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Hardboiled / Hard Luck
 
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Hardboiled / Hard Luck (Paperback)

by Banana Yoshimoto (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber; Revised edition edition (3 Aug 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0571227848
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571227846
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 1.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 172,777 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #6 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > Y > Yoshimoto, Banana

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Product Description

Review
"'These bitter-sweet novellas mix ancient software - the autumnal pathos of much Japanese art - with the modern hardware of tough urban life.' Independent"

Daily Mail
'Subtle, haunting ... Here are two affecting short stories from an author billed as Japan's leading female novelist.' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Hardboiled / Hard Luck
43% buy the item featured on this page:
Hardboiled / Hard Luck 4.0 out of 5 stars (2)
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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Just what I was looking for, 4 Jan 2007
In preparation for an upcoming trip to Japan I decided to try some of Yoshimoto's work. I wasn't disappointed. The style of hard boiled/hard luck is somewhat similar to Murikami's lucid but surreal prose in the Wind Up Bird Chronicle. The reader is offered a view of Japanese life that is everday in its simplicity, but spins magic out of the mundane.
My only complaint would be that it didn't last long enough!
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4.0 out of 5 stars The loneliness of passing time, 25 April 2008
Banana Yoshimoto requires a certain mood. It's almost like reading poetry. On the surface it's naked and painfully mundane - but there's always some kind of parallel reality, something magic in her stories.

This book contains two novellas. The first one is about a woman who is out walking, checks in at a weird hotel and reminisces about her female friend and lover who died a year ago. The second one is about a woman and her relationship to her sister who is in coma. About the sadness and beauty that surrounds you when a close one dies.

Both stories have young female narratives and they are quite similar, living in the shadow of another woman whom they admire. At the same time they are trying to come to terms with their own identity and path in life. Lines like "when I see too many ordinary people, I start thinking that I'm strange, and that makes me uneasy" is typical of Yoshimoto's naïve, but totally believable style.

Another favourite passage is:

"The loneliness of passing time. The loneliness of the fork in the road.
`I wonder why we feel so lonely? It's odd, isn't it?'
We kept repeating such phrases, as if it were someone else's problem."

Loss is a topic in many of Yoshimoto's stories. The reason I don't give this book 5 stars is that I know that she could've written with even more pain and beauty. In the second story I would've expected a bit more from the ending.
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