Amrita [Library Binding]

Banana Yoshimoto (Author), Russell F. Wasden (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999 | ISBN-10: 0613092139 | ISBN-13: 978-0613092135

An actress dies in shocking circumstances. She leaves behind an unconventional extended family of three who embark on a journey through grief and suffering, memories lost and gained, forbidden romance, redemption and recovery, and a confrontation with spirits on a remote Pacific island.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Blood ties seemed unrelated to how we were living," Sakumi, the young narrator of Amrita, begins portentously. The "we" of the family comprises a strange blend--Sakumi's mother, twice married (widowed and divorced); a telepathic younger brother; a cousin; and her mother's childhood friend. Grief over the tragic death of Mayu, Sakumi's flamboyant younger sister, binds them together. But grief is not the only obstacle to happiness and wholeness for Sakumi, who loses her memory in a fall. Grief shocked into awareness by memories retrieved--such is the thread that allows Sakumi to piece together her own identity and press toward acceptance of her sister's death.

Banana Yoshimoto's first novel, Kitchen (1991), traversed the territory of love and loss. Its fabulous success in Japan and the U.S. had to do with her distinct sensibility, a contemporary voice arising from a tradition-conscious culture. Amrita also ventures through the minefield of familial loss, but with a style less driven by the bizarre interface of tradition and pop culture. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In the popular young author's latest novel, an oddly winsome blend of personal psychology and the paranormal overlay the story of a young woman's fight to reclaim herself after twin tragedies. Twentysomething Sakumi lives in Tokyo with her nontraditional family, all of them recovering from the shocking death of Sakumi's younger sister, noted actress Mayu. Shortly after Mayu's death, Sakumi falls down a staircase, sustaining injuries that continue to distort her memory and perception well after her physical recovery. As she reaches toward wholeness, Sakumi interacts with several colorful, warm, and often clairvoyant people, most importantly her young brother, who begins to exhibit uncanny abilities and adult restlessness midway through grade school. The earnest, peripatetic confusion of Sakumi's narrative whisks the reader from one peak moment to another, as Sakumi integrates her sometimes-mundane, sometimes-astonishing experiences. This endearing, exasperating novel, which follows Yoshimoto's Lizard (LJ 11/15/94), will surely fit in any collection where contemporary fiction circulates well.?Janet Ingraham, Worthington P.L., Ohio.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Library Binding
• Publisher: Bt Bound (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0613092139
• ISBN-13: 978-0613092135
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,861,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a frightening, beautiful adventure in self-discovery, January 8, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Cambridge, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amrita (Paperback)

This book pulled me in like none I had read before. Yoshimoto succeeds in making the reader part of the story, a story that can perhaps to some appear simplistic or uninteresting, but to others will certainly become magnetic as it recounts to them, through the unsophisticated yet magically beautiful words of a young Tokyo woman, their own most intimate experiences, thoughts, fears, hopes. Yoshimoto tells a story of self-discovery, and her great achievement lies in describing the simplest, everyday thoughts and feelings that most of us would be embarrassed to share with anyone for fear that they are too ordinary, that they are not profound enough, that they don't change the world. Yet Yoshimoto, by simply describing them, validates them, and makes them beautiful. Reading Amrita I was almost frightened by the image of myself that I saw in the pages. Unlike some other reviewers, I think that Amrita takes the unique, unpretentious narrative style developed in Kitchen and NP, and transforms it into a vehicle that takes the reader on an unforgettable, unpredictable journey. But it is a spiritual journey, a celebration of being human. In Amrita you won't find anything glamorous. The main character is a Japanese twenty-something who works in a neo-hippy bar and spends her time reading and watching TV. Her wisdom emerges in her reflections on the unusual world that surrounds her. Throughout the book, she remains a perfectly ordinary, typical person like any one of us. I am not surprised at the low ratings that some reviewers have given to this book. I can easily see how one might dislike it, not understand it. It is a perfect example of "either you hate it, or you love it." I love it. This book is very personal and if you can identify with Yoshimoto's voice, the young woman from Tokyo, you will be shaken to the core of your soul.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're beautiful Sakumi!, June 19, 2002

By 

Daitokuji31 (Black Glass) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Amrita (Paperback)

After I read Banana Yoshimoto's first novella Kitchen during the summer of 2001, I picked up each of her then available works in translation and devoured them voraciously. Unfortunately not one of her other novels, short stories, and novellas ever had that same gentle, dreamlike impact of Kitchen. I am not saying that I did not enjoy these other works, but as a whole they could never draw me into her fictional world with the same force and they lacked the same dreamlike quality that I found in her first thin tome that she penned in her early twenties. I found N.P. to be a bit forced and the short story collection Lizard to be a bit stale although there were a couple of true gems amongst the chunks of glass. Then there is her longest and possibly most convoluted novel Amrita which I have now read for the third time and for the first time in almost five years.

Penned in 1994 when Yoshimoto was thirty years old, Amrita centers on the female protagonist Sakumi. Sakumi is quite similar to the ordinary Yoshimoto protagonist: mid-twenties, pretty but not beautiful, and from an affluent albeit broken family. She spends a number of her days doing what a number of young women from similar backgrounds do: she shops at expensive boutiques, hangs out with her friends, and has long, leisurely dates with her boyfriend. However, there is one key element to Sakumi that differentiates her from her contemporaries: one day she split her head open when she fell on some steep steps which caused her mind to become a clean slate.

Working at a small bar called Berries and living with her "odd" family that consists of her mother, her cousin, her mother's best friend, and her little brother, Sakumi spends her days similar to the way that she did before, but with the added addition of suddenly recalling memories that remained deeply submerged in her unconsciousness. Many of these memories concern her dead sister Mayu, once a famous actress, who died years before in an accident related to alcohol and drug use. Beautiful and liked by everyone, the memory of Mayu hangs over Sakumi's family and the mind of Mayu's boyfriend Ryuichiro, a writer who after Mayu's death has become a globetrotter. With this deep shadow over her life, Sakumi spends the duration of the novels 366 pages trying to rediscover herself and helping her younger brother come to terms with his supernatural powers.

Amrita is definitely a convoluted work and the only glue that holds it together is the protagonist Sakumi, however, this does not mean that the book is just a rambling mess. With clean slate for a mind, Sakumi definitely has an interesting outlook towards life. She sees her family members in a completely new light and learns slowly bit by bit what makes each person important to her and how each person is a piece of the puzzle which is her memory. Like almost every other Yoshimoto novel, Amrita is tinged with melancholy and it can make the reader reflect on his or her own personal relations with family members and lovers and how his or her concepts of a person is completely made up of thoughts and memories and how truly tenuous these thoughts and memories are.

A good book overall, I believe that Amrita would be a good book to read for those who are familiar with some readers who are familiar with Yoshimoto's shorter pieces, but for a Yoshimoto novice, Kitchen would be a better starting point.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A magical world of self-discovery!, May 15, 2000

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Amrita (Paperback)

Banana Yoshimoto is -- by no stretch of doubt -- a gifted storyteller. She's also one of the best fiction writers today. Her stories are filled with eccentricity and magic. Amrita is not an exception.

The story is about Sakumi, a young woman who loses her memory after having lost her famous sister to suicide. With the help of her sister's lover, she is able to regain her memory, but she gets more than she bargains for. Like her previous efforts, Yoshimoto's focal point in this novel is self-discovery.

This is, by far, her best work since "Kitchen." I marvel at Banana's ability to touch people with her beautiful writing. A must-read!