It didn’t flow smoothly. There were fits and starts and roads that seemed to end nowhere, just to start up again somewhere else, just like any of our lives. No nice orderly paths, taking us to a perfect predetermined happily ever after. But we find the end eventually, and just understand that it is good, simply because it is.
Who would love it: I want to say that anyone would love it, simply because I did (and hadn’t really expected to). But, I think that particularly people who are over fairytales or perfect love stories may find it real and refreshing. Of course, anyone who is knowledgeable about Japanese custom or culture might be able to see more into than I can with my limited insights. If you are a fan of short stories, I particularly liked this one, because Yoshimoto somehow managed to get quite a lot of character development into a small space. I think that people who love to cook (or are just a foodie) may also appreciate it much more than I could, especially if you are familiar with Japanese cuisine. There are so many wonderful descriptions of food that I could not really understand because I have little background or interest in cooking. It also includes story of the LGBQT community, which makes for a wonderfully normalized narrative of trans lives.
Who might avoid it: There is death. Not a lot, but it is hard and very sad. In addition, there are descriptions of intolerance and violence toward members of the LGBQT community, which may trigger strong emotions for anyone who has been through similar trauma. Otherwise, I imagine that if you prefer longer, more epic stories with lots of characters and complex plotlines, this book might prove to be somewhat simplistic. Conversely, if you like your love stories to be neat and tidy and end with a kiss, you may be a bit disappointed.
Bottom Line: In the end, food is what brings us together.
\
Comments