I sympathized with Mikage and I understood the numbness that overwhelms her. Overall, Kitchen was a really good novella. In her estrangement from her daily life, Mikage is empowered by small or normal things (such as kitchen utensils and or a beautiful dish). Her clear and sparse writing style really lends itself to the depiction of Mikage’s grief.
By paying attention to small details (such as the way that sunlight shines through a glass) Yoshimoto brings to life seemingly mundane moments. Yoshimoto manages to imbue ordinary objects and places ( ie. While many of Mikage’s observations or realizations are not particularly innovative or complex, I found her voice engaging and her inner-monologue breezy. And Mikage’s grief and depression feel all the more real because of it. Yoshimoto captures the emptiness, sorrow, and sadness experienced by Mikage in a deceptively simple way. A son and his mother become her unlikely companions and while she stays with them she begins to slowly return to herself.
Mikage, unable to bear another loss, attempts to withdraw from the outside world. In Kitchen, Mikage, an orphan, finds herself alone after the death of her grandmother. With clarity Banana Yoshimoto conveys the grief experienced by her characters.
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