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Title: Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto, Michael Emmerich ISBN: 0-8021-3991-4 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.08 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Lovely Writing That's Seemingly Effortless
Comment: When I read KITCHEN a few years ago, I fell in love with the writing of Banana Yoshimoto. It's fluid, seemingly effortless and totally without pretense of any kind. Although Banana Yoshimoto's books seem to be written for people in their early to mid-twenties, if you're older (even quite a bit older) don't let the "youthfulness" of Yoshimoto's books keep you away from them. They are centered around beautiful and timeless themes and emotions that any adult, regardless of his or her age, can easily relate to. If you're not so young anymore, then the book will be all that more poignant, causing you to revisit the emotions and uncertainties you had in your youth.
GOODBYE TSUGUMI, which I liked slightly less than KITCHEN (but this doesn't mean it's an inferior book, by any means) is narrated by Maria Shirakawa, a nineteen-year-old girl whose parents aren't married. Well, not to each other, at least. Maria's father is married, but not to Maria's mother. Maria lives with her mother and her mother's family in a village by the sea. Maria definitely doesn't mind being a "love child." In fact, she thinks the whole idea is kind of romantic, something that only adds to her very lovable quirkiness.
The book centers around a bittersweet summer Maria spends with her cousin, Tsugumi Yamamoto, before Maria and her mother move to Tokyo and Maria begins college. Tsugumi is nothing at all like Maria. Maria is sweet, Tsugumi is bitter. Maria is kind, Tsugumi is malicious. Maria is generous, Tsugumi is selfish. Maria is innocent, Tsugumi is spoiled. Maria is healthy, in body and in spirit, Tsugumi is an invalid. Maria isn't perfect...she gets angry with Tsugumi at times, but she does love her and, I think, she understands her.
The plot of GOODBYE TSUGUMI revolves around the relationship between Maria and Tsugumi and the summer they spend at Tsugumi's family's seaside inn. Tsugumi's family intends on closing the inn and moving to the mountains, so this will be the last summer Maria can ever spend there. And, when Tsugumi becomes too involved with her first love, Kyoichi, it might mean Tsugumi's last summer...period. The plot might sound simple-and simplistic-but it is anything but. In fact, when things really get going, they tend to drift into the bizarre...but just a bit...and Yoshimoto's writing is so beautiful and so believable that I think she could write about anything at all and still make us care.
Banana Yoshimoto's characters are all individuals and they are all very much alive. No cardboard cutouts here. It's easy to like them because we know them and Yoshimoto does such a good job of bringing out the universal in them that it's easy to empathize with them even if, like Tsugumi, they don't always have the sweetest of personalities.
I know several people who dismiss Banana Yoshimoto as "too sweet," "too sentimental," or even "too juvenile." To me, she's none of these things. She's artless. She's honest. She's ingenuous and sincere. I've never read writing like hers. Every time I read one of her books, I feel I know myself a little better and I come away from the book feeling better about everything...the world, the people who inhabit it, myself, life in general. That's the effect Banana Yoshimoto has on readers.
While I think KITCHEN is a slightly better book than GOODBYE TSUGUMI, I would still recommend this book to anyone...young or not so young. It won't cure all your problems, but whatever those problems are, Banana Yoshimoto will take the sting out them...at least a little bit, for a little while.
Rating: 3
Summary: Banana--split
Comment: I read Yoshimoto's Kitchen, which I loved, and Amrita, and I could not get beyond page 20, and this fell somewhere in between. The story hinges on the relationship of Maria and her cousin, Tsugumi whose behavior becomes out of control, but apparently forgiven because of her chronic unnamed illness. Maria lives in a seaside inn with her mother, aunt, and cousins until her father brings mother and Maria to Tokyo. Maria moves back just for the summer, and eventually we get to Goodbye, Tsugumi. The plot was so-so, but the dialog hurt the most, often to the point where it felt jarring. I always like to give Yoshimoto's books a whirl, maybe it's because of that Banana as a first name. She is worth reading, so try her first novel, Kitchen, if you want a better sample.
Rating: 4
Summary: Searching For A Simile
Comment: I've been trying all day to come up with a simile to describe the neat, simple elegance of Banana Yoshimoto's writing, and I think I've finally found one!
It's like reading out of a bento box.
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Title: Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto, Michael Emmerich ISBN: 0802138209 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 09 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto ISBN: 0671880187 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1994 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: AMRITA by Banana Yoshimoto ISBN: 0671532855 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: NP by Banana Yoshimoto ISBN: 0671898264 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto ISBN: 0671532766 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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