Kitchen

Rating:
Summary: A Seven Star Novel
Review: I just finished "Kitchen" which I read in 2 sittings. I am in awe of this writer, and being a poet that says something. She is a wonderful story weaver. I believe she must be a gentle, loving, spiritual person to write with such depth of feeling and gentle understanding. If anyone has lost a loved one, I highly recommend this book. I can't wait to read the rest of her works.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT- for fans of banana
Review: There are those who will ADORE this book and those who will hate it. Yoshimoto has a definate style, presentation and point to her writing. Just when you think you aren't feeling 'involved' enough in the plot, you find yourself emotionally devastated and must read on. Truly a riveting style of writing which stays consistent throughout her collection of books. Each chapter presented like a small package, to be opened, and enjoyed. :)

Rating:
Summary: Kitchen Cooks
Review: This was the first of Yoshimoto's books I read. It is totally engaging--setting, character, and plot. First, the ambience of the setting pulls the reader in--makes one want to be there--to be involved with the characters--to move into this family--to open one's own mind to the excitement of the universe. The characters--unique, exotic, and original. Suddenly, the predictability of smalltown American seems less attractive in comparison to the opportunities for love and acceptance this family presents. The reader feels her own mindsets tickled and taunted by these characters, much as with the film "The Crying Game." Love is love, and family is family. Proponents of only traditional families will be tested. The plot provides enough twists and turns to keep us involved with the characters and the setting. Alas, the ending comes way to soon, yet the preciseness of this little gem is part of its charm. I never wanted it to end.

Rating:
Summary: Banana's work may a-peel.... to some in the bunch
Review: I am happiest whenever I'm standing in front of a lot of bookshelves. On a gray winter afternoon, when the light seeps in from the frozen gray clouds and wet streets outside, I like to wonder what I will read next. Last time, I looked up at a shelf of Japanese literature and (boinggg!) Banana Yoshimoto's work fell down at my feet. I picked it up and realized that I had never read any of her books yet. The carpet was a kind of yucky green. My wife called from the kitchen to say that she was making curry lamb and okra with rice. I had opened KITCHEN at the same time. Unbelievable.

In the blue light of early morning, a thin orange edge to the clouds streaming off over the Atlantic Ocean, a wedge of geese flew by. I read this youthful tale of sadness and loss, loneliness and final reunion. I bit into some toast (crunch) with unsalted butter on it, plus some Scottish orange marmalade. I read more. In the end, I felt that I had read an excellent novel as written by a high school student. Gosh. But when the chips were down, and what I wanted was more than to curl up on the sofa (green velvet with Indian brocade cushions) with an entertaining novel, KITCHEN just didn't have what it took. "Cutesy" "Yuppie-esque" or "excruciatingly earnest" are adjectives that could apply. "You have to appreciate novels for what they are, Bob." I kept telling myself. But this one wasn't much. I remembered how I loved reading Balzac, Kawabata, Turgenev, Soseki, Mishima, Machado de Assis and Bulgakov. Their ghosts waved to me in the early morning light. But I just could not put KITCHEN alongside their works. Sorry, folks. I know most of you thought it was great, but I didn't. It is clear. It is youthful. It touches on human emotions. But not in a deep way. That's why. The end.

Rating:
Summary: A Spiritual Experience
Review: Reading a Banana Yoshimoto book is a spiritual experience. Kitchen handles death and love, and the agony of personal choice, with vivid, spunky humor and poignancy. As one watches a Yoshimoto character struggle with crisis, the horors of one's own life dwindle into relative insignificance.

Kitchen is actually two tales, "Kitchen" and "Moonlight Shadow". Both include characteristic Yamamoto-esque touches: the transsexual Eriko and the adolescent Hiiragi, who wears his deceased girlfriend's school uniform in mourning. Throughout both is the metaphor of a kitchen, a place to mix foods and unite people in a fellowship of sharing and joy.

Yoshimoto's characters may seem off-base and outrageous, but she handles their lives with care and respect. In "Kitchen", the narrator braves distances and heights to deliver a personal message to her beloved. In "Moonlight Shadow", a lover bids farewell to her deceased beloved through the magic of a freak natural phenomenon. Life may destroy and steal happiness, but it also delivers a way to heal all inner wounds. In the end, a Yoshimoto character is stronger, happier, and more complete for the rigors face

Rating:
Summary: a little gem of a book
Review: The first thing I thought about this book was that it reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's work. Not because he's also a japanese writer, but because their style is extremely similar. Does it have to do with japanese literary style? I'd love to learn more about authors like Ishiguro & Yoshimoto...Right now, all I know is that I've discovered (although a little late! ... since "Kitchen", Yoshimoto's first work, was published quite a few years ago...)one more favourite author.

"Kitchen", as you've read in most of the other reviews, has 2 parts. Some reviewers thought that "Moonlight shadow" (second part) didn't have a place in the book, at least not as much as the first part. The thing is, "Moonlight shadow" is so mesmerizing that if it had been put first in the book, readers would probably be wanting it to last more, & "Kitchen" to be excluded! What I'm trying to say is that both parts of the book are equally good, & both share the same main subject: that subject is loss.

Food and, for that matter, the kitchen, are offered as a means for consolation. The young heroine in the first part of the book only can fall asleep, after her grandmother dies, while lying next to the refrigerator, listening to its humming which comforts her. Food, friends (as the woman in "Moonlight Shadow"), heartfelt conversations, music...all these can help. But if after finishing Banana Yoshimoto's book you still feel there's no immediate & clean-cut solution to the problems presented in the book...well, that to me is what makes "Kitchen" a brilliant piece of literature, & very much true to life. Because there are no "endings", no clean endings in life, it's all continuous, going from good to bad, to mediocre & back again...it's what we make of this process, how we move in time, that matters. And of course...how we learn (or maybe ultimately, never learn) to deal with loss.

After closing the book, a funny thing happened: the wonderful but melancholic music of Mike Oldfield's "Moonlight shadow" kept coming to mind. I was amazed to find that that was what inspired Yoshimoto's short story...

Rating:
Summary: look at things from a different angle...
Review: Banana Yoshimoto--debuting with Kitchen--definitely established herself as not only a good author, but also someone with a FRESH VIEWPOINT. While someone I know has read the book and calls it something like "alienating newism", I believe that Kitchen and indeed most of Yoshimoto's works are a look at a different style.

So much in the world of novels/novellas/short story collections have the same feel. A similar style runs through them all. Everything is written in utmost hopes that it can compete in a competative market. I believe that we as readers may be surprised when a book is new and fresh and react negatively to it because hey, it's new!

I really believe that a book such as Kitchen cannot be rated "subjectively" because it covers material we all claim to be experts at: life, loss, moving on to tomorrow.

And so I must ask everyone wondering whether or not to read Kitchen to do so. It's an incredible and breathtaking book. I finished it in one setting which is rare for me as there always seems to be somethin' else to do. That's the type of book it is: engrossing, CRISP (not simple by any means), and real. No book shows raw human emotion with such passion, clarity, and such ease.

Yoshimoto calls the work her virgin offering and she never tells the reader "this is a huge work". It's simple, short, and incredibly insightful all at the same time. Read it. It's good. Tell em I sent you.

Banana Yoshimoto has a gift. She can see within herself and within others and tell what music our souls make. She can tell us something about ourselves we may not have stopped to consider. If you're a writer and you want a look at a style of writing that, once read, will inspire your writing style as well, pick up Kitchen.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful Kitchen
Review: Oh I love this book!! I've finally found someone who is as obsessed by food as I am. Not about the eating itself, but that you eat the perfectly right thing when you do it. Good food makes you happy. A good kitchen also makes you happy. That was the first thing about it that I fell for.

The other thing was the rest of the story besides the love for food. I felt enlightened and peaceful and sad and happy, at the same time. Life, love, loss of love, it's all here. I read it on the bus to work and it was really hard to put away the book when I got there. I'm definitely going to read Yoshimotos other books!

Rating:
Summary: A cup of tea is very healing!
Review: When my friend Mini sent me this gift, I wanted to immediately loose myself in the pages. I kept thinking it was truly a book I would want to read all in one sitting. I wanted to curl up on a couch and have my two cats sleeping at my feet. How right I was.

Once I started reading, (my husband sound asleep upstairs, cats sleeping at my feet, and the house deathly quiet except for the quiet humming of the refrigerator), I was immediately drawn into Mikage Sakurai's world.

Banana Yoshimoto uses luscious descriptions of food and kitchens. She describes people and places with such poignancy, you truly feel connected to them. Her thoughts burst onto each page with such honesty, you cannot help but fall in love with her innocent, charming writing style.

There are life and death issues in "Kitchen," we can all relate to. Her evocative writing will fill you with nostalgia for some of the cooking spaces you have perhaps left behind. Mostly I love my grandmother's kitchen best. The familiar creak of the oven door, the scooting sound of the chairs as we sit for a cup of tea, and the racks of cookbooks patiently waiting on the shelves.

To imagine this kitchen without my grandmother, is to imagine the entire house without a soul, without love, and without peace. When we almost lost my grandmother once to a heart attack, I stood in her kitchen and felt the emptiness. I was not ready to loose her, and I believe I never will be.

This is the emotion Mikage feels as she sleeps on the floor in her grandmother's kitchen. After loosing her grandmother, Mikage is lost, lonely and depressed. Her soul longs for the comfort of another soul who can understand her torment. She feels as though death surrounds her and she cannot escape.

For a time she finds happiness with Yuichi, who knew her grandmother well. He is living with his mother Eriko. Mikage goes to live with them until she can learn to handle her emotions.

Yuichi's girlfriend is not impressed, even though the relationship is purely platonic on the surface. Deep within their souls they are soon to become twins, bearing the scars of a common life experience.

Banana Yoshimoto's writing is fresh, real and casts a spell on the reader. I would have preferred the book to end on page 105. She does truly seize hold of your heart and I wanted the book to either end or I wanted one more chapter in place of Moonlight Shadow. I found the second book did not belong with the beautiful yet somewhat unfinished story of Yuichi and Mikage. I think you will agree. In fact, I suggest that when you get to page 105, you close the book and come back later to read the second story.

I find her writing to be most inspirational when she has fully developed her characters. In the future, I hope she will write one story per book and make them as memorable as Kitchen. To truly appreciate this book, you must love food and kitchens, that is the magic.

Rating:
Summary: Fresh air
Review: Yoshimoto has a minimalist, haiku-like prose style in this, her first novel. "Kitchen" is charmingly simple and yet touches the depths of human suffering as well as stirring in a few cups of joyous experience. Mikage Sakurai loves kitchens and has lost the last of her family. From there embark into this most excellent novel and when you turn the last page of "Kitchen", the urge to start again at page one, to keep contact with these characters, simmers inside you.... "The place I like best in this world is the kitchen." Appended at the end of the novel "Kitchen", like a mint after a fine meal, is the short story "Moonlight Shadow". This is a nice story, but it is not of the same calibre as "Kitchen". In "Kitchen", Yoshimoto provides a recipe for fresh air in the often staid literary world.