| Lizard..Banana Yoshimoto...Faber and Faber.1993.180 pages including afterwords. I should have been forewarned by the gushing reviews on the back cover of this set of six short stories."Yoshimoto transforms the trite into the essential" (The New Yorker).Sorry trite is trite.Nor do the stories leave me with "a desire for more".(Times Literary Supplement).I found myself struggling to recall anything memorable after finishing the collection a week ago.I thought the six stories felt forced.Slight.Chick lit.Murakami light in her flailing attempts at mysticism and spirituality..."He and I fit together so well,like the swirl on the yin/yang symbol-his tough resilence and my resilent toughness".(pg 120)There were also annoying sentence constructions which may be the fault of the translator rather than wholly the fault of the author..."I use the word "frozen" because she moved with such fluidity that she almost appeared to be not moving at all"(p24)If that wasnt enough there also seems overuse |
