Banana Yoshimoto
Teoksen Kitchen tekijä
Tietoja tekijästä
Banana Yoshimoto, 1964 - Novelist Banana Yoshimoto was born Mahoko Yoshimoto on July 24, 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. She is the daughter of poet and commentator Yoshimoto Ryumei, who had an impact on the radical student movement of the late 1960's. She attended Tokyo's Nihon University, where she studied näytä lisää creative writing and won a faculty award for her 1987 graduation novel "Moonlight Shadow." While working as a waitress, she took moments out of her day to write a novel and, at the age of 24, the result was "Kitchen" (1988), which is the story of a lonely woman who moves her bed into the kitchen, finding comfort in the humming of the refrigerator. She also wrote "Pineapple Pudding" and "Fruit Basket," which were both bestsellers. Her novel "Lizard" was dedicated to the memory of the late rocker Kurt Cobain and the novel "Long Night of Marika/Bali Dream Diary" (1996) was considered a flop. (Bowker Author Biography) näytä vähemmän
Image credit: Eiichiro
Sarjat
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Associated Works
The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories (1999) — Avustaja — 345 kappaletta
Freedom: Stories Celebrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2009) — Avustaja — 73 kappaletta
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Kanoninen nimi
- Yoshimoto, Banana
- Virallinen nimi
- Yoshimoto, Mahoko
- Syntymäaika
- 1964-07-24
- Sukupuoli
- female
- Kansalaisuus
- Japan
- Syntymäpaikka
- Bunkyo-ku, Tokio, Japan
- Asuinpaikat
- Tokio, Japan
- Koulutus
- Nihon University (Art College, Literature)
- Ammatit
- writer
- Suhteet
- Yoshimoto, Takaaki (vader)
- Palkinnot ja kunnianosoitukset
- The 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize (1987)
Umitsubame First Novel Prize
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
Listat
Palkinnot
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Associated Authors
Tilastot
- Teokset
- 114
- Also by
- 7
- Jäseniä
- 13,860
- Suosituimmuussija
- #1,668
- Arvio (tähdet)
- 3.6
- Kirja-arvosteluja
- 348
- ISBN:t
- 434
- Kielet
- 26
- Kuinka monen suosikki
- 73
Translated by Megan Backus
Read by Yolande Bavan
I’ve given Banana Yoshimoto’s pen name because it was the name she gave herself in the 1980s when the book was published. Her birth name is Mahoko Yoshimoto, and the title “Kitchen” was the “borrowed-name” of the book; it was the original title and not translated from Japanese.
The book is divided into two parts, the novel “Kitchen” and the novella “Moonlight Shadow”.
I decided to read Kitchen after discovering it was an instant best seller when it was published in Japan, and I was intrigued by the title and the author’s name. I was expecting from these, a quirky novel, along the lines of some other Japanese books I’ve read.
It’s not quirky at all. Both the novel and the novella embrace the themes of coping with the sudden death of a loved one. Both are optimistic, with the survivors moving forward after periods of mourning.
The prose in both stories come across as choppy in parts. I first thought this was due to the translations, but later read it was the original Japanese. What was interesting about the book was the subtle and tender way it dealt with the emotions of mourning. At times the novella Moon Shadow was extremely touching. This may have been because of my own experience of young love. In any case I liked the novella more than I liked the novel.
There were times of unintended humor. Being a lover of Japanese food it was surprising to read of young people praising meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Here and there there are signs of Western influence in the writing, and this plus the choppiness of the prose takes from the gentle feel Mahoko Yoshimoto engenders so well in the two stories.
If you like Japanese literature, Kitchen delivers a pleasant read. For me Kitchen is a good but not a memorable book and I rated it a nuanced 3.… (lisätietoja)