02/11/2020 - 02/11/2020
This is a reread, but I read this last quarter on my bus ride to class. It was an assigned text for my Women In Literature course, and my professor really wanted to discuss the transgender portrayal. It's a very slice of life novel, and if that is not something you are interested in, then you likely won't like the story because it well embodies that. As a non-cisgendered person myself, I had issues with how transgender identity was portrayed. However, due to this being translated, I can see that possibly the terminology was just pushed around. The depiction came off to me as someone pretending to be a different gender rather than someone who simply is trans. She's a wonderful character, but her portrayal bothered me so much that it was difficult to enjoy this book much. The story itself feels stagnant, which I think was intentional but still made me uneasy.
On the positive side, I really appreciated the in-depth explorations of grief. I've been very fascinated with how other people cope with loss due to my own experiences, so I have been looking for books that go through that theme.
Synopsis
Banana Yoshimoto's novels have made her a sensation in Japan and all over the world, and Kitchen, the dazzling English-language 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.
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