It is not to run away but to chase the dream

Life must go on
Kitchen
By Yoshimoto Banana
Translated by Megan Backus, Washington Square Press, New York, 1988, 152 pages $16.95
Fiction
Argentine Hag
By Yoshimoto Banana
Translated by Fumiya Sawa, Rockin’ on Inc., Tokyo 2002, 152 pages $36
Fiction
Banana Mania website: http://abyss.hubbe.net/banana
Discussion room of Amrita group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amrita/


Reviewed by Nguyen Ha Nguyen

I started thinking about writing this book review on Kitchen and Argentine Hag by Yoshimoto Banana when I was in unbelievably delicious Ramen restaurant in Tokyo, quite small and placed at a position that I bet not many people pay attention to. I was feeling rather stressed on that day, just walking down the empty street until there was a guy from a Ramen restaurant who opened the wooden door and called me in a gentle voice :“You look tired, why don’t you try our ramen?”.

Life is felt happier simply when there is someone opening the door, gives you a place to sit for a while and serves you good food. I love the simple but meaningful message that Yoshimoto sends through the protagonist young woman, Mikage in Kitchen, who is left alone in the world when her grandmother dies, and Mitsuko in Argentine Hag, who lost her mother when she was still very young. Both of them cannot cope with the reality right away and instead, hide themselves in unnamable sadness. Their voices in the books ring so clear and true. Not only does she makes me see the things she sees but feel the things she feels. Some people will say, “Nah, It’s so Yoshimoto Banana. Going around with Love, Death, Loss and cannot move out” (Mensaje83: Robinson P: Apr 3rd 2007, 4:33pm, Discussion room, Banana mania website), and others will find it too shallow and say, “Did anyone wonder whether the deaths in Yoshimoto Banana’s stories were real?” (Maggie, Amrita group website) But I find it different; there are a lot more going on in Yoshimoto’s novels than just scattering philosophical words about how to cope with life

Let me elaborate why I love these books. Kitchen has a character called, Eriko, a father who changed his sex to become the mother of his son Yuichi, a young man who works in Mikage’s grandmother’s favorite florist. Eriko and Yuichi live in a comfortable inner-city apartment with a wonderfully spacious kitchen. Argentine Hag has Yuri, a middle-aged woman dubbed as “Argentine Hag” by local kids, who always wears thick makeup and flamboyant clothes. Yuri lives in an old house, almost a ruin with a beautiful garden on its roof top . At the first sight, both Eriko and Yuri look very strange and unfamiliar, but they are the key figures who will light a fire in the protagonists’ heart with their tremendous generosity and sympathy.

Here, Eriko/Tanabe or Yuri appeared as the keys light the live fire in one’s heart by showing their sympathy otherwise simply giving a hug even they are still as a stranger to Mikage/ Mitsuko. They offer a space of comfort such as Eriko’s kitchen and sofa, and Yuri’s garden roof, which are the doors to the past and the future, through which the protagonists of Yoshimoto can go forward. I quote the passages which explain that space below:

Then I stumbled over to the sofa that was to be my bed for the night and turned out the lamp…Wrapped in blankets, I thought how funny it was that night, too, here I was sleeping next to the kitchen. I smiled to myself. But this time I wasn’t lonely […] (Kitchen, pg 16)

I loved Tanabe’s sofa as much as I loved their kitchen. I came to crave sleeping on it. Listening to the quiet breathing of the plants, seeing the night view through the curtains, I slept like a baby. There wasn’t anything more I wanted. I was happy. (Kitchen, pg 22)

The everyday life I belonged to was on the other side of the world, so far away; a world with cars running, houses lined up, the big supermarket, the hustle and bustle of daily miscellaneous affairs. It was oh so quiet. Once inside, everything was so calm. Then I thought I sort of understood why my Dad had been staying here. (Argentine Hag, pg 51)

A long life had been lived, and had naturally withered away in the Argentine Building. It is a house with a history, and its unique glorious world lives on. I thought that this rundown building looked like a tombstone when I went there for the first time. But now I see it differently, the Argentine Building has enclosed old dreams and yet still lives on. (Argentine Hag, pg119)

The term the door is repeated again and again from Kitchen to Argentine Hag – it spans twenty years between them – as a question waiting for an answer from the protagonists. There are times when the cold and ruthless door shuts in front of their eyes making them feel they are all alone in this world, or when Yuichi knocks on Mikage’s door and offers to let her stay with him and Eriko. Towards the end of Kitchen Mikage takes a famous katsudon dish to Yuichi, climbing over the sharp rocks with bleeding wounds on her arms only to knock Yuichi’s window to bring him comfort. The message is delivered; even when we are down and troubled, when we are served a good food, life can be felt happier.

“Why is it that everything I eat when I’m with you is so delicious?” said, Yuichi “Could it be that you’re satisfying hunger and lust at the same time?”

“No way, no way, no way.” He said, laughing. “It must be because we’re family.”



In Argentine Hag, when Mitsuko knocks on the door of Yuri’s house and receives a surprisingly warm welcome from Yuri, she feels the wind of life on her face.

“Do you know why people make ruins?”

“I don’t know. May be because they want to leave a trace behind?”

“It’s a wish that we don’t want people we love to die, we want this day to last forever […]Looking down from far above, this wish is seen as beautiful grains of light, glittering like a necklace, so beautiful it even attracts gods of envy”, Yuri said. (Argentine Hag, pg135)

Flowers die to bloom more beautifully again. Both Kitchen and Argentine Hag could be called a reflection of a cat finding the beauty of soul, the warmth in human’s life. We can easily find the typical character in any other Yoshimoto Banana’s work: those who are trying to overcome loneliness, caused by the death of their loved ones, … and their passion which is found in a simple life, the sympathy for others and the beauty of love, which save their soul. . The characters in her stories are ordinary people, who have no lofty idealism or ambition. Yoshimoto warms her characters by sharing their innermost feelings which are simple but meaningful in the human relationship. And there is the other thing; the characters in her stories always try to find a door to knock on, through which they find the brighter way to go on and look forward, as we see much clearer in Argentine Hag than in Kitchen.

Finished my delicious Ramen, I was met with the melody of the song “You’ve got a friend” by Carol King:

If the sky above you
Should turn dark and full of clouds
And that old north wind should begin to blow
Keep your head together and call my name out loud
And soon I will be knocking upon your door […]

Ain’t it good to know you’ve got a friend.
You’ve got a friend.

“Yoshimoto Banana, high literature or pleasure readings?” You can find your own answer after reading Kitchen and Argentine Hag.