Lizard
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Narrated by:
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Emily Zeller
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By:
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Banana Yoshimoto
About this listen
Banana Yoshimoto's warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and best seller status, as well as a place among the best of contemporary Japanese literature. In Lizard, now available in Grove Press paperback, Yoshimoto deftly fuses traditional and pop culture to create contemporary portraits of love and life. These six tales explore themes of time, healing, and fate - and the journeys of self-discovery through which young urbanites come to terms with them.
In "Newlywed", an unhappily married young man deliberately misses his stop on the train, only to be questioned by a shape-shifting homeless man about the trials of his marriage. In "Blood and Water", a woman recalls how she left the village she grew up in - which was run by a New Age cult - in order to lead a fulfilling life, even against her parents' wishes. And in the title story, "Lizard", a woman who has never before felt truly secure in her life admits a deep secret to her lover - that she has the ability to heal others with her mind.
In different ways, these six stories explore what it takes to navigate the perils of the modern world as well as what it takes to reinvent one's self. Permeated by the author's own effervescent spin on magic realism, Lizard cements a special place for Yoshimoto in 20th-century Japanese fiction.
©1988 Banana Yoshimoto, English translation Fukutake Publishing Co., Ltd., through the Japan Foreign-Rights Centre, translation copyright 1993 by Megan Backus (P)2015 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
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It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
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A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
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The Plight Before Christmas
- By: Kate Stewart
- Narrated by: Joe Arden, Maxine Mitchell
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Clark Griswold was onto something...at least with his annual holiday meltdown. And since the last three weeks of my life have been riddled with humbug—another breakup, a broken toe, an office promotion I deserved and didn’t get—I’m not at all in the mood to celebrate nor have the happ, happ, happiest Christmas EVER.
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Gaslighting and games
- By FMC on 12-22-22
By: Kate Stewart
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He's Gone
- By: Rebecca Collomosse
- Narrated by: Victoria Blunt, Cicely Whitehead, Joe Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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My fiancé brought me tea and scrambled eggs in bed that morning, and we snuggled together, talking about buying our rings, and about our perfect wedding next year. Then we headed into town. He held my hand and gazed at the ring I liked best, a smile spreading slowly over his face. Then a glass of bubbly to celebrate. I felt flushed, excited and ready for the rest of my life with the man I loved. We race to get on the train home. It screams to a halt and I run towards its open doors. Made it. I think he’s right behind me — but when I turn around, he’s gone.
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Disappointing plot
- By TerriSweeta on 12-04-24
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The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
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Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
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Starship Troopers
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.
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The definitive version!
- By Kristopher G. Hesson on 10-03-24
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Dead Med
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.
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Hmm
- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
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Asleep
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Yoshimoto spins the stories of three young women bewitched into a spiritual sleep. One, mourning for a lost lover, finds herself sleepwalking at night. Another, who has embarked on a relationship with a man whose wife is in a coma, finds herself suddenly unable to stay awake. A third finds her sleep haunted by a woman against whom she was once pitted in a love triangle.
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Dreamy and Terrible Unawareness
- By Billye Kay on 08-17-21
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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Kitchen
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mikage is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend, Yoichi, and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.
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First Time is the Charm
- By just asking for some common sense on 08-22-19
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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Amrita
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Alexandra Bailey
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When a celebrated actress dies under shocking circumstances, she leaves behind an older sister, Sakumi, who suffers from memory loss in the wake of an accident. Struggling to remember whom she loves and what she lost, Sakumi embarks on a unique emotional journey, accompanied by her dead sister's lover and her clairvoyant kid brother.
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Kind of ethereal - appealed to my taste
- By just asking for some common sense on 08-18-21
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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Moshi Moshi
- By: Banana Yoshimoto, Asa Yoneda - translator
- Narrated by: Kathleen Li
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Yoshie's much-loved musician father died in a suicide pact with an unknown woman. It is only when Yoshie and her mother move to Shimokitazawa, a traditional Tokyo neighborhood of narrow streets, quirky shops, and friendly residents, that they can finally start to put their painful past behind them. However, despite their attempts to move forward, Yoshie is haunted by nightmares in which her father is looking for the phone he left behind on the day he died, or on which she is trying—unsuccessfully—to call him. Is her dead father trying to communicate a message through these dreams?
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The story is good but the performance is lacking
- By Juliana on 10-24-24
By: Banana Yoshimoto, and others
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The Premonition
- A Novel
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Kathleen Li
- Length: 3 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Yayoi, a nineteen-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, has lately been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonition grows stronger day by day and, as if led by it, she decides to move in with her mysterious aunt, Yukino.
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Do not recommend
- By LS on 09-24-24
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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NP
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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A celebrated Japanese writer has committed suicide, leaving behind a collection of stories written in English, NP. But the book may never be published in his native Japan: Each translator who takes up the 98th story chooses death too - including Kazami Kano's boyfriend, Shoji. Haunted by Shoji's death, Kazami is inexorably drawn to three young people whose lives are intimately bound to the late writer and his work.
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Interesting ... ish?
- By skycrystal on 12-31-20
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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Asleep
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Yoshimoto spins the stories of three young women bewitched into a spiritual sleep. One, mourning for a lost lover, finds herself sleepwalking at night. Another, who has embarked on a relationship with a man whose wife is in a coma, finds herself suddenly unable to stay awake. A third finds her sleep haunted by a woman against whom she was once pitted in a love triangle.
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Dreamy and Terrible Unawareness
- By Billye Kay on 08-17-21
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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Kitchen
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mikage is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, Mikage is taken in by her friend, Yoichi, and his mother (who is really his cross-dressing father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale with the kitchen and the comforts of home at its heart.
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First Time is the Charm
- By just asking for some common sense on 08-22-19
By: Banana Yoshimoto
-
Amrita
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Alexandra Bailey
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a celebrated actress dies under shocking circumstances, she leaves behind an older sister, Sakumi, who suffers from memory loss in the wake of an accident. Struggling to remember whom she loves and what she lost, Sakumi embarks on a unique emotional journey, accompanied by her dead sister's lover and her clairvoyant kid brother.
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Kind of ethereal - appealed to my taste
- By just asking for some common sense on 08-18-21
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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Moshi Moshi
- By: Banana Yoshimoto, Asa Yoneda - translator
- Narrated by: Kathleen Li
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yoshie's much-loved musician father died in a suicide pact with an unknown woman. It is only when Yoshie and her mother move to Shimokitazawa, a traditional Tokyo neighborhood of narrow streets, quirky shops, and friendly residents, that they can finally start to put their painful past behind them. However, despite their attempts to move forward, Yoshie is haunted by nightmares in which her father is looking for the phone he left behind on the day he died, or on which she is trying—unsuccessfully—to call him. Is her dead father trying to communicate a message through these dreams?
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The story is good but the performance is lacking
- By Juliana on 10-24-24
By: Banana Yoshimoto, and others
-
The Premonition
- A Novel
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Kathleen Li
- Length: 3 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yayoi, a nineteen-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, has lately been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonition grows stronger day by day and, as if led by it, she decides to move in with her mysterious aunt, Yukino.
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Do not recommend
- By LS on 09-24-24
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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NP
- By: Banana Yoshimoto
- Narrated by: Emily Zeller
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
A celebrated Japanese writer has committed suicide, leaving behind a collection of stories written in English, NP. But the book may never be published in his native Japan: Each translator who takes up the 98th story chooses death too - including Kazami Kano's boyfriend, Shoji. Haunted by Shoji's death, Kazami is inexorably drawn to three young people whose lives are intimately bound to the late writer and his work.
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Interesting ... ish?
- By skycrystal on 12-31-20
By: Banana Yoshimoto
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Life Ceremony
- Stories
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Jeena Yi, Nancy Wu, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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With Life Ceremony, the incomparable Sayaka Murata is back with her first collection of short stories ever to be translated into English. In Japan, Murata is particularly admired for her short stories, which are sometimes sweet, sometimes shocking, and always imbued with an otherworldly imagination and uncanniness.
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Interesting concept but boring story
- By Roberta Marques on 09-06-24
By: Sayaka Murata
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Dead-End Memories
- Stories
- By: Banana Yoshimoto, Asa Yoneda - translator
- Narrated by: Kathleen Li
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in Japan in 2003, Dead-End Memories collects the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, quietly discover their ways back to recovery. Yoshimoto's gentle, effortless prose reminds us that one true miracle can be as simple as having someone to share a meal with, and that happiness is always within us if only we take a moment to pause and reflect. Discover this collection of what Yoshimoto herself calls the "most precious work of my writing career."
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Chapter Six Mostly Missing?
- By Anonymous User on 01-01-23
By: Banana Yoshimoto, and others
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Audition
- By: Ryu Murakami, Ralph McCarthy - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In this gloriously over-the-top tale, Aoyama, a widower who has lived alone with his son ever since his wife died seven years before, finally decides it is time to remarry. Since Aoyama is a bit rusty when it comes to dating, a filmmaker friend proposes that, in order to attract the perfect wife, they do a casting call for a movie they don't intend to produce. As the resumes pile up, only one of the applicants catches Aoyama's attention - Yamasaki Asami - a striking young former ballerina with a mysterious past. But she is a far cry from the innocent young woman he imagines her to be.
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Adequate?
- By Evan Runyon on 01-04-22
By: Ryu Murakami, and others
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The Housekeeper and the Professor
- By: Yoko Ogawa
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
He is a brilliant math professor with a peculiar problem - ever since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only 80 minutes of short-term memory. She is an astute young housekeeper - with a 10-year-old son-who is hired to care for the professor. And every morning, as the professor and the housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them.
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The Wonder Of Kindness & Connection
- By Sara on 06-16-16
By: Yoko Ogawa
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Life for Sale
- By: Yukio Mishima
- Narrated by: Kotaro Watanabe
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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After botching a suicide attempt, salaryman Hanio Yamada decides to put his life up for sale in the classifieds section of a Tokyo newspaper. Soon interested parties come calling with increasingly bizarre requests and what follows is a madcap comedy of errors, involving a jealous husband, a drug-addled heiress, poisoned carrots - even a vampire. For someone who just wants to die, Hanio can't seem to catch a break, as he finds himself enmeshed in a continent-wide conspiracy that puts him in the crosshairs of both his own government and a powerful organized-crime syndicate.
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Book is good - Narration is just terrible
- By Vyacheslav Varlakov on 03-12-21
By: Yukio Mishima
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There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job
- By: Kikuko Tsumura, Polly Barton - translator
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: It’s close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing, and, ideally, very little thinking. Her first gig - watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods - turns out to be inconvenient. Her next gives way to the supernatural: announcing advertisements for shops that mysteriously disappear. As she moves from job to job, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all but something altogether more meaningful.
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I LOVED it
- By Rose on 09-29-21
By: Kikuko Tsumura, and others
What listeners say about Lizard
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- jaynay
- 05-06-21
Enchanting
This is the first book I listened to from Banana Yoshimoto. Readers who love Haruki Murakami will surely find the same feelings of lost nostalgia in everyday life within her writing. The performance by Emily Zeller was also wonderful.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- J. Bartley
- 09-14-21
Engaging, wonderful stories
I really enjoyed these stories. Each one had compelling, believable characters all linked by the motif of introspection and the search for self understanding within romantic love, sex, and relationships. I particularly appreciated the strong women characters in each chapter and how author Banana Yoshimoto implicitly writes about their unstigmatized sexual agency, celebrates their independence and confidence as each character processes uncertainty and trauma, and frames it all within the context of vulnerability as power. I’m not going to lie, it was also wonderful to be transformed into a world where, by the end of each story, that vulnerability was affirmed as a cherished trait recognized and supported by the partners these women choose. Yoshimoto’s characters start out in one place and, through their development of self via relationships with others, they build their lives into the perfect landing places they need. It was really a lovely collection.
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Story
- Yasmin
- 01-26-21
Perfectly weird but amazing stories
The book was amazing and the narration was absolutely great. Highly recommend this set of stories!
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Overall
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Story
- Laura K. Alvarado Fonseca
- 01-08-21
Review and three questions (Asperger's?)
I consider it a well-developed story with a skillfully-crafted environment, especially the convenience store and Keiko Furukura's room. My only "but" is the character Shiraha. I am aware I didn't have to like him but didn't convince me as believable.
I do have three questions:
1. Was it about someone with Asperger's? I totally do think so!
2. Are stereotypes universal?
3. Why has the definition of success hardly changed?
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Bonn Karla
- 10-03-21
Profound!
This collection of short stories tackles different kinds of philosophies and circumstances of relationships.
The pieces were all thought provoking and quite profound. The stories are light, but it makes you think and empathize with the characters and most importantly with their situations. Because the characters thoughts and ideals are the main focus of these stories, not the plots nor how they act.
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