Kitchen is often published alongside yoshimoto s midnight shadow another novella about grief that yoshimoto wrote in 1986 based on a short story she wrote while at her university yoshimoto has published many novels that similarly deal with loss hope and urban alienation including her prize winning novels goodbye tsugumi 1989 and amrita 1994.
Kitchen yoshimoto themes. Check out my musing. Banana yoshimoto s widely acclaimed debut novel kitchen has had over 60 printings in japan since the book s release in 1988. Kitchen キッチン is a novel written by japanese author banana yoshimoto 吉本ばなな in 1988 and translated into english in 1993 by megan backus. Kitchen study guide contains a biography of banana yoshimoto literature essays quiz questions major themes characters and a full summary and analysis.
Although one may notice a certain western influence in yoshimoto s style kitchen is still critically recognized as an example of contemporary japanese literature. Banana yoshimoto is often classified as a purveyor of shojo culture a term that may not be familiar to most readers. The term shojo means girl but in the context of contemporary culture it is specifically about a cultural space that is girls only. Yoshimoto s novel kitchen is about mikage who is bereft and alone when her grandmother passes away.
Kitchen is a tender story involving family and food. Proclaimed to be shadowed by her father takaaki yoshimoto she created her pen name banana yoshimoto.