I picked up this book because I wanted something different and indeed I found it when reading Kitchen by Japanese writer, Banana Yoshimoto.
It contains two short stories mainly about the loss of loved ones. It deals with the emotions of it all and human relations in a strange way that I am not familiar with which I found intriguing maybe because of the Japanese culture or something got lost in translation.
I became familiar with a new word, nostalgic and nostalgia, it is widely used in this small book. I’m not sure if it was a direct translation of a single Japanese word used originally by the writer or it is the closest translation to different synonyms in Japanese that the author wrote.
It is a very light book and refreshing that I do recommend to read.
#1 by Bashar on December 31, 2009 - 8:07 AM
Kitchen and Banana. Shouldn’t this be about cooking?
#2 by Bloggylife on December 31, 2009 - 9:37 PM
LOL, actually Mikage which is the main character finds comfort and peace in kitchens and she becomes a cook or rather an assistant.
I’m not sure if Banana is the real authors name, because I know Chinese people have two names Chinese and English, it is easier for the outer world to pronounce their names.
YUP her Japanese name is Mahoko Yoshimoto.
link
#3 by Bashar on January 1, 2010 - 9:01 AM
Yeah… i met Korean girl named Maryam
. Her Korean name was … Umm!… It’s a good thing they have two names.
#4 by Bloggylife on January 5, 2010 - 10:07 PM
LOL I know what you mean
but how come there is ‘R’, from my understanding in Chinese they don’t have ‘R’ so they can not pronounce it, maybe in Korean they do.
#5 by Bashar on January 6, 2010 - 12:13 PM
Bloggylife: I didn’t know that.