City News

Kitchen by the author Banana Yoshimoto is a beautifully written story that talks about issues like loneliness. The story begins with the main character Mikage who struggles with the loss of her grandmother. Yuichi Tanabe is the second main character who lost his mother because of cancer and he lives with his mother Eriko Tanabe, a transgender woman.

Mikage struggles with overcoming her grandmother's death - develops a coping mechanism- loving kitchens and cooking. Mikage grows closer to Yuichi from the flower shop and becomes part of their family. Mikage moved in with their family and stayed there for over a course of six months. They all become close, almost like a family. Mikage would prepare meals for them while Yuichi and Eriko would go out for work or school. But, Mikage decides to move out and live on her own while she works as a culinary teacher’s assistant. While Mikage is out of town, Yuichi’s mother was brutally murdered in the club. Mikage reveals that Yuichi is unstable and can't support himself after the tragic death of his only last family member he had. Mikage reveals that Yuichi may be in love with him and goes away to Izu for work to repress their feelings.

Yoshimoto captures the emptiness, sorrow, and sadness experienced by Mikage in a deceptively simple way. And Mikage's grief and depression feel all the more real because of it. While many of Mikage's observations or realizations are not particularly innovative or complex, I found her voice engaging and her inner-monologue breezy.

Yoshimoto manages to imbue ordinary objects and places -for example, the kitchen-with incredible feeling. By paying attention to small details such as the way that sunlight shines through a glass Yoshimoto brings to life seemingly simple moments. Her clear and sparse writing style really lends itself to the depiction of Mikage's grief. In her estrangement from her daily life, Mikage is empowered by small or normal things such as kitchen utensils and or a beautiful dish.

However, there is a second part to the novel and it is called Moonlight Shadow and deals with a woman who loses her boyfriend and she also finds a connection between her cross-dressing boyfriend’s brother who loses his girlfriend both characters go through a ‘happening’ which makes them cope with their situation.

I truly enjoyed this long book about the loneliness and grief of the people you love the most. However, I think that the novel was originally written in Japanese it may have lost some words because of the translation. I do recommend anyone to read it because it kind of makes you feel alive and understand how truly beautiful life is. And the fact that the book is only around 150 pages long makes it a quick read. Even this short book makes such good themes and connections to the real world. I liked how Mikage used her kitchen obsession to cope with the loss of people she loves and creates for herself a new way to live.