Goodbye Tsugumi

Not being a reader of Japanese, I'll assume that the translator of "Goodye Tsugumi" knew far better than I what words to use. The descriptive and narrative passages are lovely: scenes of mysterious summer nights by the ocean are poetic and palpable. But, alas, the dialogue! Perhaps the translator aimed for a colloquial American tone to convey the informal speech of young Japanese friends. If so, regrettably, his ear for American speech is not reliable. "Catch my drift, darling" hasn't been said by American youth since, oh,1950? And it is simply jarring to imagine these characters using regionalisms like "I sure (verb)" or "Howdy!" The dated idioms mingle incongruously with millenial locutions -- e.g., "uncool," "bizarre" and "incredibly" -- in the speech of single characters, making a coherent voice for each character almost impossible to discern. I wish the translator had chosen British idioms: it would be less painful to imagine Japanese characters offering each other a nice cuppa. That said, Banana Yoshimoto is a wonderful author, and "Goodbye Tsugumi" is "sure" a lovely book.

Exploration and exaltation of young Tsugumi's character. Weak and sick in body, strong and stubborn in character, her sister and cousin grow up expecting the unexpected from her. Interesting theme beautifully translated, but drawn out far past a reasonable length and well beyond the bounds of credibility. Similies drawn between nature and the world of imagination are expected, if not required, in this style of Japanese literature, but are offered somewhat sophomorically here. Yoshimoto-san has done better than this.

Marie, the protagonist, is the narrator of this story. Inasmuch Marie grows up in Japan at the seaside along with her cousin, Tsugumi, an invalid, charismatic, spoiled young woman who can be quiet cruel to others. Marie is the illegitimate child of her mother's lover who happens to be married to another woman but who visits them every weekend at the seaside. Finally though Marie's father gets a divorce and brings her and her mother to Tokoyo so Marie can attend university. But one last summer is spent by Marie at the seaside and this is when Tsugumi finds love and Marie realizes what home and family really mean.Although Yoshimoto still uses her brilliant description of scenes which are wonderful to read but the problem I had with this book was that I could not identify with any of the characters in this book. Marie is rather boring; while Tsugumi is just plain horrible and it is hard to understand why Marie puts up with her. The secondary characters in the book have little to no depth to them. I normally really like Banana Yoshimoto's books but this one is definitely not as good as some of her others. If you have never read Yoshimoto before I suggest you start with "Kitchen" and move on to "Asleep" and/or perhaps "Lizard." These novels are more enjoyable to read and the characters are so much better in them than in this particular novel. Overall this is not the worst book I have ever read but I expect so much more from Yoshimoto.

An adventure in translation. Yoshimoto wrote in Japanese. I bought this translated into Italian and used an English translation of the Japanese to help read the Italian. Tsugumi is a very ill teenager who is oppositional, snag nasty and a miserable little bitch. She enjoys playing nasty tricks on people thinking they're funny. Ha ha let's put some maple syrup in your hair.The people around her cut her a lot of slack because of her frail health. The narrator thinks that notwithstanding her foibles, Tsugumi is... well, Tsugumi. Reminds me of the saying that everyone likes a nice guy, but we just love a scoundrel. Until they steal your car and wallet,try to have sex with your dog and set fire to your house. Then they aren't so cute. The narrator's family story is of interest. The novel ends in an improbable sequence of events (one night frail, weak, marginal health Tsugumi digs a hole at the beach deep enough for someone to fall into). The setting is a provincial seaside Japanese village. This isn't great literature, but it would make a decent young adult diversion and a fun book for a student of Italian. The cover of the Italian edition has a rather alluring young woman with her head on her arms on a table. The woman wears a very short skirt and high heels. Very sweet sight. I picked it up, loved the author's name. It was short, fun book.

The symbolism starts early. Natural perceptions inform before the narrative starts. The characters cross the stage early. The protagonist tells all early. She is kind beyond belief. The book is making the reader look at our exit from this plane. I have trouble grasping a non-believer's exposition. A giant. Of.a book. Judge for yourself.

Enjoyable read. Feels very nostalgic throughout the whole book. The ending broke my heart though. My second book of hers. Will continue to read more.

I loved this book, another example of Banana Yoshimoto's brilliance.She writes about things everyone can relate to love, death, the feeling of displacement and paints a picture with her words unlike anyone else I've ever read.

This is another Banana weird and funny story! If you ever met an intriguing provocative person that ususally gets on your nerves this book might make you take a fresh look at his or her character and embrace his or her eccentricity!

That feeling you get when you finish a truly wonderful story is amazing. I'm in a state of bliss right now, I'll tell you. Miss Banana has done it again, creating a fictional seaside town with dogs and people that I've loved reading about. That Tsugumi is such a cow but you like her because Maria loves her. I don't know if it was the translation from the Japanese or if that was the intention to create a blasé and harsh form of address but Tsugumi's use of "babe" annoyed me. However, maybe that's how Japanese teens spoke in the 90s!

I enjoyed this book on most fronts. A touching tale well told the only discord was the way the American/English translation brought too much American atmosphere thereby losing what I believe would have been a strong Japanese flavour.

A pleasant story that was easy to read in terms of the flow of the storyline, but not easy to read with the very small text size.

Good really but not for me.

Perfect condition. I'm not very familiar with Japanese authors and this is a recommendation from a friend. Translation is into International English (US) and you can tell. I regret not being able to read Japanese because, although an easy reading, some descriptions are very beautiful and I get the sense I'm missing out on the original text.