Kitchen (novel)
| Kitchen | |
|---|---|
 1st edition (Japanese) |
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| Author(s) | Banana Yoshimoto |
| Original title | キッチン |
| Translator | Megan Backus |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Publisher | Fukutake Shoten |
| Publication date | 1988 |
| Published in English |
1993 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 226 |
| ISBN | 4828822526 |
| OCLC Number | 25676042 |
| Dewey Decimal | 895.6/35 20 |
| LC Classification | PL865.O7138 K5813 1993 |
| Preceded by | None |
| Followed by | English: NP (novel) |
Kitchen （キッチン）is a novel written by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto (吉本ばなな）in 1988 and translated into English in 1993 by Megan Backus.
Although one may notice a certain Western influence in Yoshimoto's style, Kitchen is still critically recognised as an example of contemporary Japanese literature; The Independent, The Times and The New Yorker have all reviewed the novel favourably.
Most editions also include a novella entitled Moonlight Shadow, which is also a tragedy dealing with loss and love.
There have been two films made of the story, a Japanese TV movie in 1989 and a more widely released version produced in Hong Kong by Yim Ho in 1997.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In Kitchen, a young Japanese woman named Mikage Sakurai struggles to overcome the death of her grandmother. She gradually grows close to one of her grandmother's friends, Yuichi, from a flower shop and ends up staying with him and his transgender mother, Eriko.
From Mikage's love of kitchens to her job as a culinary teacher's assistant to the multiple scenes in which food is merely present, Kitchen is a short window into the life of a young Japanese woman and her discoveries about food and love amongst a background of tragedy.
In Moonlight Shadow, a woman named Satsuki loses her boyfriend Hitoshi in an accident and tells us: "The night he died my soul went away to some other place and I couldn't bring it back". She becomes friendly with his brother Hiiragi, whose girlfriend died in the same crash. On one insomniac night out walking she meets a strange woman called Urara who has also lost someone. Urara introduces her to the mystical experience of The Weaver Festival Phenomenon, which she hopes will cauterise their collective grief.
[edit] Awards
- 6th Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize – November, 1987[1]
- 16th Izumi Kyoka Literary Prize – January, 1988[1]
- 39th Best Newcomer Artists – August, 1988[1]
[edit] Book information
Kitchen (English edition) by Banana Yoshimoto
- Hardcover - ISBN 0-8021-1516-0 published by Grove Press
- Paperback - ISBN 0-671-88018-7 published by Washington Square Press
[edit] External links
- New York Times review
- Kitchen (1989 Japan) at the Internet Movie Database
- Kitchen (1997 Hong Kong) at the Internet Movie Database
