白河夜船 - Banana Yoshimoto

Privileged. That is the feeling I got reading for the first time Banana Yoshimoto twenty years ago and that still 'haunts' me as I read "白河夜船" in this 2020. These are the stories of a privileged person for privileged people, that gloat in their privilege.

That doesn't mean that the three short stories that are included in this volume are bad. No, or I wouldn't give them the rating I do. But, I always end up with the feeling that Banana's characters have too much free time, too much money and too many privileges, even if their lives are not the best or the happiest.

The first story revolves around a woman who doesn't work, doesn't do anything and lives her life thanks to the money from her partner, a married man. Yes, it could be understood as a critique of this kind of lifestyle and the purposelessness it entails, but it also gloats in the inner dialogues of the character, and her 'pain' for having too much free time.

The second is around a woman whose brother died, and two of the women that were in a relationship with him. Again, inner dialogues, nice introspection and study of the self, but also kind of shallow and superficial.

And the third is about a woman who was in a relationship with a man who also was in a relationship with another woman, and how the three kind of ended up living together, and how she goes to the 'dark side' of the city in search for answers when she starts hearing a strange music.

In all of them we find the inner dialogues, the need to find something in an empty life, the pain of loss, the pointlessness of modern, urban life, lesbian ambivalence... All very Banana, good, but also... shallow.

The best: some beautiful writing; dreamy and beautiful atmosphere

The worst: it leaves you with a strange aftertaste, as if all those inner dialogues were just Yoshimoto bringing her fantasies to live; in some ways, the stories revolve around problems for the ones that need to find problems

Alternatives: I feel Murakami (Haruki) is also part of this trend, or Yoko Ogawa or Hiromi Kawakami; some of their works I enjoy more than others

6.5/10

(Original Japanese)