Banana yoshimoto biography

When I first read and reviewed Banana Yoshimoto’s seminal work, Kitchen, I mentioned how it tackled ‘the brevity of life, and the dangerous potential of love and happiness to be painfully fleeting’.

This theme is not only true for Kitchen but for all of Yoshimoto’s writing. It is, in a nutshell, what makes her tick as an author.

Born in Tokyo in , Yoshimoto was raised in a liberal and forward-thinking household by a father who himself was a well-renowned artist: the poet, philosopher, and literary critic, Takaaki Yoshimoto.

Here’s our full review of Kitchen

Banana Yoshimoto’s Progressive Politics

It is easy to see the impact such a liberal childhood had on Yoshimoto with one quick glance at the elements which form the real beauty of her novella Kitchen.

In the story we are introduced early on to a pair of characters wholly unique to s Japanese literature: Yuichi and Eriko Tanabe.

As I mentioned in my review: ‘Yuichi lives with h