Review by Booklist Review
Renowned Japanese author Yoshimoto (The Lake, 2011) presents an intimate portrayal of grief and recovery. The sensational murder-suicide deaths of her father and his lover weigh heavily on Yochan as she tries to find a new life by moving to the town of Shimokitazawa. She and her mother are at the center of this lyrical tale of finding one's footing in the wake of a shocking personal tragedy. Yoshimoto's beautiful imagery the cherry tree in front of the Les Liens bistro where Yochan works, restaurants glowing late at night, the coziness among the restaurant staff members, all captures the spirit of Shimokitazawa and marks Yochan's slow return to an anchored life. Her relationship with her mother is poignant and refreshingly real, while her forays into romantic relationships with Shintani-kun and her father's former bandmate, Yamazaki-san, hint at the complexities she'll continue to navigate. The translator, Yoneda, enables English readers to fully appreciate Yoshimoto's subdued, yet sharp, rendering of a young woman emerging from grief and moving forward with her dreams.--Viswanathan, Shoba Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In her deft handling of an unconventional coming-of-age story, Yoshimoto (Kitchen) begins with the mysterious death of Mitsuharu Imoto, keyboard player in the popular rock band Sprout, in what appears to be a "love murder-suicide in a forest in Ibaraki with a woman who'd apparently been a distant relative." Mitsuharu's 20-something daughter, Yoshie, wanting to separate herself from the loss of her father, moves from the family's tony Meguro apartment to the fashionable Tokyo neighborhood of Shimokitazawa, where she discovers her passion in the culinary world. Yoshie's mother, feeling her husband's death profoundly despite the salacious circumstances, moves in with her daughter; in their own alternately wise and awkward ways, the two help each other come to terms with their new lives. Yoshie's recurring dream that her father is trying to contact her on the phone coincides with her exploring her own future and her sexuality with Shintani-kun, a frequent customer at the bistro where Yoshie works, and the older Yamazaki-san, her father's former bandmate. Poignant and buoyant, Yoshie's story is a testament to the power of place and memory and the healing properties of time. Her awakening is a feast for the senses-meals prepared and eaten, magical cityscapes explored, "the daily movements and patterns of people I hadn't even known about a few years ago coming in and out of this town like breath"-mirroring her own burgeoning sense of the world and her acceptance of its vagaries. "There wasn't a single thing in the world that I could know or decide in advance," Yoshie decides. Even in the absence of her beloved father, that realization suggests a delightful sense of possibility. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Though the award-winning Yoshimoto (Kitchen) grounds her new work in a lurid event-Yocchan has just lost her beloved musician father in a murder-suicide pact with a woman neither she nor her mother knows-the narrative itself is measured, tenderly thoughtful, and wholly free of the sort of over-the-top bathos a less practiced or more desperate writer might proffer. Yocchan tries to recover her equilibrium by moving to a funky Tokyo neighborhood called Shimokitkitazawa and ambitiously begins working at the French bistro Les Liens. She's initially upset when her mother says she wants to move in with her temporarily but then changes her perspective: "I'm on vacation, and Mom's just visiting. No big deal." Speaking with colleagues about her father, Yocchan uncovers details about his death and forges ahead, even as her mother liberates herself from her conservative matron role. Though the two imagine that Yocchan's father is trying to contact them, their healing comes all on their own. VERDICT Refreshingly realistic; a lovely work for most fiction readers. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A young Japanese woman is left hurt, confused, and lost in the wake of her fathers mysterious death. Prolific novelist Yoshimoto (The Lake, 2011, etc.) offers another story of youth, grief, and redemption in this ephemeral yet lovely portrait of an unformed woman. The narrator here is Yocchan, who's fled her childhood home for the hip urban district of Shimokitazawa in central Tokyo to seek work and independence. A year ago, her musician father, Imo, was found dead in a murder-suicide with a mysterious woman in a forest. The story, like many of Yoshimotos arcs, is one in which theres little real drama, yet a pressing emotional alchemy emerges that leaves everyone changed at the end. Yocchan struggles but doesn't give up, pressing ahead with her new job at a French bistro and flirting with a handsome admirer, Shintani-kun. Her mother, haunted by her husbands ghost, moves in with her daughter in her small apartment and struggles to remake her own life. We each had to live our own battles, Yocchan confesses. We could hardly give up and die; and if we had to live, wed have to rely on what we were made of. Along the way, there are delicate and vivid descriptions of food, work, loneliness, and human connection, too, painted with subtle yet heartfelt language. Yocchan enters a relationship with Shintani-kun yet finds herself drawn to Yamazaki-san, an older man who was a band mate of her father's. The book culminates in a ceremony to free her fathers spirit and a tipping point that leaves Yocchan on the verge of leaving for Paris and, as all young people do, standing on the precipice of becoming her adult self. A fleeting portrait of a critical moment in a young womans life, one with which the late John Hughes might have felt some kinship. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
