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A review by amyvl93
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This seems to be a very well-loved novella, but it didn't really work for me. <i>Kitchen</i> follows our narrator who after the loss of her Grandmother who has raised her, is taken in by a friend and his parent to help her get through her grief.
Grief is well explored within this novel - and we experience two different deaths within the book both of which impact on our protagonist. There's also plenty of meditation in here around the power of cooking and of food in creating moments of togetherness, openness and healing.
However, there's also some things in this that made me go...huh. I am not sure if this is due to Yoshimoto's original prose or the translation, but our protagonists voice felt unbearable twee and over the top - with lots of gasping, explanations and exclamation points when the situation really didn't require it. There is also a 'romance' of sorts introduced into the novel which I found to be both unnecessary and too insta-love for my taste.
It is also worth nothing that this novel's depiction of trans people is quite behind the times - the novella was originally written in the late 1980s, and the way the character is written about and discussed by characters in very of that time.
Grief is well explored within this novel - and we experience two different deaths within the book both of which impact on our protagonist. There's also plenty of meditation in here around the power of cooking and of food in creating moments of togetherness, openness and healing.
However, there's also some things in this that made me go...huh. I am not sure if this is due to Yoshimoto's original prose or the translation, but our protagonists voice felt unbearable twee and over the top - with lots of gasping, explanations and exclamation points when the situation really didn't require it. There is also a 'romance' of sorts introduced into the novel which I found to be both unnecessary and too insta-love for my taste.
It is also worth nothing that this novel's depiction of trans people is quite behind the times - the novella was originally written in the late 1980s, and the way the character is written about and discussed by characters in very of that time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Transphobia, and Grief