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01/12/2004 Archived Entry: "Goodbye Tsugumi"

I finally get to write here again because I actually have the time and the willingness to do it. But since this little site has turned into my little reviewing blog, I shall write here for the pupose of reviewing.

Now about Goodbye Tsugumi... I first have to say that I've always been a fan of Banana Yoshimoto ever since I read her other works like the famous Kitchen and my favorite Asleep which was a book full of her short stories. I've read all of her published books in English and the lastest one and the newest one to be published here is Goodby Tsugumi. From reading her books I already know what her usual writing style is. It's usually always about a young woman finding meaning in people and circumstances surrounding her. There's usually this happy, complete, feeling to Yoshimoto's writing especially in her descriptions. Her characters all seem to live in this perfect world even though their current situations are the total opposite of being perfect because most if not all of the characters she writes are very optimistic.

In Goodbye Tsugumi though, everything that makes Banana Yoshimoto so fun is missing. Though the story is supposed to be uplifting somewhat I just didn't feel it. In this book there is still the optimistic young woman here, there is still that descriptive happy feeling but I just didn't get it. After reading half way through the book I was left feeling bored and that never happened before when I read her previous work. To put it plainly, I just didn't like it at all.

Goodbye Tsugumi is about Maria and her friendship with her sickly, weak cousin who is beautiful, selfish, and very outspoken. For most of her life Maria, along with her unmarried mother has lived in a seaside inn that is owed by her mother's sister and husband. Their two daughters, the older one being Yuko who is somewhat plump and wears glasses is bright and happy while the younger daughter is Tsugumi who has been sick all her life but despite her being thing and pale and weak, Tsugumi is wretched, loud, spoiled and very pretty. Tsugumi is that hot tempered type of chracter which I enjoy watching or reading about whether that character is in a TV show, a movie, or in a book.

Maria it seems is the only person that Tsugumi feels that trully understands her because unlike Tsugumi's sister or her mother Maria knows how to take Tsugumi's sarcasm and knows how to play with it. After being close to Tsugumi, Maria moves away to Tokyo and when summer approaches, Tsugumi calls Maria to stay at the inn for her summer vacation.

This leads to Maria's summer adventures with Tsugumi, a summer that may be Tsugumi's last. And this adventure is what the book is about along with various perspectives of the meaning of life or something like that. Personally, I just didn't like it at all. I did not like Maria's outlook on life, Tsugumi's attitude and everything else about this book. I think Yoshimoto may have intended it to be sentimental. Something to think about but I really didn't enjoy it. Tsugumi may be a tough and feisty woman but nothing of the character seemed alive to me. It wasn't at all memorable.

I only wish when her next book is printed here it will be much better than this one. I trully loved Asleep a lot. Now to me, THAT was a memorable book with characters that come alive. Like I was watching a movie. Read that along with Kitchen rather than this boring one.