Amrita

by Banana Yoshimoto

Book Overview

After her actress sister's suicide, a Japanese girl struggles to bring her life into focus again. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671532855
• ISBN13: 9780671532857
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Washington Square Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

You're beautiful Sakumi!

After I read Banana Yoshimoto's first novella Kitchen during the summer of 2001, I picked up each of her then available works in translation and devoured them voraciously. Unfortunately not one of her other novels, short stories, and novellas ever had that same gentle, dreamlike impact of Kitchen. I am not saying that I did not enjoy these other works, but as a whole they could never draw me into her fictional world with the same force and they lacked the same dreamlike quality that I found in her first thin tome that she penned in her early twenties. I found N.P. to be a bit forced and the short story collection Lizard to be a bit stale although there were a couple of true gems amongst the chunks of glass. Then there is her longest and possibly most convoluted novel Amrita which I have now read for the third time and for the first time in almost five years. Penned in 1994 when Yoshimoto was thirty years old, Amrita centers on the female protagonist Sakumi. Sakumi is quite similar to the ordinary Yoshimoto protagonist: mid-twenties, pretty but not beautiful, and from an affluent albeit broken family. She spends a number of her days doing what a number of young women from similar backgrounds do: she shops at expensive boutiques, hangs out with her friends, and has long, leisurely dates with her boyfriend. However, there is one key element to Sakumi that differentiates her from her contemporaries: one day she split her head open when she fell on some steep steps which caused her mind to become a clean slate. Working at a small bar called Berries and living with her "odd" family that consists of her mother, her cousin, her mother's best friend, and her little brother, Sakumi spends her days similar to the way that she did before, but with the added addition of suddenly recalling memories that remained deeply submerged in her unconsciousness. Many of these memories concern her dead sister Mayu, once a famous actress, who died years before in an accident related to alcohol and drug use. Beautiful and liked by everyone, the memory of Mayu hangs over Sakumi's family and the mind of Mayu's boyfriend Ryuichiro, a writer who after Mayu's death has become a globetrotter. With this deep shadow over her life, Sakumi spends the duration of the novels 366 pages trying to rediscover herself and helping her younger brother come to terms with his supernatural powers. Amrita is definitely a convoluted work and the only glue that holds it together is the protagonist Sakumi, however, this does not mean that the book is just a rambling mess. With clean slate for a mind, Sakumi definitely has an interesting outlook towards life. She sees her family members in a completely new light and learns slowly bit by bit what makes each person important to her and how each person is a piece of the puzzle which is her memory. Like almost every other Yoshimoto novel, Amrita is tinged with melancholy and it can make the reader reflect on his or her own personal relations with fa

This book is great!

When I read this book for the first time I was a freshman in High School and I have read it many times since then. I am now a sophmore in High School. I have never been more touched by a book in my entire life. Yoshimoto draws her readers into her stories, draining us of our emotion. We get so wrapped up with her characters that we forget about our own lives. Her books have helped shape who I am and I think that is for the better. I recommend this book to everyone.

A magical world of self-discovery!

Banana Yoshimoto is -- by no stretch of doubt -- a gifted storyteller. She's also one of the best fiction writers today. Her stories are filled with eccentricity and magic. Amrita is not an exception.The story is about Sakumi, a young woman who loses her memory after having lost her famous sister to suicide. With the help of her sister's lover, she is able to regain her memory, but she gets more than she bargains for. Like her previous efforts, Yoshimoto's focal point in this novel is self-discovery. This is, by far, her best work since "Kitchen." I marvel at Banana's ability to touch people with her beautiful writing. A must-read!

Second time's the charm

I agree totally with the reader who said she couldn't "get into it" the first time she tried reading "Amrita," but 6 months later, she tried again and was mesmerized. The same thing happened to me! After reading Kitchen (perhaps my favorite book ever), I tried Amrita and gave up after a few pages. But a couple of years later, I picked it up again, and I fell madly in love with it! This is the mystery of Banana's great charm ... if you're in the correct mood, she is the finest writer on earth. So try it again!

a frightening, beautiful adventure in self-discovery

This book pulled me in like none I had read before. Yoshimoto succeeds in making the reader part of the story, a story that can perhaps to some appear simplistic or uninteresting, but to others will certainly become magnetic as it recounts to them, through the unsophisticated yet magically beautiful words of a young Tokyo woman, their own most intimate experiences, thoughts, fears, hopes. Yoshimoto tells a story of self-discovery, and her great achievement lies in describing the simplest, everyday thoughts and feelings that most of us would be embarrassed to share with anyone for fear that they are too ordinary, that they are not profound enough, that they don't change the world. Yet Yoshimoto, by simply describing them, validates them, and makes them beautiful. Reading Amrita I was almost frightened by the image of myself that I saw in the pages. Unlike some other reviewers, I think that Amrita takes the unique, unpretentious narrative style developed in Kitchen and NP, and transforms it into a vehicle that takes the reader on an unforgettable, unpredictable journey. But it is a spiritual journey, a celebration of being human. In Amrita you won't find anything glamorous. The main character is a Japanese twenty-something who works in a neo-hippy bar and spends her time reading and watching TV. Her wisdom emerges in her reflections on the unusual world that surrounds her. Throughout the book, she remains a perfectly ordinary, typical person like any one of us. I am not surprised at the low ratings that some reviewers have given to this book. I can easily see how one might dislike it, not understand it. It is a perfect example of "either you hate it, or you love it." I love it. This book is very personal and if you can identify with Yoshimoto's voice, the young woman from Tokyo, you will be shaken to the core of your soul.