This slim novel starts when college student Mikage's grandmother dies, leaving our narrator twice orphaned. Her grief and feelings of rootlessness are acute, until a young man, Yuichi, also a student, knocks on her door and invites her to move in with him and his mother.

A strange start. There are layers of grief in this novel. We learn that Yuichi's mother died young, and the person he now calls mother is something else altogether. When that person dies, Yuichi is devastated in a way similar to Mikage's experience, and as he reached out to her, she reaches out to him.

All this is written in a spare, almost innocent style, narrated by Mikage as she absorbs her grief and starts her new life. Cycles repeat themselves, grief and joy alternate, and the value of connection is what matters over all. ( )

I need more books in my life where ramen plays a central role!!! ( )

Moon Shadow Moon Shadow

Translated by Megan Backus
Read by Yolande Bavan

I’ve given Banana Yoshimoto’s pen name because it was the name she gave herself in the 1980s when the book was published. Her birth name is Mahoko Yoshimoto, and the title “Kitchen” was the “borrowed-name” of the book; it was the original title and not translated from Japanese.

The book is divided into two parts, the novel “Kitchen” and the novella “Moonlight Shadow”.

I decided to read Kitchen after discovering it was an instant best seller when it was published in Japan, and I was intrigued by the title and the author’s name. I was expecting from these, a quirky novel, along the lines of some other Japanese books I’ve read.

It’s not quirky at all. Both the novel and the novella embrace the themes of coping with the sudden death of a loved one. Both are optimistic, with the survivors moving forward after periods of mourning.

The prose in both stories come across as choppy in parts. I first thought this was due to the translations, but later read it was the original Japanese. What was interesting about the book was the subtle and tender way it dealt with the emotions of mourning. At times the novella Moon Shadow was extremely touching. This may have been because of my own experience of young love. In any case I liked the novella more than I liked the novel.

There were times of unintended humor. Being a lover of Japanese food it was surprising to read of young people praising meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Here and there there are signs of Western influence in the writing, and this plus the choppiness of the prose takes from the gentle feel Mahoko Yoshimoto engenders so well in the two stories.

If you like Japanese literature, Kitchen delivers a pleasant read. For me Kitchen is a good but not a memorable book and I rated it a nuanced 3.

I have read Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto as a part of the #52booksin52weeks challenge. The book has been written very beautifully, capturing the emotions of the characters. A simple yet brilliant narration. The stories give you a vibe of sadness and hope. My favorite is the second story, which gives a strong message about life. Reading the book was a heartfelt encounter. But I felt that the stories needed completion. They ended abruptly, leaving the reader wanting more.

After reading the book, I think that people should think more positively about life. Depression and loneliness change a human being, and they forget to live their lives. It was a short read, and I finished it within a day. Definitely, the book deserves 4 stars. ( )

Oh, what a delight! There is magic in every sentence. I really love the way Japanese authors (and artists of every kind) find beauty in everyday things. There is so much heartbreak in the pages of Kitchen, yet this is the kind of book that warms your heart. ( )

I ended this book and just said "What?" out loud. The book suddenly switches with no warning into the format of a romance story except with all of the bits which might explain their connection and why they care about each other cut out.

Somehow despite the book being first person I never really developed much of an idea about the main character, except that she's in grief, sort of. The romance interest I have absolutely no clue. He likes her cooking? Even she admits she doesn't really understand him at all.

The most developed character is Eriko, a trans woman who runs a gay club. She insists on taking the main character (Mikage) in at the start of the novel when Mikage's grandmother dies for some vague reason. She mostly gets she pronouns but thankfully the author semi-regularly inserts reminders she's a man so you don't get confused. It's weird cause otherwise it feels like a decent portrayal for 1988 but it's like the author couldn't just leave it be. It's frustrating. ( )

Two short but powerful novellas whose lines are worth savoring slowly. Both are about coming to terms with grief through the power of kindness and love. Miyage and Yuichi are dealing with their respective losses. It is only when they channeled their grief into care and love for each other that the world became a bearable place to live in. ( )

Kitchen consists of a novella and a short story. The novella follows a young woman, Mikage, whose grandmother and last living relative has died. She knows she needs to move to a smaller and less expensive apartment, but grief makes it hard to get anything done. Enter Yuichi, a young man who was friends with her grandmother, who invites her to come live with his mother and him as they have plenty of space. What Mikage is especially drawn to is their well-appointed kitchen, and for awhile they form a new family.

In retrospect I realize that fate was a ladder on which, at the time, I could not afford to miss a single rung. To skip out on even one scene would have meant never making it to the top, although it would have been by far the easier choice. What motivated me was probably that little light still left in my half-dead heart, glittering in the darkness. Yet without it, perhaps, I might have slept better.

The short story, Moonlight Shadow, concerns another young woman. After her lover's death, Satsuki is lost in grief, until an encounter with a stranger encourages her to believe that she will enjoy life again.

Both stories concern characters dealing with grief and sudden death, but are both hopeful and even whimsical in tone. This book manages to be charming without being saccharine. Yoshimoto's characters are well-drawn and the stories have an impact despite their brevity. ( )

There is so much heart in this book. So many emotions. ( )

made me sad and not in a good way. not here for the portrayal of trans women and killing her for the character development of the cis protagonist. ( )

Honestly, a lot of contemporary Japanese fiction leaves me cold. All authors operate in the realm of wish-fulfillment - fiction as an idealized version of the world, so that even the tragedies and hardships have an appealing melancholy sheen. A lot of Japanese authors, from Mishima to Kawabata, are rather self-indulgent in this area. Kitchen strikes me as a more acceptable version of Murakami, in that Yoshimoto allows fetishes to bubble up from her subconscious - food, chaste boyfriends, and gender ambiguity being three - but does not allow these to dominate the tone of the narrative. ( )

È proprio un "librino", questo Kitchen. Si legge in un attimo e non ti lascia quasi nulla, se non quel sapore dolciastro di autocommiserazione melodrammatica che mi pare di poter riconoscere, ora che sono arrivato a leggere due suoi libri (quest'ultimo senz'altro fuori tempo massimo), come il marchio di fabbrica della Banana. ( )

It is not perfect; far, far from it. It's just it's exactly the kind of story I need to read right now. The story is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and it will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

Given that the novel's primary characters are grieving the death of a loved one, it is primarily a series of vignettes that follow them as they go about their everyday lives, so if you like your fiction with a solid story, this isn't the book for you. ( )

This book consists of a novella called Kitchen and a short story called Moonlight Shadow. Of the two, I preferred the latter. Both address the sorrow people contend with after the loss of a loved one, as well as loneliness. Kitchen follows Mikage who loses her last living relative and ends up being taken in by Yoichi and his parent. The novella focuses on the relationship between Mikage and Yoichi and how it grows and changes in the face of loss. Moonlight Shadow also follows a female narrator, Satsuki, who loses her young lover of four years. Although shorter (and involving some magical realism which normally is not my favorite, lol), I felt this story was more powerful. I cared more about the protagonist and her loss felt more acute to me.

Regardless, I had a strong gut feeling that this book lost something in translation. Something about the book comes across as very simple in its use of language, and I'm just guessing here, but I bet in Japanese, there was beauty and power in the simplicity, but in English, it just isn't special. There were places where I thought the author had interesting things to say and that she was thoughtful, but I couldn't help but wish I was reading this one in its native language.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this one, but it's also not a book I'd really go around foisting on others. I'd love to speak with a reader who read this in its original language to hear their reaction to it. I'm betting anything that its much more special.

( )

This was definitely the kind of book you'd like to keep reading for a long time after it's finished. Not really the kind of book I normally go for, but something I really enjoyed. Comforting, peaceful, beautiful. Makes me want to get to know the author better. ( )

i know it probably was bananas intent but the story just felt a tad too disjointed for me. furthermore i feel like the layout of this edition didn't make it clear at all that "moonlight shadow" was a completely seperate story to kitchen and kitchen 2, which was very confusing. i really appreciated the handling of eriko, which felt respectful for the time it was written and region it was written in. this just makes the essay at the end more infuriating (which was written at a later time!), in which the author misgenders eriko throughout. in the end it was simply different than expected, which impacted the level of enjoyment i had reading it. ( )

High 3/ 5

It's like an average slice-of-life anime. Nothing much at the beginning, but leaving you that sweet feeling if you continue it.

My copy includes a short story called "Moonlight Shadow" and in my opinion, it's a much better story.

But, I don't know if it's just because of the bad Indonesian translation leaving out much nuances or anything else. There's many repeated description cliches, but I've seen some pieces of the English translation that convinced me this book may be better than what I had in mind.
(Also, I notice by reading other reviews that Eriko is supposed to work at a club; my copy had the character works at a SHOP. *facepalms*) ( )

A touching and insightful exploration of grief and of overcoming (or moving through and beyond) that grief. ( )

It's a little unappealing for me. I don't think I'm the _target audience for this because I, fortunately, have never lost someone in that way before. Maybe it's the style too. The narration is oversimplified that it makes the narrative seem oversimplified too, to the point that they resemble caricatures of grief instead of realistic characters. Anyway, this is a me problem; other people might like it. ( )

The book starts promising but soon gets stuck on some poorly founded dreamy metaphores about life and death, without ever making a clear or original point. It is a book about normal people, dealing with loss and learning to love life. Themes, that really can sprout some fantastic stories. But shamefully, some semi-poetic sentences are forced into the story but do not lift it in any way. The protagonists aren't unrealistic or over-the-top, instead they are just plain boring. Even the magical stuff, that happens occasionally, is just irritating. No, magical realism tries desperately to catch 'something' higher by adding stuff like that, but ignores the very fact that human life itself is already so mysterious! We do not need mystical women, who tell us 'maybe something big is going to happen'. We do not need to dream the same dreams to know we are connected. Instead, those unrealistic touches feel very forced and only distract the spiritual - but very human - connections that already exist between people. Having just read Anna Karenina, a book that celebrates those relationships - and the same themes this book explores - I feel that 'Kitchen' is trying to be more than it is and could have been. Banana writes pleasantly minimalistic. If she only cut out the spiritual nonsense and would pick some more interesting characters, I think she could write something worth reading. Otherwise, don't waste your time on this book. ( )

The entire book was very melancholy, but it was so sweet. A really short read, I got through it in a matter of days, and I loved it. ( )

Kitchen is two stories (Kitchen and Moonlight Shadow). Both are about two young women grieving the loss of loved ones. It follows how the deaths are playing in their lives and relationships moving forward and what those deaths mean for them.

I did enjoy both stories but there were some places where the writing felt right and beautiful and made me feel the narrator's loss, but then there were places that just seemed... off? I'm sure it's just the translation of it, which I've had problems with in some translated books I've read in the past. Overall I'm not holding it against the book at all. I kept turning the pages and wanted to see the character come out well on the other side. Everyone deals with loss in a different way and these novellas show that. ( )

When was it I realized that, on this truly dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely.

Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time. I've always lived with that knowledge rooted into my being...

A few of things to start: This is not a novel; it's a novella and a novelette with interlocking themes. (I rather like the arrangement and I wish more publishers or authors would consider it.) I had no real notion of what it is, and of course books don't come with content warnings, so the violent death in the middle of the first story was a bit of a shock. (Rather unfortunately, a 'bury your queers' kind of shock.) Finally, the stories were written in 1987 or so, and the transgender issues are tackled about like you'd expect them to be in 1987. (That is to say, with a lot of misgendering of the trans character and no granting of any reality to the transition by the other characters. I don't feel that that is how the author necessarily felt.) None of these were deal breakers for me, but I know they may be for others.

Now, as to actual review. For the first two thirds of the first story, I was sure it was going to be a five star, knock it out of the park read. But then the first story settled into really a rather pedestrian ending, and then the second story was honestly pretty much a mess. (Yes I am aware it received a prestigious award. No I don't understand. No I don't care to.) I'm very glad I read this, for the glowing Eriko and the lovely asides on death and living if nothing else. And I will be trying a few more samplings from Ms. Yoshimoto before I make up my mind. Maybe the greatness will be more apparent to me in another story. Hopefully one without a love triangle. Or a fridging. ( )

i told my friend that i've picked up this book to read. she said she's familiar with it and has actually read it five times already. now i understand why.

its a slice-of-life story (actually, 3 novella's rolled into 1), of people living their daily lives while struggling with immense grief, lost, and loneliness. its a very quiet book, no dramatics, no hysterics, but it packs a wallop. i can definitely see myself re-reading this again. ( )

At times overly optimistic, at times sad and touching. Loved the writing style. Want to go out and get everything shes ever written! ( )