Kitchen

ISBN: 9780571171040
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 1993
150 pgs
Translator: Megan Backus

Thanks to Iliana, I came to know about this book through her recommendations (coincidentally, she also has her review posted. You can find the link at the end of this post).

I had a hard time looking for this book. I dared not even hope I would get it at BookMooch, since there are a number of BookMoochers hoping to get this book too. But a trip to Perth, Australia proved to be more worthwhile as I found it (the only one left) during a visit to Borders.

Anyway, back to Kitchen. What should I say? I am in love with the book. A simple story yet it struck a chord in my heart. The title may give a hint about the story surrounding kitchens (and cooking), but there are something much more than that. It is a moving tale about dealing with losing one's loved ones, grief and then, the simplicity of love.

Mikage Sakurai lost her parents since she was young. Her grandmother is the only person who has brought her up after her grandfather passed away when she was in junior high. So when her grandmother died, she is at a loss. It then dawned on her that everyone around her was no longer around, and this makes her feel very lonely, besides having to bear all the grief herself. But she knew she could not exist like that, doing nothing and moping around, so she pulled herself together and look for another place to stay as the place she stayed with her grandmother is too big and expensive.

Yuichi Tanabe, a young flower shop delivery man who also knew Mikage's grandmother, offers her his place where he shares with his mother. Eriko's mother is an extraordinary "woman". Apart from her cheerfulness and her generosity, she is actually a transvestite and is Yuichi's biological father. How he had became Yuichi's "mother" is another a sad and a complex tale to tell. It had seemed so natural for him being a transvestite after he had lost his wife and funny enough, I do not find it distasteful.

So the three of them live under one roof, although Mikage and Yuichi hardly see Eriko around at home as she owned a club. As the days goes by, Mikage feels closer with Yuichi and Eriko, whom the latter treats her as one of her own children. However, everything changes after Eriko is murdered and it is Yuichi's turn to grieve. And soon Mikage and Yuichi will learn something more about life and death and being there for each other and moving on is what most matters.

Here are a few passages I like:

By Eriko:

"If a person wants to stand on her own two feet, I recommend undertaking the care and feeding of something. It could be children, or it could be house plants, you know? By doing that you come to understand your own limitations. That's where it starts."

"... But if a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is. I'm grateful for it."

By Mikage:

"I had come to understand that despair does not necessarily result in annihilation, that one can go on as usual in spite of it, I had become hardened. Was that what it means to be an adult, to live with ugly ambiguities? I didn't like it, but it made it easier to go on."

There is a novella, Moonlight Shadow, also featured in Kitchen which is another haunting story about loss and acceptance. Like Kitchen, I was captivated by Banana Yoshimoto's prose. I find Moonlight Shadow and Kitchen are very much alike in some ways, whereby life and death are the main issues of the story. However, Moonlight Shadow leaves a bittersweet feeling and reading it had brought tears to my eyes. As much as I love this story, I do not wish to elaborate much as I fear I may not do justice to it. You simply have to read it and understand how I felt, and that is it.

Other blog reviews:

A Striped Armchair

Bookgirl's Nightstand

It's All About Me (Time)

(Let me know if I have missed yours.)