It’s the first of June and our latest edition of The Independent is hot off the presses. Our Top Shelf pick this month is the novel The Lake by Japanese writer Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Michael Emmerich. Master Bookseller Brian C. reviewed The Lake for The Independent and shares it with us here.
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The problem with writing youthful love stories that are popular is that people will say you write youthful love stories that are popular. Banana Yoshimoto has always had to fight the stigma of lightness in her fiction, a stigma that has more to do with her youth and her name than it does with her prose. George Saunders’ writing is sparse and off-beat, but Yoshimoto’s is simplistic and quirky? We’re better than this, aren’t we? Yoshimoto is Japan’s second most popular novelist, her books will make you laugh, think, suffer moments of nostalgia, and they’re serious.
Yoshimoto’s newest book, The Lake, is her best yet. It’s strikingly more mature than her earlier coming-of-age teenage dramas. The novel’s dual protagonists are young, but they’re experienced beyond their years. These grown-up experiences mark a shift in tone and subject from Yoshimoto’s earlier works. Centering on Chihiro, an orphaned girl who escapes from the constraints of a small town and into a drifter’s existence in Tokyo, and Nakajima, an odd young man with a dark past which is ever-present, but never spoken about, this is not Post-War Japan. It’s a younger, more insular Japanese character study, and not the what-does-this-all-mean big picture novels of Kenzaburo Oe or Yukio Mishima. These characters are damaged, needy, secretive, in love, and fully engaged in their own lives without an idea of what that means for Japan as a whole. Chihiro spends her time painting a mural that may save a school, may save her love, but mostly gives us insight into the mind of an artist translating complex issues into youthful expressions.
The book is perfectly paced, with rock solid sentences that are simultaneously humble and bold. Technically sound in every aspect, the writing simulates an overall texture of cleanliness. Published in Japan in 2005, The Lake is a long time coming to our shores. But the wait comes with a wonderful gift: Michael Emmerich. Emmerich is an incredible translator, mostly known for his translations of Japan’s first Nobel Prize winner, Yasunari Kawabata. Emmerich adds his weighty talent to this decendent of Kawabata’s style. In fact, the writer that Yoshimoto mostly resembles is her literary forefather Kawabata. That’s great news for any of us who’ve read The Master of Go. Both Yoshimoto and Kawabata have the ability to make the small seem big and the complex seem simple. Emmerich delivers these miracles to us in English.
I’ll finish with a plea. Buy this book because it’s great, but know that a portion of the proceeds from this book will go to Japanese disaster relief. Japan will be rebuilding itself for a long time, and we can help. When you come in to buy a book, you should feel good about that, but buying a book AND making a donation to an important cause, well that’s a reason to feel great.
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