Hardboiled and Hard Luck

Hardboiled and Hard Luck
by Banana Yoshimoto

Hardboiled and Hard Luck
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Book Summary Information

Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Translator: Michael Emmerich
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-14
ISBN: 0802142621
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Grove Press

Book Reviews of Hardboiled and Hard Luck

Book Review: Yoshimito, Again
Summary: 4 Stars

My first book by this author was 'Goodbye Tsugumi' and since then, I have always been on the look out for books by yoshomoto.

Both Hardboiled and Hard Luck explore themes that have been prevalent in yoshomoto's previous works. Themes like friendship, death, grief, memories and love wove their way through these two short stories.

Hardboiled, the first of the stories, is about a young woman visiting a town on her lover's anniversary. A series of strange things happen to her on the way, and she flits into dreamworld and memories. The story takes us along as she comes to terms with her friend's death.

The second part of the book, hard luck, is the story of a young woman dealing with her brain damaged sister. As a result of an ebolism in the sister's brain, she goes into a coma, and then begins the progress of her death infront of her loved ones. The narrator, the younger sister, visits her sister in the beginning of the novel and reflects on her state and is plagued with memories of the past. There she also meets her sister's fiance's brother for the first time and her reaction towards him makes her realize that altho grieving, she is also getting back to her normal life.

Both stories, although written simply as the norm with yoshomoto's novels, are filled with a myriad of strong emotions. Goodbye Tsugumi still remains my personal favorite of her novels.

Summary of Hardboiled and Hard Luck

In cherished novels such as Kitchen and Goodbye Tsugumi, Banana Yoshimoto?s warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and best-seller status. Her insightful, spare vision returns in two novellas possessed by the ghosts of love found and lost. In Hardboiled, the unnamed narrator is hiking in the mountains on an anniversary she has forgotten about, the anniversary of her ex-lover?s death. As she nears her hotel—stopping on the way at a hillside shrine and a strange soba shop—a sense of haunting falls over her. Perhaps these eerie events will help her make peace with her loss. Hard Luck is about another young woman, whose sister is dying and lies in a coma. Kuni?s fiancé left her after the accident, but his brother Sakai continues to visit, and the two of them gradually grow closer as they make peace with the impending loss of their loved one. Yoshimoto?s voice is clear, assured, and deeply moving, displaying again why she is one of Japan?s, and the world?s, most beloved writers.

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