![]() ![]() This is a supremely hopeful book, one that feels important because it shows that happiness, while not always easy, is still a subject worthy of art. These stories made me believe again that it was possible to write honestly, rigorously, morally, about the material reality of characters to write toward human warmth as a reaffirmation of the bonds that tie us together. Even at their loneliest, these characters are a part of something, whether a relationship, a friendship, a family, a workplace, a society, a world. As they are spring flowers, they indicate new life and rebirthexactly what is happening to Mikage. The spiky fictions of Anglophone literature of the past decade - staked on the idea of passivity as agency within a violent, dystopian, capitalist hellscape - are cutting and observant but sometimes they leave the reader wondering: When can books be warm again? When can we have feelings again? Yoshimoto’s protagonists go out and act, they feel, they express, even if only to themselves. Kitchen study guide contains a biography of Banana Yoshimoto, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. They also resemble, in their awkward but striking agency, the characters of Alice Munro’s best short stories about young womanhood, by turns comedic, sad and aching for connection. ![]() ![]() Yoshimoto’s lonely women have more in common with the bachelor characters of, say, Bernard Malamud or Leonard Michaels or Haruki Murakami. Her acclaimed stories, novels and essays have. In Mama! - one of the most brilliant stories I’ve ever read - Mimi, a publishing company employee, is poisoned by a disgruntled co-worker. She is the author of Kitchen, N.P., Lizard, Amrita, Asleep and Goodbye Tsugumi. ![]()
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