Goodbye Tsugumi

I read a novel "Goodbye Tsugumi" by a Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto.
I have read the original Japanese "Tsugumi" soon after the book was first published in Japan.

I had a lot of fun by reading Banana Yoshimoto's novels at that time, but soon I got tired of her writing. I felt her writings were bit too girly, and they gave me an impression of "girl's comics." I was also not fond of her being bestseller author. I often don't like things that are too popular. I know ... I am a perverse person.


Why did I read her book again after twenty years of its publication? The answer is quite simple. I just wanted to read some Japanese novels in English. I guess it is one of my homesick phenomenons. I just wanted to feel something Japanese-like.

As I expected, the scene and its description were very familiar to me. Japanese society and its culture are big part of myself, and simply the pictures appear mentally one after another as I proceeded reading. The novel perfectly achieved its purpose and made me feel "Japanese".

I have not compared the English translation to Japanese original, but I guess the translation is quite faithful to the original. I can imagine Banana Yoshimoto's original writing from the English sentences at many parts of the story.

The fact this translation was done by a male translator amused me. For me, Banana Yoshimoto's novels were typical girlish stories based on female feelings. How could a male writer interpret its feeling??? Did the English language make it possible, because English doesn't express the genders by its language as much as Japanese language?

However it was well translated and it made me want to read each word carefully.
I think I enjoyed it more than Japanese original.



Let me introduce you a part of the book review;

"beautiful water-colour writing."

I have never seen a description as good as this. Her writing is exactly "water-colour"-like. The descritions beautifully float along a stream and are purely transparent.



I want to read other translations of Banana Yoshimoto's.


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