Goodbye Tsugumi : Banana Yoshimoto

Image Credit : Tower

I think Banana Yoshimoto is fast making it into my list of favorite authors. I remember reading her NP and loving it, and now the emotionally brimming Goodbye Tsugumi has captured my heart as well. Yoshimoto is known for writing fairly short novels, and I think I understand why. With the amazing power she has over words, she doesn't need too many convey the complexity of human emotions. The economy with which Yoshimoto crafts her world belies the precision of her art. Here is a master storyteller, one who I can read again and again.

The novel is narrated by Maria, who is fascinated, just as I was with her cousin, Tsugumi. In Tsugumi, Yoshimoto has created one of the most intriguing characters I have ever read. At once abrasive, sarcastic and almost soul-shatteringly rude, Tsugumi is a person you cannot ignore. Fighting a daily battle with death, Tsugumi looms larger than life over the other characters, including her sister, Yoko, who is painted as the long-suffering patient nurse for Tsugumi. There is no doubt that there is much to dislike about Tsugumi - she is insolent, nasty, malicious and seems to show neither mercy or love on those who take care of her every need. Yoshimoto's skill lies not in the plot, which is thin, but in her characterization. It's here that the sea emerges as the fourth most important character with the author weaving a nostalgic web around the sea.

"It's a marvelous thing, the ocean. For some reason when two people sit together next to it, they stop caring whether they talk or stay silent."

Interwoven is also Maria's own stumbling quest to understand new family ties, and her own quest to capture the mystery of Tsugumi. And I admit I am fascinated by Tsugumi as much as Maria. There is an intensity to her, a rare fire that can consume or liberate those around her. And it is this fire that keeps the reader interested, turning page after page in the hope of discovering. Goodbye Tsugumi has to be one the best books I read this year, even though the book itself is decades old.


Verdict : Read it please. 


Rating: 4/5