Kitchen / Banana Yoshimoto

KITCHEN Banana Yoshimoto

Literatur Solasaldiak Tertulias literarias Literary Circle Errenteriako Biblioteka 2022.04.27

Banana Yoshimoto

Banana Yoshimoto is the pen name of Mahoko Yoshimoto, a Japanese contemporary writer.

Along with having a famous father, poet Takaaki Yoshimoto, Banana's sister, Haruno Yoiko, is a well-known cartoonist in Japan.

She graduated from Nihon University's Art College, majoring in Literature. During that time, she took the pseudonym "Banana" after her love of banana flowers, a name she recognizes as both "cute" and "purposefully androgynous."

Despite her success, Yoshimoto remains a down-to-earth and obscure figure. Whenever she appears in public she eschews make-up and dresses simply. She keeps her personal life guarded, and reveals little about her certified Rolfing practitioner, Hiroyoshi Tahata and son (born in 2003). Instead, she talks about her writing. Each day she takes half an hour to write at her computer, and she says, "I tend to feel guilty because I write these stories almost for fun."

Kitchen Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her a sensation in Japan and all over the world, and Kitchen, the dazzling Englishlanguage debut that is still her best-loved book, is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine of Kitchen, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away.

Grieving, she is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who was once his father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale that recalls early Marguerite Duras. Kitchen and its companion story, "Moonlight Shadow," are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.

Reviews “Timeless emotions, elegantly evoked with impressive originality and strength. ” (Kirkus Reviews)

Selected works Works translated into English • Moonlight Shadow (1986) • Kitchen (1988) • Goodbye Tsugumi (1989) • Asleep (1989) • Hardboiled & Hard Luck (1999) • Daisy's Life (2000) • The Lake (2005)

Interesting Links “How the English Language Failed Banana Yoshimoto”, Metropolis: https://metropolisjapan.com/banana-yoshimoto-kitchen/ Literary Podcast (in Spanish, Basque and ENGLISH): https://elrefugiodepapel.com https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-refugio-papel_sq_f1878858_1.html Our coordinator´s blog (ENG/ESP): https://donostiabookclub.blogspot.com