Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful, gentle trio of novellettes
Review: "Kitchen" is not at all what I thought it was going to be. I was expecting a "magical kitchen" type story, like "Water for Chocolate" where the kitchen is a metaphor or someplace where things happen. I was expecting cooking and ingredients, detailed recipes, manic energy and that sort of thing. Instead, I got three sweet novellas, only two of them directly connected, about unspoken emotions and complex relationships, with the kitchen playing little more role than the title. Much of my expectations came from Banana Yoshitomo's being hailed as a "young author" in Japan. A young author she may be, but she carries the legacy of Japanese literature and influence, and her subtle, underplayed emotions and simple/complex characters and plots are as alive and moving as Soseki. There is magic here, of a quaint sort. And a ghost of two. A transvestite. But for the most part, this is the real world. The three novellas are connected in tone, if not in plot and characters. Each has its own charm, and each carries and ocean of depth beneath a seemingly shallow surface, which is the hallmark of Japanese literature. Love moves the world, but lovers must find and recognize each other. Simply, a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: poor in substance and form
Review: In the end, I found this book extremely unchallenging. I read it in an hour, finding little to actually engage my senses. Perhaps I am simply not its intended audience, or this is a poor translation, but I found that it offered me little promise to reward me for anything more than a cursory read.
Rating:
Summary: Savor the simplicity
Review: Roughly the length of Hemmingway's Old Man and the Sea, Kitchen is equally profound. Published with the short story Moonlight Shadow that won Yoshimoto critical success and made her an overnight sensation in her native Japan, this novella is one you won't put down until your finished yet don't really know why. It's a simple story of love and loss of family. Sure there are standout eccentric characters that sleep in kitchens and are transexual nightclub owners, but the beauty of Yoshimoto's writing is how she still makes these people seem normal, everyday people that face real problems, that search for real happiness and find that life is a mix of pain and joy, loss and gain, remembering and forgetting. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Food forThought!!
Review: What first caught my attention about this book was its original title. "Who on earth would write a book on kitchens?", I had wondered. As it turned out, a young Japanese writer with an equally original name-Banana Yoshimoto-did.
The content of the book had little to do with kitchens. It was named so because the main character's favourite place in the world is in a kitchen. "Kitchen" traces the life of Mikage Sakurai, a young girl who is left alone in the world when her only family, her grandmother dies. She is taken in by the Tanabe family, consisting of a transvestite mother and a reserved boy who barely know her.
What struck me the most about this book was that despite the shadow of death that looms throughout the story, it was neither depressing nor gloomy. In fact, it was truly inspiring. How beautiful is the world (as that in "Kitchen") where almost complete strangers can "grow" into being a family and death can be overcome with hope.
The overall mystical yet sentimental atmosphere is enough to leave any reader tingling with a refreshed outlook on life and it's small joys. Banana Yoshimoto's simple and almost poetic writing certainly had a way of capturing the reader's heart and soul.
Rating:
Summary: Uplifting.
Review: I was drawn to this book from its first line "The place I like best in this world is the kitchen" -- these simple, even childish words have hooked me to this book. This line and the lines that follow were able to touch a private love of spending time in the kitchen and to present it from a different angle. Food can be a controlled comfort in a chaotic world. "Kitchen" has been my first Banana Yoshimoto book and I have been reading more of her work ever since.
Kitchen is a special, unique book. Kitchen has a plot and there are "things happening" in the story. However, the attraction and specialty of the book is not from its content or the flow of the story, but rather the atmosphere it creates, the tender descriptions, and the ability to look inside. I also find it to be a soothing, uplifting book. Life is full of bad events and a person can be drawn to the bottom, overtaken by the burden of living without a close soul. Kitchen deals with sorrow and grievance after death of a loved person, however balances grief with other life forces - power of love, power of friendship and food... an important powerful life force which operates better if it is shared with others.
In this book, as in her other work, Banana Yoshimoto also practices acceptance and tolerance. She describes families, relationships and behaviours of all kinds and all are perceived as naturally as she portrays them.
It may sound corny but the experience of reading a story held in such a different culture, being able to almost smell and feel the taste of other foods and yet sharethe same emotions is another added value of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Elegically Beautiful
Review: This book reads like poetry - calming, lyrical, drawing you in for a spell of meditation. The language is unpretentious, unconventional, unafraid, never forced or artificial. And for that matter, neither is the book, which gently and subtly touches on the crests and troughs of human emotion. The main characters are never obtrusive, never the self-pitying or enraged cliches often found in books about adolescents girls. To me this book is almost spiritual, a long soothing gaze into a culture that has its basis in Shintoism and Zen Buddhism.
Rating: 
Summary: Short and Sweet
Review: I enjoyed these two short stories, both about how two young women grieve over the death of their loved ones. Yoshimoto's writing is like poetry, filled with imagery and emotion. Still, it's not lofty by any means. Her style is so clear and down-to-earth, often humorous, and appropriate to her characters' lives: Young and living in the city. These stories went very quickly for me but were very thoughtful, and left me wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: To understand a love one
Review: I have read this book many years ago when i was very young. I like it but dont move me so much. Its been a while since i have fell in love with a girl that lost a five years boyfriend. Moonlight Shadow was a great road map to her hearth and sensibility. Read it again move me like anything have done before and help me to understand, be more patience, care and love. Banana Yoshimoto have take all the scense of sadness and love.
Rating:
Summary: Forced to read it, but enjoyed it anyway
Review: A group of college sophomores had to read this book for a class. Hers's what they said: Ryan, Amy, Ryan, and Lisa
Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto, is an easy read, interesting, and an attention grabber: it was good. We also found the mixed emotions fascinating. Life in the story had both joy and sadness. In the beginning of the story we expected the "average" family, but we found that "average" wasn't what we thought in the beginning. As American readers, we confront the thoughts and feelings of another culture, but the emotions force us to keep reading. We hear about the significance of nature to emotion in Japanese culture, but in this book, nature is not really prominent. Nevertheless, we still see the emotions Yoshimoto is trying to convey. This book is best enjoyed by open-minded individuals who are able to use their imaginations. Kristin, Jason, Patrick, and Sunshine
As an American reader, you may be surprised by the "modern Japanese lingo," feeling so Americanized by the translator. After an initial shock of the character Eriko being announced as a transsexual, you strangely grow to fall in love her sensitivity. You get an understanding of how gender is perceived by one's own mind. Yoshimoto does an excellent job of discussing the relationship between life, love and death through an entertaining story line. The book is a better read if the reader is familiar with the Japanese culture, symbolism, and religion. Leslie, Leslie, Tammy and Michelle
For the American reader, this story may be difficult to understand. If you are looking for messages and meanings to be visible, this may not be for you. Yoshimoto creates bold and sexually open characters who are motivated by love, honor, and grief in some unorthodox ways. This book is best enjoyed if you could read it and discuss it as a group. The group allows for deeper understanding of its metaphors and symbols. We feel it is a good book that represents modern Japanese culture in an interesting way. You definitely cannot judge a book by its cover or title because book is not about kitchens in any literal way. Jimmy, Jason, Matt, and Bill
Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen goes far away from what Americans are used to reading. Kitchen presents powerful symbols of life, death, and sexuality. As an American male, I found this novel had characters I really could not relate to. The males in this novel were very feminine, sometimes exaggeratedly so. Carrie, Mike, Judy, and Frank
Banana Yoshimoto wrote this book using traditional Japanese literature format. You need some type of insight into Japanese culture to fully understand the story. For example, in the second story of the book, "Moonlight Shadows", there was a white thermos and in Buddhist symbolism white signifies death. To an American reader white may symbolize purity or peace. However, beyond the symbolism, there is a message that any uninformed reader would comprehend. Kitchen and "Moonlight Shadows" shows us that grief is universal between cultures and unique with individuals.
Rating:
Summary: Warm your heart and soul in this kitchen.
Review: Kitchen is actually a book containing two separate novellas with similar themes-loss and loneliness. Although not the most upbeat of themes, Yoshimoto deals with this subject matter with warmth, sensitivity and compassion. Like most Japanese writing there's a heavy emphasis on symbolism and allegory, but unlike most Japanese writing the vehicles chosen are familiar to, and cherished by, the mainstream American reading public. What emerges is a work remarkable for it's accessibility and ability to impact the reader. Yoshimoto was wise to adopt the novella format-it allows for the flexibility to examine he subjects fully from distinctly different points of view, allowing for a more in depth and thoughtful exploration of her themes, while allowing ample opportunity to flesh out and animate her characters. It's not often one finds a book that can achieve a high order of heartwarming sensitivity without indulging in overbearing sentimentality and/or sappiness. That Yoshimoto has managed to do so is a tribute to her skill and discipline as a writer. I've given this book to several friends and family members as a gift-a very wide range of folks with highly variable tastes-and everyone has expressed deep appreciation for this gift. Do yourself a favor-don't wait for someone to happen to give you this book-get it and read it on your own. You'll be glad you did.
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