Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

10 reviews

risemini's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

james1star's review

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I picked this up as a ‘blind date with a book’ and was pleasantly impressed. It’s quite a strange one consisting of two short stories (the first split into two parts so three chapters in total), the first about a young woman Mikage who recently lost her sole family member, her grandmother. Yuichi who knew her grandmother asks Mikage round with the possibility of moving in wi yh him and his mother Eriko, who’s a trans woman. The second story follows Satsuki who recently lost her high school lover of four years Hitoshi as she tries to look to the future. Out running she meets a strange woman called Urara who says a once in a hundred year event will take place, Hitoshi’s you get brother Hiiragi is another strange but lovable character we meet. 

The prominent motif throughout is grief, the many forms and how it impacts oneself. This sensation is heavily explored and Yoshimoto does a great job at realising these characters and thus how they’re impacted by the death of loved ones. Her storytelling isn’t particularly imaginative but is very real and flows well. The characters are for the most part loveable but what’s done best is how we’re attached to them as a reader in an emotional way. Some sentences maybe went on too long with many passages but her nuance/craft could’ve been lost in translation. Being written in 1988, I thought the inclusion of a transgender character was rather ‘modern’ and greatly appreciated, Yoshimoto’s work was hailed as very contemporary in Japan so this is great. That being said, some parts made me a little uncomfortable where there’s an emphasis played on Eriko (and later Chika)’s ‘masculine’ features, with some outdated terms like ‘transsexual’ with deadnaming and Yuichi has a ‘she was/is a man’ ideology. But this was about it and overall I was impressed by this book. It’s not a favourite but definitely decent and one I’d recommend, the author does an amazing job at making grief a very real and important emotion. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

recycled_personalities's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? No

3.0

Progressive for it’s time. Seen through a mordent lens, it could be better in its representation. Great examination of grief.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jamieruwen's review

Go to review page

hopeful reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Very gorgeous. Yoshimoto's prose is delicate, touching, uncomplicated and deeply emotional. One of the most sincere displays of grief, hope, and food I've read so far. 

I hope this one day gets a more careful translation - I feel the language barrier somewhat stilted the emotional depth of the prose. Yes, Eriko is pretty frequently misgendered but I could not feel malice towards trans people in Kitchen, just like... it from late 80s Japan, what do you expect?
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

zannayo's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My own love for this work snuck up on me as I read on. The themes explored within these two stories could easily have been overwhelmingly sad, but there was always enough hopeful lightness. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

freckled_frog_boi's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

I loved the writing style and how she described simple moments was absolutely delicious to read. However, as a trans person, the writing surrounding trans characters was horrible and openly transphobic. The characters love their friends who are trans women but out them, and call them men, make jokes about them being masculine, and are constantly reminding themselves and others that they are still men. The trans characters themselves are beautiful and I wished they were treated better. Also, there is a weird phenomenon where transness is treated like mental decline when faced with grief(?) which was weird and unsettling. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sarah984's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

"Kitchen" contains two novellas about recovering from the death of a loved one, and helping others cope with loss. Both stories were sweet and melancholy. However I did want a little more from the titular story (it dwelled a little too long on the will they won't they romantic relationship stuff and the most interesting character had way too little page time) and both stories are a bit weird about gender (which is sort of understandable since this was originally published in the 80s).
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sydneybedell's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

miaaa_lenaaa's review

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The ultimate heartbreak cure

<SPOILERS>
-
-
-
-
-
-
‘I watched the rows of windows in the tall building across the street from the bus stop, suspended, emitting a pretty blue light. The people moving behind those windows, the elevators going up and down, all of it, sparkling silently, seemed to melt into the half-darkness.’


‘“It’s cold!” I exclaimed. “Yuichi, it’s cold, cold, cold!” I buried my face in his arm, gripping it fiercely. His warm sweater smelled like autumn leaves.’


‘Who is it we have such little choice? We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated- defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Still, to cease living is unacceptable. Tonight, again, i felt the darkness hindering my breathing. In my heavy, depressed sleep, I battled each demon in turn.’


‘The forlornness I had felt in relation to Yuichi since hearing about Eriko’s death was linked with the idea of ‘telephone’. Since then even when he was standing next to me, I had felt as if Yuichi were in some other world, at the other end of a telephone line. And that other world was darker than the place where I was. It was like the bottom of the sea… His words sounded far away, travelling over the cable, through the night.’


‘Look at you, I thought. Thanks to a sudden whim, here you are hanging from a roof, planting white puffs of breath. You’ve really outdone yourself this time.’

‘Then I became aware of the heavy atmosphere in the room. I felt that I was inside Yuichi’s nightmare, and that if I stayed here too long I, too would become part of it, destined to be snuffed out in the gloom.’

‘It was the kind of frozen morning in which moon shadows seem to be pasted on the sky. The sound of my footsteps resonated in the silent blue air and faded away into the emptiness of the streets.’

‘For waving goodbye, I thank you.’
Expand filter menu Content Warnings

demo's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
More...