When Kitchen was first released in Japan in 1988, it caused such a stir that the media frenzy around Yoshimoto was dubbed “Bananamania” (Lee, 2014). The work won both the Kaien Newcomer Writers Prize and Izumi Kyoka Literary Prize (Lee, 2014), and Yoshimoto, in my opinion, deserved it as Kitchen beautifully delivered the tale of love and loss.
The story follows Mikage, a young woman struggling to deal with the recent death of her grandmother. Now all alone in the apartment she grew up in, Mikage decided to sleep in the place she loves most, the kitchen, with the hum of the refrigerator protecting her from thinking of her loneliness. Damn. I can really sympathize with Mikage as I too deal with this problem: your mind going places in silence. It's absolutely terrifying what the brain can do to you, really. We're basically living with a professional gaslighter just chilling behind them skull. Oh yeah, I actually sleep with my Echo Dot playing Space Deck as a defensive measure. White noise for the win. It also helps with insomnia, so give it a try. Mikage, however, won't be needing any Echo Dots as she's got mama Eriko and Yuichi to look after her! ( ^w< )uwu
The novel, however, took a dark turn after reaching Full Moon. Yuichi was severely depressed due to mama Eriko's sudden death (this transition somewhat reminds me of Final Fantasy XV and how buying DLCs is the only way you can comprehend what actually happened). At this point, he has no one to count on but Mikage, but Mikage herself was struggling with feeling alienated and, for the lack of better word, aimless. The two had a huge wall separating them, and this dynamic somewhat reminded me of Murakami’s absolute despair of a novel Norwegian Wood. Kitchen, however, managed to reach a happy ending because both Mikage and Yuichi are willing to accept help, whereas Naoko had already given up from the very beginning. The two managed to appreciate life precisely because of death; the death of their loved ones and the upcoming death that they’re going to face god knows when. My favorite part though, was Mikage’s “Ah, but the moon was lovely” (p. 99). This novel really called me single in every way possible.
References:
Lee, A. (2014, January 11). Kitchen. The Japan Times. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2014/01/11/books/book-reviews/kitchen/
Yoshimoto, B. (2006). Kitchen (M. Backus, Trans.). Grove Press.
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