I've read translations of Japanese novels by Mishima and Shusaku Endo, and found them worthwhile, so I didn't hesitate to begin Banana Yoshimoto's
Kitchen. It's the story of a woman in her early 20's whose last close relative, her grandmother, dies, leaving her virtually alone in the world. The narrative, only 105 pages, portrays how she deals with such incredible loss. At one point she thinks: "Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time." Overall, the novel isn't as heavy in tone as that sentence implies. The plucky protagonist lives "normally," but cannot help falling into existential musing, such as: "I had become hardened. Was that what it meant to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities?" She finds: "Everyone we love is dying. Still, to cease living is unacceptable." She will not give in to despair: "People are not overcome by situations or outside forces; defeat invades from within." Late in the novel she refers to herself as an "action philosopher." Only the hardest hearts would not root for her. The title refers to her favorite room. She is studying to be a chef. The large paperback Washington Square Press edition I read includes a 41-page story,
Moonlight Shadow, Yoshimoto had written years before. It too is about a young woman dealing with loss. The difference is that it has a supernatural twist. It includes this beautiful passage on the last page: "One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I have yet to meet, others I'll never see again. People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes." Are these works profound or merely simplistic? I tend toward the former, although I felt something was missing, perhaps lost in translation. Translation from Chinese or Japanese literature seems daunting. The reading of symbols rather than letters seems bizarre. Anyway, 164 readers at Amazon have rated
Kitchen, forging to a consensus of 4.2 on a scale of five. First published in the late '80's, it has gone through 60 printings in Japan alone. At last check, it was ranked 14,357th, which is phenomenal given that there are more than 13 million books listed at Jeff Bezos' behemoth. Born in 1964, Yoshimoto has won several literary prizes. She named herself after Banana Flowers, which are edible. Megan Backus did a great service in rendering these two works into English. I was disappointed at not finding any information on her on the web. Here is a layout of an unknown novel in Japanese, which clearly shows how different in style it is from western works:
It seems that America's two major political parties are bent on suicide. The Democrats have tilted way left and embraced the ludicrous assault on statues, and the Republicans are paralyzed by their division into right, center and slightly left factions. Who knows where this is headed?
The Dodgers' Rich Hill, 37, a crafty lefty, had a memorable night in Pittsburgh. He took a perfect game into the ninth when an error allowed a base-runner. He took a no-hitter into the tenth that was broken up by second baseman Josh Harrison, who hit a home run to win it for the Pirates, 1-0... Another lefty was also disappointed last night, in Baltimore. Orioles' closer Zach Britton had saved an American League record 60 straight games. He allowed a run to the A's in the ninth, which tied the game. The O's still managed to win. The major league record is 84 straight saves, accomplished by former Dodger Eric Gagne.
Book donations outpaced sales by a ratio of about 25 to 5 today. The inventory is again ridiculous. Four of the five sales were of books in Russian, the other Zolar's
Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Dreams, all bought by women. My thanks, ladies. Thirsty Dave, lead singer of country swing band Western Caravan, and his wife Candy donated a large box full of good stuff, although half will probably be tough sells, as some are more intellectual challenging than most people seek, or by writers outside the mainstream. Then again, many times I've been surprised by the selections of certain customers. Thank you, Dave & Candy.
No comments:
Post a Comment