Original language:
Japanese Translated from: Japanese
Authors: Yoshimoto, Banana
Translated by: Baronina, Indrė
Full translated source bibliographical description:
Yoshimoto, Banana. Ežeras. Vilnius: Alma Littera, 2015.
ISBN: 978-609-01-1821-4
Published in: Vilnius
Published on: 2015
Publisher: Alma littera
Banana Yoshimoto (born 1964) is a Japanese author, best known for her debut novel “Kitchen”. Her writing often deals with young people striving to survive in the modern world and trying not to lose themselves after going through painful or even traumatic experiences. However, the dark subject material does not overshadow warm and somewhat joyful tone of Yoshimoto’s stories, a feature that gives quite an interesting atmosphere to her works.
Banana Yoshimoto’s novel “The Lake” is not an exception. It revolves around Chihiro, a young graphic designer who struggles after her mother’s death: even though she understands that she has never belonged in her native town, moving to Tokyo proves to leave her feeling rootless. As a way to unwind, Chihiro stares out her window at the apartment block in front of hers for hours and, after a while, realises that an enigmatic man is gazing back at her. This gradually develops into a relationship and Chihiro finds herself falling in love. However, Nakajima – the man from the apartment on the other side of the street – has problems accepting and returning her feelings; after a terrible event that has happened in his childhood, he is cautious of opening up to other people.
The most delightful trait of the novel is the way Yoshimoto builds it. It starts off slow and calm and the melancholy is practically seeping out of the pages. However, at the end of the story, the reader finds themselves knowing much more about the characters that they could have anticipated: Yoshimoto weaves the story with such sensitivity that even descriptions of the brightness of the sky and the beauty of the lake, as well as long paragraphs about Chihiro’s working process (she is painting a mural throughout the story), help her to create round, multi-faceted characters with rich emotional lives and deep thinking process. Yoshimoto does not rely on telling everything with words, so, while reading the novel, the reader cannot be too sure if the story is really taking them anywhere until the very end.
Another exciting thing about the novel is how much social commentary there is in it. It is not necessarily conspicuous if the reader is not looking for it, but it is there, wrapped in Yoshimoto’s softness and gentleness, but still relevant to most societies across the globe. The first thing that is discussed in the novel is social stigma that comes with being the black sheep of the crowd, usually without one’s choosing: Chihiro has always suffered for being an illegitimate child until she could find comfort in anonymity of the metropolis; Nakajima stands out in his environment because of his infamous past and inability to meet the standards that “must” be fulfilled for “real” masculinity, such as being the leader, dominating in every field, having no fears and hiding the fact that he does indeed have emotions.
Another thing discussed in the novel is devaluation of the arts and humanitarian work in the modern world: it is commonly accepted that neither of those has any use, unless it is helping to sustain the consumerist system by promoting something.In the novel it is illustrated by the day centre, where people voluntarily teach neighbourhood children, that is being considered for demolition and Chihiro’s dilemma of choosing between serving capitalist agenda by putting something that she does not stand for in her work and not getting paid.
Finally, an interesting fact about the novel is that it was inspired by real-life Aum Shinrikyo cult, which is responsible for the atrocious Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995. In the novel, Yoshimoto discusses the ludicrousness of trying to build a “dream society” without caring for many lives that are ruined in the process. At the same time, she highlights the importance of the environment that children grow up in: the shadows that creep into people’s minds from their own childhood are the hardest ones to overcome.