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Jason Pettus's Reviews > Kitchen
Kitchen
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Oh, let's face it; I love everything Banana Yoshimoto's ever written! But that said, she's not for everyone; she's a minimalist storyteller, at least in my opinion, able to turn the emotional state of the right reader with the flick of just one beautiful perfect phrase, but only if you're ready to catch that beautiful perfect phrase and appreciate it for what it is. Give up on this review yet? Then you shouldn't be reading Yoshimoto! Actually consisting of two novellas, Kitchen (named after the better of the two) is the story of 1990s urban life in Japan, full of quirky postmodern characters right at the beginning of an age where the Web let everyone on the planet understand that. If you liked the movie "Amelie," you'll love the sparse, haunting story of a hurt woman being told here, who slowly learns to trust the world again through the relative warmth of urban kitchens; like I said, the finale can be heartbreaking if you let it. Oh, just read any of Yoshimoto's books, seriously!
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
July 9, 2007
– Shelved
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Mike
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rated it 4 stars
Feb 12, 2015 05:13PM
I was going to say great review but then it was more of an endorsement/ recommendation. Anyhow it was good.
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I also was reminded of Amelie when reading Kitchen. It has the same degree of kookiness.
You said Amelie, I said add to 'to-read list'
I agree with your review. Some of the sentences here moved me. The last paragraph had me feeling wistful, hopeful, sad and joyful. This is life. This book is simply about real life, real emotions, real confusion. I loved it.
I didn't make the connection with Amelie until I read your review, and now I understand even more why I loved this book. As you said, the beautiful phrases make a simple story mesmerizing. I found myself reading those phrases at least twice to taste the feelings and meanings behind them.
