Hardboiled | Hard Luck Banana Yoshimoto

Pathos, nostalgia, the sense of exquisite sadness at the fleetingness of life are key elements of beauty in Japanese aesthetics, and all are themes central to Banana Yoshimoto’s books. As most of her stories, Hard Luck and Hardboiled feature melancholy Japanese women who can’t sleep, or can’t stop sleeping. They spend hours gazing out of windows, fascinated by their loneliness, contemplating memory, death, and the precious moments of life which are deeply rooted into their hearts.
In Hardboiled, a woman in her thirties experiences a long strange night in a country hotel on the anniversary of her lover’s death, with Yoshimoto wringing menace from an isolated shrine and the inexplicable appearance of small black stones which seem to presage disaster. Hard Luck explores a young woman’s reaction to her sister’s comatose slipping-away from life following a cerebral haemorrhage.
Though not her best work, this book is definitely worth reading. Your mind feels sharper when literature is as simple, crisp and clear as this.