08 Aug / Dead-End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Asa Yoneda [in Booklist]
*STARRED REVIEW
Once upon a time, Banana Yoshimoto (born 1964) debuted as one of Japan’s youngest literary phenoms. In the decades since, she continues to produce brilliantly relevant fiction, notable for an open, accessible simplicity that belies revelatory observations about life, love, happiness, and more.
Her latest collection contains five short stories translated again by Asa Yoneda, who English-enabled Yoshimoto’s novel Moshi Moshi (2016). Each tale features women examining significant relationships, and each involves food-related settings – restaurants, cafeterias, a bar – seeming to suggest emotional needs transformed into something achingly physical.
In “House of Ghosts,” spectral visitors cement the union between soul mates. A case of severe food poisoning in “Mama!” causes the victim to analyze her connection to her fiancé and her long-missing mother. In “Not Warm at All,” a writer recalls her long-ago first love, an “angelic” boy whose tragic fate seems to have prevented her from having close attachments.
An office worker with a five-year crush finally on the verge of reciprocation unexpectedly draws parallels with a teenage assault and her father’s desertion in “Tomo-chan’s Happiness.” In the titular “Dead-End Memories,” a woman’s discovery of her fiancé’s infidelity leads to, well, moments of sheer joy.
Bittersweet yet radiant, poignant yet promising, Yoshimoto once again showcases her dazzling appeal.
Review: “Fiction,” Booklist, July 2022
Readers: Adult
Published: 2003 (Japan), 2022 (United States)