If I had lost a parent, partner or child, maybe I'd have been more engaged with this book, but I suspect my experience would be so different as to be barely comparable. I'm grateful that I'm not in the position to compare. Lost in Translation – what planet was everyone else on? This was a snoozefest. If you haven’t seen it, count yourself fortunate

There's something about Japanese writers. They have the unparalleled ability of transforming an extremely ordinary scene from our everyday mundane lives into something magical and other-worldly. A man walking along a river-bank on a misty April morning may appear to our senses as an ethereal being, barely human, on the path to deliverance and self-discovery. Here the narrator is Mikage Sakurai, a university student, who has lost her grandmother, her last surviving relative (her parents died when she was young) and has only her kitchen (see the opening quote) left for comfort. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto is divided into two stories of love, loss, and hope. It’s one of the most breath-taking pieces of literature I’ve read. The stories’ elegant simplicity feels like a breeze of cold air that can hurt, numb, and refresh. There’s also an element in the writing that feels almost evanescent, a certain transparency that is pure honesty. I wasn’t instantly spell-binded as you might think. It took a while, but when it did, it felt right. Everything was perfectly clear, like looking into a small pond seeing your own reflection and washing your face with its cold clear water. I realised that the world did not exist for my benefit. It followed that the ratio of pleasant to unpleasant things around me would not change. It wasn't up to me." It's a shame that the storytelling doesn't live up to the story. The narration is monotonous and obvious, telling the reader what we're seeing depicted in the panels. The way it assumes the reader is dumb is a frequent distraction.These three women are married to three head mobsters in Hell's Kitchen. The head mobster husbands are all arrested and suddenly removed from their territory. The wives then step in to run the show. Nos presenta unos personajes desorientados por la pérdida, incapaces de olvidar, que recurren a extraños hábitos para sobreponerse, pero siempre solos, sin pedir ayuda a otros seres humanos. Casi no te crees esa excesiva frialdad, esa desafección que los convierte en piedra. Moonlight Shadow is the other short story in this edition and it is... short. It covers much the same ground as Kitchen and feels like an earlier work. It was too sparse for me, too blank. I enjoyed the progression of their characters and found it relatively believable. How they evolve individually as well as as a group is quite entertaining to see.

I realized that the world did not exist for my benefit,’ Eriko tells Mikage, ‘ It followed that the ratio of pleasant and unpleasant things around me would not change. It wasn't up to me.’ Life will always be hard, but finding love and happiness must still go on and we must always get up and keep going. ‘ Why is it we have so little choice? We live like the lowliest worms. Always defeated - defeated we make dinner, we eat, we sleep. Everyone we love is dying. Sill, to cease living is unacceptable.’ Months pass and Eriko is murdered at her club. The tables turn and Mikage helps Yuichi cope with his loss. Their relationship continues to center around food, and Yoshimoto paints a vivid picture of their life with her description of food and colors as well as Mikage's dreams that determine which life path that she should take. Although both Mikage and Yuichi appear to have bleak existences, their story ends with the reader feeling hopeful that they have finally turned the corner. if a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is. I'm grateful for it. It's a story about 3 ladies who take over running the family business for their mob(ish) husbands when the men get sent to the pokey. As criminals do...Rupy's flavourful, healthy and super simple recipes are fantastic for today's busy lifestyle. Would highly recommend!"

Like an anime, focussing on feelings of loneliness and loss, and the human spirit that tries to find its way regardless. The last part of the book feels bolted on, but the overall message touched me If you're a fan of mob stories you'll adore this. It has all the familiar tropes, but with lots of twists, turns, violence and betrayal - exactly what you'd expect from a gangster book! Without a doubt this is definitely an understated gem. Mikage Sakurai — Young Japanese woman. Main character. Struggling with the loss of her grandmother, who was her last surviving relative. She moves in with Yuichi Tanabe and Eriko Tanabe after her grandmother's death. One of the many things I love about goodreads is that a person is able to see what other “friends” think about a novel before committing oneself to reading it. I would have never read KITCHEN had I not seen that Mariel, Oriana, and Jason Pettus, three of my friends, all thought highly of this slim book.Jimmy realizes that his deal is pretty much off and tries to skip city with his kids. He gets caught by Gargano who gives him up to Kath for a beat-down and bullet to the head. This finally leads to a few quiet months. There's something about Japanese writers. They have the unparalleled ability of transforming an extremely ordinary scene from our everyday mundane lives into something magical and other-worldly. I know what Masters is saying: these women were property of their husbands. They weren't allowed to earn. They weren't considered people by their husbands or by other men (mobsters). By murdering and torturing people, they become their own agents. The men around them start treating them like human beings with agency instead of possessions. That's what the book is trying to say. But the reality is very ugly and not truly empowering IMO. Masters creates a crime drama that is more than gangsters killing one another. More than the dynamics of dysfunctional marriages and dysfunctional families. It is more than a rallying cry for feminism. The movie wrap itself in those trapping but the source material, this comic book, is far more than that. Now, it's not exactly a heartwarming tale of love and redemption, but fans of those gritty crime stories might enjoy this one. Normally, I wouldn't lump myself into that group, but I'll make an exception for this story because