Asleep [Hardcover]

Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto is a short novel that consists of three stories: Night and Night's Travelers, Love Songs, and Asleep. All three stories are written in first person, which I really started to enjoy reading after reading some of Yoshimoto's other novels. Asleep is a story about the three "...young women bewitched into a spiritual sleep." If you intend to start reading Yoshimoto's works, then I recommend that you start by reading Kitchen, which I have found to be her best work so far from what I have read.

Night and Night's Travelers was not such a great story, but it was interesting to read. It is about Shibami, the protagonist, who is a girl in her twenties. Her older brother, Yoshihiro, died a year ago. There is Sarah, who has blue eyes and blonde hair. Sarah came to study in Japan from Boston and dated Yoshihiro high school. There is their cousin Mari, who is twenty-five years old and is usually found sleeping or sleepwalking like she's in a dream. This story is mainly about Shibami observing Mari and telling about her brother.

Love Songs was an okay story that was extremely short. Fumi, the protagonist, used to be in a relationship with an attractive man, while he was in a relationship with Haru. A while later Fumi starts drinking and having pleasant dreams, full of nostalgia, relaxing, a nice smell, and a faint voice singing a sweet melody. Haru is haunting her, bringing her pleasant dreams; what is Fumi to do? There is Mizuo, Fumi's boyfriend who owns a household goods store.

Asleep was better than the previous two stories, since it was more interesting and longer. The protagonist is Terako who has been seeing Mr. Iwanetga for one and a half years. Mr. Iwanetga's wife is in a coma and he is six years older than Terako. Terako has been sleeping a lot; that's all she does in her free time and she always feels tired. In Asleep, Terako thinks a lot about her dead friend Shiori, who had an unusual job.

The three stories are full of memories and the characters learn to move on from their sleeping problems. I noticed that Banana Yoshimoto enjoys writing about people coping with the loss of loved ones or those close to them. She has written about this topic in her other two novels that I have read: Kitchen, and Hardboiled and Hard Luck.

Slumber, Drunkenness, Death and Love are the topics explored in Banana Yoshimoto's "Asleep." As with "Kitchen," there are three novellas linked thematically but not by characters or plot. Three women, all in love with someone emotionally of physically dead, all troubled sleepers, all drinkers, try to find rest and quietude that is not found in sleep. Each aspect is a metaphor for the unconscious, where perhaps the answers lie. For in this sleep of death, who know what dreams may come? Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know it's really serious. Drink, don't think. Seeking answers, the women look to their friends, their family, magical dwarfs or anyone who can help.

"Asleep" is told in Yoshimoto style, like a story overheard with half-open eyes while drifting off to sleep. It is semi-magical and dreamy, but still in touch with the real world. The pacing, the narrative are all influenced by classical Japanese literature. Her writing is very gentle, very feminine. And poetic.

An enjoyable, lazy book. Good for seekers of love and those who cannot sleep at night.

"Asleep" was my introduction to the work of Banana Yoshimoto. After reading this book, I'm compelled to seek out her other books, as this collection of novellas was a beautifully written, dreamy and engaging read. This book can be read within a few hours, as the language isn't as sophisticated as that used in most other literary works (because this book is translated from Japanese to English), but it is descriptive and evocative..not merely "simple" as Yoshimoto is too often described.

The protagonists in all three of the short stories in this collection are mysterious, and as they vividly describe their thoughts, it's as if Ms. Yoshimoto is allowing the reader to be privy to the very private, intimate world of her characters. This collection as a whole is imbued with sensuality, mystery and magic. The stories have open endings, and the effect of these stories resonates long after you've read them.

My favourite novella was the second of the three, "Love Songs", as its interesting subject matter (a woman's romantic desire for a deceased woman she hated in life), meshed with the candid reality of alcoholism, made for a gripping read. Novellas 2 and 3 both deal with addiction, as it completely consumes the two protagonists it affects.

I found the third short story, "Asleep", to be the least engaging of the three, but it is nonetheless an inspiring story about a young woman's rise from a life of stagnant ennui, to her courageous leap into the workforce.

This is an enchanting, irresistable collection that makes a refreshing change from anything you've ever read before. Here, Banana Yoshimoto puts a surreal twist on the mundane, and the results are shimmering.