Customer Reviews

GOODBYE TSUGUMI

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Reading Yoshimoto is a good counter to the Philip Roth I've been reading lately. Whereas Roth's prose is energetic and in-your-face, Yoshimoto's flows like a gentle stream. Even the little tirades of Tsugumi, Yoshimoto's bratty title character, has nothing of the unsettling energy of a character like Roth's Portnoy. Instead, Yoshimoto's stories have a beauty that is almost ethereal. Granted, I have yet to be moved as much as I was by Yoshimoto's first novel, Kitchen. Still, this novel came close.

It is the story of a young woman, Tsugumi, who has been dying since the day she was born from some unnamed illness. Except that she continues to live despite occasional lapses into sickness. But her seeming physical weakness and poor health has made all those around her cater to her relentlessly and she has grown into a spoiled and mean young woman. The story is told by Maria, a friend of Tsugumi's. Through Maria's eyes we see Tsugumi's petty cruelties but also her capacity for love and an incredible inner strength that keeps her alive, inspiring Maria to accept the challenges of her own life.

In some ways, Tsugumi is one of the most interesting characters Yoshimoto has created. And she avoids many of the cliches that often seem to inhabit books where a key character is facing death. Once again, Yoshimoto has created a slim volume of incredible beauty.

Yoshimoto's novels have often been called "charming," and GOODBYE TSUGUMI is no different. Maria, the illegitimate daughter of a Tokyo businessman, grew up in a Japanese seaside resort alongside her two cousins, Yoko and Tsugumi. While Yoko is sensitive and gentle, Tsugumi is everthing but. Frail of health, delicate in beauty, Tsugumi is an abrasive, selfish girl whom, oddly, Maria understands. Most of the novel takes place during a particular summer, when the girls have become young women and their lives have begun to take different directions.

This slim novel is mainly a character study, but I found the scenes within quietly engaging. I never once considered putting this book aside to start another. Although you won't find much plot here, the often uneasy relationship between Maria and Tsugumi holds the story together. The only false note Yoshimoto hits comes in the closing pages. This novel may not be the author's best, but its delicacy and skill must still be admired.

I recommend this novel for those who enjoy contemporary Asian literature - particularly Yoshimoto's earlier works - as well as for readers of character driven fiction. Because of its brevity and ease of reading, it makes a good rainy afternoon or commuter book. You won't find the complexity of Murakami or the stark emotion of Oe. Instead, Yoshimoto's strength lies in the exploration of the often quiet connections between people.

The plot of this slim novel is deceptively simple: a young woman spends a last summer at the inn by the sea where she was raised. She lives at the inn with her aunt, uncle and cousins Yoko and Tsugumi, knowing that, in the autumn, the family will be moving away to the mountains. After the summer is over she will return to her new home in Tokyo. Much happens during that last summer.

I often found myself reading lines, even whole paragraphs, twice, to be sure I had really caught the meaning. The many descriptions of the qualities of light and dark gave the novel a sense of the eternal usually found in poetry. For example: "The dusk surrounding us was a mass of any number of colors piled one on top of the other, and everything around us seemed to hover in space, deeply blurred, as if we were in a dream.". On the other hand, the character of Tsugumi had an immediacy that exploded like a punch to the gut.

It is a remarkable book, one that I doubt could have been written by an American author. To me, it had the feel of a haiku: succinct, focused, intense, beautiful.

I simply adore this book. Goodbye Tsugumi is marvelous, I think, because of the feeling of bittersweet nostalgia it instills. Reading this book about good times now past bring forth memories and hopes of happinesses to come. The characters are wonderfully created, and the plot, though simple and in some cases more or less non-existent, is still a delight to follow. Simply put, an excellent novel.

This is another Banana weird and funny story! If you ever met an intriguing provocative person that ususally gets on your nerves this book might make you take a fresh look at his or her character and embrace his or her eccentricity!

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, yet Yoshimoto's story is lacking in elegance, which then creates a sophomoric feeling.
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 telling the story but there is not. Reading this book is like unraveling a simple square knot,once it is released there is nothing there.

I have previously enjoyed Banana Yoshimoto's works, especially "Kitchen" and "Lizard" and was looking forward to "Goodbye Tsugumi". Unfortunately, I feel it loses something in Michael Emmerich's translation.

It's the prose. Yoshimoto's gift is in her prose and the way it lightly flows throughout her novels. But Emmerich's translation often doesn't flow, and it really made this novel less enjoyable. This is not to say that it's a bad novel, but with this translation, at least, it doesn't read as a great novel.

I'd suggest reading one of Yoshimoto's other works.

The plot of this slim novel is deceptively simple: a young woman spends a last summer at the inn by the sea where she was raised. She lives at the inn with her aunt, uncle and cousins Yoko and Tsugumi, knowing that, in the autumn, the family will be moving away to the mountains. After the summer is over she will return to her new home in Tokyo. Much happens during that last summer.

I often found myself reading lines, even whole paragraphs, twice, to be sure I had really caught the meaning. The many descriptions of the qualities of light and dark gave the novel a sense of the eternal usually found in poetry. For example: "The dusk surrounding us was a mass of any number of colors piled one on top of the other, and everything around us seemed to hover in space, deeply blurred, as if we were in a dream.". On the other hand, the character of Tsugumi had an immediacy that exploded like a punch to the gut.

It is a remarkable book, one that I doubt could have been written by an American author. To me, it had the feel of a haiku: succinct, focused, intense, beautiful.

Goodbye Tsugumi by Banana Yoshimoto is a novel about family love and the importance and preciousness of life, and living life to the fullest. Yoshimoto used many details to show characters more realistic. The feelings of each character were fully expressed by her words. Two most inspirational characters in the novel, Tsugumi and Maria are cousins, they have absolutely opposite characteristics but they need each other to live their life to the fullest. Tsugumi has an unknown illness, which makes her get high fevers whenever she goes outside to hangout. From her illness, she is an unpleasant woman. Her parents spoiled her because they thought she would die of young age, but actually she is a girl who understands one's feeling very well. She cares about Maria, and she is always there for her when she needs her. Tsugumi is a daughter of Yamamoto Inn, which Maria and her mother lived in. Maria is one of the few people who get along with Tsugumi. Maria is always with her, and although she is annoyed sometime she still puts up with it
The story contains the memory of the summer Maria had spent with Tsugumi. Many accidents and events occurred, but Maria will remember this summer forever. Yoshimoto shows the meaning of home and meaning of having a family through out her memory of the summer she had spent with Tsugumi. In the novel Yoshimoto shows Maria's feelings, to show her feelings more lively and truly which makes it easier to understand Maria's true feeling toward life and Tsugumi.
There are so many things that happened in the novel, which inspired me. For example, when Tsugumi and Maria were drinking in the night, she said "Why do drinks taste so good outside like this, at night...I'm able to see the beauty in it"(p.75). When Tsugumi said this, it made me realize the importance of seeking the beauty in the inside for human beings, and other things and not making decision from the outside beauty.. I think this book can help and inspire people, because after I read the book, I felt like I was a totally different person. I began to think about my life, and if I was living to the fullest and I was glad that I had a home to go back to. I recommend this book to people who are struggling in life and especially teenagers, so people can realize the real meaning of life and the importance of life, and because Yoshimoto uses context that is very motivating. I think readers will be able to find their true home and their true meaning of life.

Wistful, melancholy, full of beautiful emotions and imagery that I can relate to. I gave Banana another chance after reading Lizard which was horrible, and I'm sure glad that I did. I really enjoyed this book in and of itself and on top of that it evoked old memories that I haven't thought about in a long time. I am glad to be reading this novel as one part of my life draws to a close and a new one begins.