Unbelievable warmth. I was flushed with how much warmth I felt after finishing Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen. It was overflowing to the brim; maybe my bowl wasn’t big enough for the amount of care I ended up receiving. I read this a couple of years ago, but it didn’t hit me so hard and straight into my mushy heart as much as it has right now. This book is the kind of book that gives you faith in writing.
The story begins with Mikage that had just lost her grandmother, leaving her an orphan. With nowhere else to go, she receives an invitation by a fellow university classmate, Yuichi, to stay at his place. There she meets Yuichi’s transgender mother, Eriko. Mikage goes through her loss of a family member (in her own way), embracing the grief and loneliness that raptured her everyday. And yet Yoshimoto’s writing never lets Mikage fall apart into helpless little crumbs. There’s so much warmth and strength in her writing, that even when Mikage seems to hit rock bottom, when she had, she undeniably accepts it as a part of life. It gives you so much hope in this world that it brought me to tears many times reading:
“As we decided where to meet, I looked up at the window. The sky outside was a dull gray. Waves of clouds were being pushed around by the wind with amazing force. In this world there is no place for sadness. No place; not one.”
Mikage finds solace in these people she ends up living with. Despite her loneliness, with no blood relations left in this world, she was utterly speechless with the love she received from these two strangers. And Eriko and Yuichi loved her in return. Yuichi, an assistant at a flower shop Mikage’s grandmother often frequented, reached out to her out of genuine concern (and because she apparently looked kind of like their dog Woofie). From there begins a relationship that was nurtured bit by bit, it was something that was difficult to come by in a world that was cruel and unforgiving, a world with death seeped into every aspect of their lives.
Through all of this, Mikage has an affinity for kitchens. And that certainly tugged at me. A place where food is prepared, a place where people gather, a place where many of us spend our time alone, it’s a place that’s been quite special in my life, too.
“The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s a kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. White tile catching the light (ting! ting!).”
Mikage’s earnest about her love for kitchens. There’s something about the way that Yoshimoto writes in which I can wholeheartedly understand and swallow every little word. Maybe I’m just an eager little kid, but Mikage’s love for kitchens makes so much sense. Everything about Mikage, I found myself saying yes! yes! yes!
I don’t want to get into any more of the details, I’d much rather have you feel it yourself. So please, please read this book. But what I do want to share is my dinner last night. I made dinner, full of vegetables (I was elated to say the least!) and one of the main dishes I cooked up was roasted artichoke. I was reading Kitchen while cooking this up and I can’t tell you how perfect everything was at that moment…
While my partner and I were taking in the afternoon glow, light pouring in through the big windows, the warmth of the wooden floor slowly receding as the sun grew distant, we started to take the leaves of the artichoke bit by bit. As we got to the heart of it, we had to pry open the artichoke, and there it was, beautiful flower petals protecting the heart. For some reason, I wasn’t expecting the petals, I must have forgotten. I smiled at my partner and he at me. We opened up the petals and got to the heart of the artichoke.
“But right now I am here with this powerful mother, this boy with the gentle eyes. That was all that mattered. As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won’t let my spirit by destroyed.
Dream kitchens. I will have countless ones, in my heart or in reality, or in my travels. Alone, with a crowd of people, with one other person – in all the places I will live. I know that there will be so many more.”
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