- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: GROVE/ATLANTIC; Reprint edition (Jun 13 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0802139914
- ISBN-13: 978-0802139917
- Product Dimensions: 18.7 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #616,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Yoshimoto favors short novels that gradually reveal thin, almost translucent layers of her characters' personalities. Her latest, following in the style of earlier books such as Kitchen and Asleep, is a careful examination of the relationship between two teenage cousins in a seaside Japanese town. Maria Shirakawa is a thoughtful young woman thrown by family circumstance (her parents never married; with her mother, she is waiting for her father's divorce from his current wife) into growing up with her cousin, Tsugumi Yamamoto, in her aunt and uncle's small inn. Tsugumi, who is chronically ill, possesses a mischievous charm that both maddens and amuses her family. As Maria describes Tsugumi: "She was malicious, she was rude, she had a foul mouth, she was selfish, she was horribly spoiled, and to top it all off she was brilliantly sneaky." Tsugumi's tenuous health seems to free her from the behavioral norms that govern Maria and Tsugumi's long-suffering older sister, Yoko, allowing her to curse, flirt with boys, concoct elaborate pranks and shock adults in a way Maria resents, envies and admires. Eventually, Maria's parents are united and she leaves to attend university in Tokyo, returning for a final summer during which the inn is being demolished, and this provides Yoshimoto with all the plot she needs to explore the difficult but affectionate bond between the cousins. Emmerich's translation overcomes the occasional awkward moment to render the frank yet understated language that animates this modest story.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Novelist Yoshimoto (Kitchen, etc.) is a sensation of sorts in Japan and wherever her fiction has been available and for good reason. Her portrayal of life in Japan from a young and contemporary perspective is refreshing and hopeful, albeit in strange ways. Her latest, however, seems nothing more than an indulgence. Maria is the daughter of an unmarried woman who works at a seaside resort hotel run by relatives. She is close to her two female cousins, one of whom, Tsugumi, has suffered her entire life from an unnamed illness. Tsugumi is mean-spirited, antisocial, and cruel, and Maria is often the only person who can get through to her. When Maria's mother finally marries her father, he takes them away to Tokyo, where Maria begins college and a tenuous new social life. She returns to the seaside resort for one last summer before it is to be sold and discovers that the lives of everyone there, especially Tsugumi, have changed. These changes are, however, neither remarkable nor plausible. The dialog is stilted and often cartoonish, and the plot is missing almost entirely. Recommended only for libraries that own Yoshimoto's other works and would like to have everything she has written. Michelle Reale, Elkins Park Free Lib., PA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
It's true: Tsugumi really was an unpleasant young woman. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
It's true: Tsugumi really was an unpleasant young woman. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Goodbye Tsugumi,
By
This review is from: Goodbye Tsugumi (Paperback)
A disappointing book from an author whom I came to love after reading Kitchen and N.P.:A Novel. Goodbye Tsugumi is told in a simple way. Yoshimoto's story is lacking a simple elegant style, instead it feels sophmoric.Much of the writing comes off as a teenager recollecting the past with a friend. This might work if there was something more to be gained from the story, but there is not. Reading this book is like unraveling a simple square knot,once it is released there is nothing more there.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Searching For A Simile,
By
This review is from: Goodbye Tsugumi (Paperback)
I've been trying all day to come up with a simile to describe the neat, simple elegance of Banana Yoshimoto's writing, and I think I've finally found one!It's like reading out of a bento box.
3.0 out of 5 stars
review of 'goodbye tsugumi',
By sin min (singapore) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Goodbye Tsugumi (Hardcover)
In 'Goodbye Tsugumi', Maria (the narrator) has lived with the Yamamoto family comprising Uncle Tashadi, Aunt Masako, Yoko and Tsugumi. Tsugumi is a rude and nasty young girl threatened by a potentially fatal illness. As such, everyone is accustomed to her ill manners and behaviour but no one really understands her as Maria. Maria sees Tsugumi's rude and unpleasant front as a barrier Tsugumi uses to prevent others from understanding her. During a summer holiday, Tsugumi meets Kyoichi and falls in love with him. Things turn unpleasant when Kyoichi and his dog get into trouble with locals who are unhappy with Kyoichi and his family. Tsugumi decides to revenge for Kyoichi, but exhausts too much of her strength. She runs a high fever, her kidneys stop functioning properly, she is drained of energy... Maria is filled with unease as she faces the possibilty of losing Tsugumi forever...The central theme of the book is family love. Here, Maria learns to love her family and her cousin Tsugumi. 'Each one of us continues to carry the heart of each self we've been, at every stage along the way, and a chaos of everything good and rotten. And we have to carry this weight all alone, through each day that we live. We try to be as nice as we can to the people we love, but we alone support the weight of ourselves.' (pg 39, faber and faber paperback edition) Compared to other Banana Yoshimoto books, I would say that this one is average. The book starts off tremendously well, but it gets a bit muddled in the middle and late-middle sections. Fortunately, this letdown is somewhat redeemed by the book's ending. I would consider this book a worthwhile read in spite of its shortcomings. I recommend it to everyone.
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