30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Where is my mind?, September 14, 2000
Okay so. I'm on a train, I'm on a bus, I'm on a plane. I'm in transit. For "transit" read that time that exists outside of time. The time between times. I'm neither in one place or another. I'm between zones. Transit is the perfect place for Banana Yoshimoto, because I can't quite make up my mind about her.
I liked "Kitchen" and I hated "Amrita". Just so you know where I'm coming from. I thought "Kitchen" was intriguing in a Douglas Coupland-y way. I thought "Amrita" was dull dull dull. "Amrita" was one of those books you read where you spend half the time checking how much you've read (am I half way yet? am I half way yet? does this book go on forever? you get the message).
It could be a translation thing. What was it Shelley said about translation? Something about how translation is like putting a violet in a crucible? Something like that.
"Asleep" is funny. Not funny haha. Funny peculiar.
Three shortish stories making up one shortish book. Each story has its own characters. None of the characters from one story decamp to another. Yet, there is a sense that you tread similar ground three times here. There are dead people at the heart of the book. Dead brothers. Dead lovers. Dead friends. Dead rivals. Living people mistaken for ghosts. Mourning girls who walk through snow without noticing the cold.
It's kind of half "Kitchen" and half "Amrita". Parts of it are intriguing - in that parts of it suggest there is more at work here than the casual unfolding of ordinary lives - and parts of it feel bad. Parts of it feel badly written. Or badly translated. Hard to tell. Certain passages read like excerpts from a teenager's diary or a New Age self-help book.
"Asleep" is like some weird kind of textual anemone : it draws you in, it knocks you back. You want to praise the fragility of the emotion, you want to curse the blandness of the thoughts.
You get the impression that Banana enjoys dreams, the significance of dreams, the roles that dreams play in life and sleep. This is true in "Kitchen" and "Amrita" too. Banana appears to enjoy using dreams as a function. Dreams tell you as much about Banana Yoshimoto's characters as suits and ties do in HG Wells.
There is contrivance here. Elaborate contrivance for little or no effect. At one point - in the story "Asleep" - a character visits a dwarf medium ("Twin Peaks" anyone?) to lay nagging doubts to rest. The doubts are eased. And that's that. It is as if you have been presented with an enormous velvet firework only to find the gunpowder is damp.
There is no centre here. "Asleep" lacks heart or head or a combination of the two. Something.
It's like the time spent in transit I mentioned right at the start : you don't quite know where you are at any given time and you don't quite remember what you passed through when you arrive at your destination. You only wish you could have passed the journey in a more satisfactory way.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
another winner from a unique writer, April 9, 2001
By A Customer
yoshimoto banana has a way of looking at the world through literature that is unique of any other in the world. She tells as it is and reflects upon any emotion the character may be feeling. In this way, just as our memories are a constant stream of events, Yoshimoto's characters are free to reflect, to dwell on things, and to suddenly remember something. She isn't afraid to mention things again or to say something that you don't see coming. Her endings are very true to life as well. She's not afraid of tragedy and her characters show this. Asleep is an incredible and VERY REAL book. Another winner for Yoshimoto. I liked ASLEEP best of the three novellas. Her characters seem so complete as to have such complicated pasts. Pick it up today for something truly unique.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Somnambulism, December 27, 2003
This review is from: Asleep (Paperback)
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.
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