Book review: Tsugumi by Banana Yoshitomo
May. 10th, 2005 07:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterBanana Yoshitomo is one of my mainstream favorites (along with Haruki Murakami - sensing a trend here? ^_~). One day I dug Lizard, her short-story collection, out of the bottom shelf at Empik, and fell in love. Since then I've read NP and of course Kitchen, and Amrita's lying here and haunting me, with the bookmark in the second chapter since I came back from Ireland.
But for now, let's talk Tsugumi. Amazon tells me that the English title is Goodbye Tsugumi, which is interesting in a way I can't talk about without mentioning spoilers.
On the surface, it's two girls (or three, or three girls and a boy, or any combinations thereof) during the last summer of their teenage-hood. But Banana, in her quiet way, manages to convey depth and emotion through the simplest scenes. This is not so much Japanese as universal, a story that could happen anywhere, though I guess the Japanese setting helps the air of fleeting time and finality.
And most of all, this story is about Tsugumi. She's larger than life, a bright flame that draws everyone. She doesn't do much remarkable, but we see how she influences people. The way define themselves through her shows us how compelling she is.
It's a book that's hard to describe, but easy to recommend: read it. It's 150 pages in the Polish edition, 190 for the English one, and a single afternoon on a train. And it's lovely. Did I mention that already?
But for now, let's talk Tsugumi. Amazon tells me that the English title is Goodbye Tsugumi, which is interesting in a way I can't talk about without mentioning spoilers.
On the surface, it's two girls (or three, or three girls and a boy, or any combinations thereof) during the last summer of their teenage-hood. But Banana, in her quiet way, manages to convey depth and emotion through the simplest scenes. This is not so much Japanese as universal, a story that could happen anywhere, though I guess the Japanese setting helps the air of fleeting time and finality.
And most of all, this story is about Tsugumi. She's larger than life, a bright flame that draws everyone. She doesn't do much remarkable, but we see how she influences people. The way define themselves through her shows us how compelling she is.
It's a book that's hard to describe, but easy to recommend: read it. It's 150 pages in the Polish edition, 190 for the English one, and a single afternoon on a train. And it's lovely. Did I mention that already?
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-10 07:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-10 08:27 am (UTC)BTW, did you see my next post? That's the fashion shoot I was unable to find for you before :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-05-10 10:14 pm (UTC)And yes I did! I'll have to poke at it later when I'm not busy, but I'm happy see there are more photos for me to poke at :P