Book Title: "Tsugumi"
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Page Count: 183
First Published: 1989
Rating: superfunk - golden - sweet - blah - superblah- blergh - goatfood

While it lacked the novelty of Yoshimoto's sparse, warm writing for me, I think that I liked the story better than all the others I read so far. Tsugumi is a young ( Read more... )

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Book Title: "N.P."
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Page Count: 190
First Published: 1993
Summary: Four young people are united over a story: Kazami, whose boyfriend killed himself while translating it, Otohiko and Saki, who were the children of the author, and Sui, who is the authors daughter, his lover, the lover of his son, and the lover of the translator. 
( Read more... )

Book Title: "Sly"
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Page Count: 160
First Published: 1996 (translated 2002)
Summary: Three friends and former lovers travel to Egypt after finding out that one of them is HIV positive.
Rating: superfunk -golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

Unfortunately lacked the dreamy quality that I loved in "Dornrößchenschlaf" and " ( Read more... )

Book Title: Dornrößchenschlaf (Shirakawa Yofune)
Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Page Count: 167
First Published: 1989
Summary: Three stories about sleep, about death, and about waking.
Rating: superfunk -golden - sweet - blah - superblah - blergh

Yoshimoto calls the stories "siblings", which I think is very spot-on. Though different in tone, in content, in ( Read more... )