A review by lgpiper
The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto

4.0

This book is somewhat mystical and very introspective. None-the-less, it's quite good. It's written from the perspective of Chihiro, a mural painter. She likes to spend time looking out her window. Eventually she notices that a young may across the way also spends rather a lot of time looking out of his window. They begin a friendship by nodding/giving little waves, which then leads to occasional meetings in the street. As time progresses, the young man, a student named Nakajima, begins visiting in the evenings and eventually moves in. Over time, the previous life experiences of each is revealed, including some rather dark traumas which have colored their lives. The traumas are revealed to some extent, when they visit a lake on which a mystical brother and sister live in a hovel. It seems that once upon a time, Nakajima also lived there with his mother.

Interesting to me, at least, one recurring theme in the lives of both Chihiro and Nakajima is their having recently lost their mothers. That was also a theme in the play my spouse and I saw, Mauritius, during the time I was reading this book. Having just lost my own mother, I thought these two coincidences rather weird. Perhaps someone was hoping these works might help me to begin confronting my own loss.