Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
N.P.
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
10 posts | 20 read | 21 to read
In N.P., Banana Yoshimoto's enchanting novel of uncanny subtlety, style, magic, and mystery, a celebrated Japanese writer has committed suicide, leaving behind a collection of stories written in English. But the book, itself titled N.P., may never be published in his native Japan: each translator who takes up the ninety-eighth story chooses death too--including Kazami Kano's boyfriend, Shoji. Haunted by Shoji's death, Kazami is inexorably drawn to three young people whose lives are intimately bound to the late writer and his work. Over the course of an astonishing summer, she will discover the truth behind the ninety-eighth story--and she will come to believe that everything that had happened was shockingly beautiful, enough to make you crazy.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
Moll
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
Mehso-so

This just didn't really do it for me plot wise, but lots of the prose was gorgeous! Do look up the trigger warnings before you read this one (particularly suicide)

That's my #DoubleSpin read for this month too!

quote
Lexica10
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
post image

It was then that I first felt a deep curiosity about language, and understood it as a tool that encompasses both a single moment and eternity.

4 likes1 stack add
review
Billypar
NP | Banana Yoshimoto
post image
Pickpick

After 3 translators of a deceased author's final collection commit suicide after trying to translate the 98th story from English to Japanese, the new translator befriends the author's children and...strange stuff happens. Not the kind of strange I was expecting, but I liked it: a series of surreal situations and lots of descriptions about summer weather. Can't figure out why several editions have goldfish on the cover...maybe I missed something?

37 likes1 stack add
blurb
Billypar
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
post image

#bookhaul 2/2
A two-bookstore day is a rare treat and it led to these choices. Homes is the only author I've read before (May We Be Forgiven was one favorite from 2018). I've wanted to try Yoshimoto for awhile and can't resist a plot like N.P.' s. Bradbury is another long on my list, and I made sci-fi short stories a 2020 reading goal. Never heard of Ashour until a Book Riot list of top works by Egyptian authors, and the first page sold me.

Reggie I really liked N.P. Very strange. Hope you enjoy it! 4y
Billypar @Reggie I'm curious about where she'll go with the basic set up. I want to read Kitchen too because of all the attention and positive reactions it got, but I couldn't pass NP up after reading the jacket. 4y
Suet624 I swear I read Homes other book but I can‘t remember. Grrr... Old age strikes. 4y
See All 6 Comments
Billypar @Suet624 Was it a story collection? I feel like she's most known for The Safety of Objects. 4y
Suet624 I‘m thinking of May We Be Forgiven. But I‘m sure now that I haven‘t read it. I think it‘s sitting in a box in one of my closets waiting to be read. This year! I swear! I‘m diving into those boxes. 😳😀🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ 4y
Billypar @Suet624 That's the one I read! You are in for a treat when you pick it up. 4y
38 likes6 comments
review
Reggie
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
post image
Pickpick

This book is Buh-na-nuhs. It had all the makings of a Greek tragedy that swerves right before the end and turns into some crazy story about that one crazy summer you had where all those crazy things happened and you tell the story of that summer years later to a friend at a diner who sits there wide eyed at how beautifully, yet casual you recount such craziness. It was a pick for me, it just won‘t be for everyone. TW for incest and suicide.

batsy Your amazing review has done it again! I loved Kitchen and I have to read this! 5y
erzascarletbookgasm Haha! Great review! 💗 5y
Reggie @batsy Thanks!! Just fair warning, there is no plot. A lot of story and incredible moody scenes beautifully written, anchored in nature, but a plot they all do not make. 5y
See All 20 Comments
batsy Double stacked! 😂 5y
Cinfhen I just want to read your reviews all day long!!!! Where do u find these treasures???? 5y
Reggie @Cinfhen lol, thanks. It started with Strange Weather in Tokyo and when I went to go look for a review video on booktube Next thing you know I‘m watching best translated Japanese fiction videos. One thing leads to another. 5y
LauraBeth Someone needs to hire you to write reviews 😀 5y
TrishB Love the review 💕 think I‘ll pass on the book! 5y
Cathythoughts Another excellent review 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 5y
Lauram Excellent review 😂! Stacking this one 5y
emilyhaldi Love this!! 👏🏻 And I enjoyed Kitchen so much too, so standing this 🤗 5y
Suet624 I agree with all your fans. You‘ve done it again. Your reviews are stupendous. Stacked. 5y
Reggie @erzascarletbookgasm @LauraBeth @TrishB @Cathythoughts @Lauram @emilyhaldi @Suet624 Thank you, ladies, for all the kind words. There was a surreal moment in here when the mother who is a translator is talking to her daughter who is a translator who is the surviving girlfriend of a man who committed suicide translating a book written in English by a Japanese man into Japanese. All the while I am reading an English translation of a Japanese novel. 5y
Centique I‘m loving the reviews too. AND I‘ve had a hankering for more Japanese fiction. Murakami has made me an addict! Have to squeeze a couple more onto this years TBR. Somehow. Read faster Paula🤞😂 5y
RohitSawant Brilliant review! Stacking! 5y
kspenmoll Agree with everyone! Love reading your reviews; your way with words that is uniquely you. 5y
Reggie @Centique lol, yesterday I stacked something like 8 books to the TBR all the while thinking, ‘when am I gonna get to them?‘ Japanese culture is very different, I feel. Like it‘s more subtle. I‘ve never been there but it‘s just been nice reading about it. 5y
Reggie @rohit-sawant Thanks, I think you‘d like it because I could definitely see a movie being made out of it. 5y
Reggie @kspenoll Thank you!! 5y
ValerieAndBooks I have Kitchen in my TBR— I should start it soon! Have been reading Murakami lately 👍!! 5y
72 likes13 stack adds20 comments
blurb
Reggie
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
post image

So I‘m reading the tagged book and it makes mention of a Wyeth painting. It‘s not this one but this painting is called “Wyeth” because the painting in the painting is called “Self Portrait” by Andrew Wyeth. And the whole painting is by Karin Jurick. She did a study of paintings based on the Wyeth clan. How creepy though. I just wanna tell the little girl to get the hell outta there. Lol

Leftcoastzen Oh yes little girl, run away,far ,far away🎃 5y
ephemeralwaltz Interesting, great post! Thanks for sharing. 5y
LauraBeth Thanks for my nightmare tonight! 😂 5y
See All 18 Comments
Kappadeemom Awwww Hell naw! 5y
Erinreadsthebooks Really beautiful and super creepy...and compelling fits in there somewhere, too. 5y
NatalieR I love that painting! 🎃 5y
Reggie @Leftcoastzen @ephemeralwaltz @LauraBeth @Kappadeemom @Erinreadsthebooks @NatalieR The Wyeths love Halloween and do several paintings showing their love of the holiday. This artist has a Polaroid of one of their Halloween dinners in real life where Jamie Wyeth is wearing a jackolantern on his head in the middle of everyone eating. It is stark to say the least. 5y
NatalieR I need to learn more about these people! I think we would be great friends IRL. 😜 5y
readordierachel Super creepy! 5y
sprainedbrain That is super creepy. 😱 5y
RohitSawant So creepy! 5y
batsy The sense of menace just jumps out at you. 5y
Tanisha_A 😶 Eek! 5y
Reggie @readordierachel @sprainedbrain @rohit-sawant @Tanisha_A Right? @batsy I think it‘s because it looks like she‘s actually seeing him outside a window vs. a painting. But yeah, this one totally caught me as I scrolled through the images. 5y
Tanisha_A And the posture of the pumpkin man! 😶 5y
Centique Shivers just went up my spine! 😱😱 5y
Reggie @Centique yeah, he looks like he could just reach out and snatch her. 5y
ValerieAndBooks I live in Wyeth country and recognized Pumpkinhead immediately 😂! The museum that focuses on their art is just a couple miles from me. 5y
71 likes18 comments
review
sparrowssavvy
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
post image
Pickpick

A light afternoon read which was immersive and very beautiful. The language was so lovely and the emotional resonance was long lasting. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am very interested in reading more by this author. While there wasn't a ton of action, it still captured my attention and was a beautiful read.

sprainedbrain I loved her book Kitchen! I will have to check this one out. 😃 6y
sparrowssavvy @sprainedbrain I really want to read that one! I think it's considered her best work 6y
21 likes2 comments
blurb
m.galehuxley
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
post image

I can‘t quit Banana Yoshimoto lately.

11 likes2 stack adds
blurb
Imbookenit
N.P. | Banana Yoshimoto
post image

A book about a writer who commits suicide before his last book can be translated and the book's ability to inflict grief and misery and eventually suicide to every translator there after.

Again, Banana Yoshimoto creates a story which fills the reader with suspense yet peace, grief and yet utter bliss. 5/5📖#np bananayoshimoto #banana #yoshimoto #fiction #japaneselit