Indeed, when Eriko is suddenly killed, Mikage must not only relive the sense of loss she suffered when her grandmother died but must also try to help Yuichi come to terms with his pain. Yoshimoto's story, a story that turns out not to be a whimsical comedy of manners but an oddly lyrical tale about loss and grief and familial love. It's not long before Mikage learns that Eriko is not really Yuichi's mother she's his father, or was, anyway, before having surgery to become a woman.Īs odd and surprising as Eriko's history first seems, it has very little to do with Ms. Yuichi's beautiful mother, Eriko, runs a nightclub and seems to spend her earnings on appliances: computers and kitchen gadgets, bright shiny things that save time and aggravation. There's something about the kitchen in the apartment he shares with his mother that makes her feel at home. She doesn't want to be alone anymore, and she feels strangely comfortable with this distant young man. Yuichi invites Mikage to come live with him and his mother, and though she barely knows him, Mikage readily agrees. She is rescued by one of her grandmother's friends, a young man by the name of Yuichi Tanabe. When her grandmother abruptly dies, Mikage is left alone in the world and sinks into a spiraling depression. Her narrator, a college student named Mikage Sakurai, is an orphan who has been brought up by her grandmother. Yoshimoto tells is at once familiar and bizarre. Yoshimoto's writing is lucid, earnest and disarming, as emotionally observant as Jane Smiley's, as fluently readable as Anne Tyler's.
Many of the characters' references - to the Peanuts cartoon strip, to Silverstone frying pans and to the sitcom "Bewitched" - are decidedly American, as is their penchant for jogging and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Banana Yoshimoto, the improbably named 24-year-old former waitress who is its author, became a household name.Īs impeccably translated by Megan Backus, "Kitchen" might easily be mistaken for an American story: the only giveaways that the story is set in Japan are the characters' names and all the mentions of arcane Japanese foods. The novella won the prestigious Kaien magazine New Writer Prize, and during a year's stay on the best-seller lists it sold nearly two million copies. When "Kitchen" first appeared in Japan in 1988, it brought its young author instant fame and acclaim. Kitchen By Banana Yoshimoto Translated by Megan Backus.
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