Scan barcode
A review by bakaburg
Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto
Terrible.
Why this?: I'm not sure if I can blame the translation on how much I hated this one. While this edition had some odd issues (some words seemed to be replaced with others, and there were odd spacing/formatting issues,) the work itself just wasn't good. As in, there wasn't anything of value being said.
A lot of the time there were huge blocks of text that made me feel like the narrator was just meandering around instead of telling an actual story. None of the characters seemed to have much depth to them. Tsugumi, is the most unlikeable character in the world. The dialogue is probably worse than something a 12 year old on Neopets roleplay may think up; it felt incredibly dated with no personality to it. Honestly I forgot they weren't in their fifties or something sometimes.
Tsugumi was also infamously mean but no one called her on it despite this? Which was frustrating, I know her life sucked but there wasn't anything likable about her. The only dynamic I enjoyed was Maria and her parents. I think there is actually a very interesting story that could have happened there that revolved around them adjusting to being a full family finally instead of just...the mistress and her daughter.
Anyway, maybe there was something lost in translation but I think I'm over attempting Banana Yoshimoto books unless someone suggests them to me, lol, clearly she just isn't someone whose work translates well. That or I'll wait for a publisher/translator I'm familiar with to revisit her work.
Why this?: I'm not sure if I can blame the translation on how much I hated this one. While this edition had some odd issues (some words seemed to be replaced with others, and there were odd spacing/formatting issues,) the work itself just wasn't good. As in, there wasn't anything of value being said.
A lot of the time there were huge blocks of text that made me feel like the narrator was just meandering around instead of telling an actual story. None of the characters seemed to have much depth to them. Tsugumi, is the most unlikeable character in the world. The dialogue is probably worse than something a 12 year old on Neopets roleplay may think up; it felt incredibly dated with no personality to it. Honestly I forgot they weren't in their fifties or something sometimes.
Tsugumi was also infamously mean but no one called her on it despite this? Which was frustrating, I know her life sucked but there wasn't anything likable about her. The only dynamic I enjoyed was Maria and her parents. I think there is actually a very interesting story that could have happened there that revolved around them adjusting to being a full family finally instead of just...the mistress and her daughter.
Anyway, maybe there was something lost in translation but I think I'm over attempting Banana Yoshimoto books unless someone suggests them to me, lol, clearly she just isn't someone whose work translates well. That or I'll wait for a publisher/translator I'm familiar with to revisit her work.