Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

The main character of this Yoshimoto book is quite similar to all of her novels: a young, modern Japanese woman who has endured great trauma but manages to keep an open heart to the world despite it. A lot of tragedy besets the particular narrator of this book, Sakumi; before it even begins her father and then sister have passed away and she has had an accident that causes her brain damage. Despite the heavy scene that sets up, this novel is breezy and fantastical. It may be about family and loss but it's also about youth, traveling, love, and magic. It abounds with mystical powers, ghosts, mind reading, and unexplained events. It's true magical realism, in the vein of Salman Rushdie or her modern Japanese peer Haruki Murakami. But Amrita is much more feminine and warm than either of those authors works. Although there are fantastical elements it's still normal life that she is concerned with.

Yoshimoto strong suit is perfectly describing moments...eating street food late at night with the narrator's pre-teen brother, listening to a friend sing at a bar, waking up in the morning in a strange room. She loves the moments in which you might stop to record in your mind exactly what's around you for a beautiful and brief second. A large section of the book is taken up by a vacation to the tropical island of Saipan. She perfectly captures the contrast between a slow island culture in which past, future, and present seem to be the same thing; and then the narrator's metropolitan life which seems busy for no reason.

This is definitely Yoshimoto's most experimental novel. That may not be saying much considering how sparse the prose in her other novels is, but Amrita jumps in time and place quite often. She's purposefully lost the sharp editing of Kitchen. The book is quite long and suffers a little from the narrator's constant analyzing of her state of mind. Occasionally the thoughts directly contradict themselves so much that it resembles an unedited journal entry. I also can't help but feel like the translation is a little clunky in these parts; something just isn't coming across. I couldn't fault anyone for becoming weary with the writing for that reason, but once I accepted the uninterrupted flow I became really comfortable with Sakumi's voice.

Many big events do happen in the book, but is also leaves the reader with the feeling that nothing has happened, that this book is simply one big loop through the circular patterns of a life. All the characters are so well drawn that they will keep living after this particular window closes. That's great fiction.