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El Lago (2005)

by Banana Yoshimoto(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8483837765 (ISBN13: 9788483837764)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Tusquets

review 1: Even though I'm giving this book a poor review I still "liked" it. The biggest problem I had with this book was the characters, I found Chihiro and Nakajima to both be incredibly banal and self deprecating and that was a massive turn off so to speak because it felt like it was simply a story about two people circle jerking each other's sadness into each other.Chihiro is the supposedly "simple" and "practical" individual and I would bet my left kidney that she would be if she didn't carry her baggage of: "my mom died and life sucks and my dad is boring even though he loves me and puts all my financial qualms to ease". I despise her character.Nakajima is slightly more like able though he still manages to be strange and quirky in the worst way possible by introducing possibly... more the most awful and meaningless literary symbols like the mochi wire rack that he lovingly tucks into his armpit as he sleeps. Completely ridiculous .The story itself lacks a lot of depth and seems to try way too hard to be "deep" and it ends up being slightly silly. The only somewhat profound line was when Chihiro notes how her dying mother exuded water and her reflection on how "people were made of water" legitimately the only line I felt was worth any sort of literary mention and also what bumped it up fromOne star to two.Strangely enough I can still look back on the book and say it was alright and though I didn't necessarily really love it, it was palatable and gave me an introduction to Banana Yoshimoto's work albeit not the most positive of introductions
review 2: Following the death of her mother, Chihiro moves to Tokyo and begins a drifting, anchorless life as a mural painter. She spends a lot of time staring out the window to her apartment and slowly forms a connection with the man living opposite her, Nakajima. They begin an understated romance, but Nakajima struggles with some dark secret from his past. A visit to the titular lake and Nakajima’s two reclusive friends only deepens the mystery.I’ve left the plot description pretty vague because the question of what exactly happened to Nakajima is the crucial revelation in this book. I managed to avoid spoiling it for myself, but I know that several blurbs for this book on Amazon and Goodreads do reveal the secret, so tread carefully.This book is incredibly sparse. The death of Chihiro’s mother, Nakajima’s secret; they are all treated with gentle minimalism, the drama fading into the ordinary rhythms of Chihiro and Nakajima’s ordinary life. This stripped-back tone continues in the description of Chihiro and Nakajima’s understated romance in which Chihiro seems to fall in love despite herself. For me, the bare prose gave greater weight to the bursts of imagery, ‘a smell that you could only describe as the smell of water came wafting up from under her collar.’However, this style then becomes jarring when Chihiro visits Nakajima’s two friends at the lake, one of whom communicates telepathically. Suddenly the book swerves into magical realism, a direction that seems at odds with the almost painfully mundane narration that preceded it. Although I finished the book a while ago, I’m still wondering whether I liked the shift of tone or not. I’d be interested to hear what other people think about it.Ultimately, this is a book that nudges rather than guides the reader. I liked the slow, strange pace and the odd characters, so I’ll definitely be checking out Banana Yoshimoto’s other works. less

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