How do you rate a bad book if the author herself apologizes for it? Would you be more considerate with your rating because of the apology? At least, you can say that she has that humility of accepting the fact that what she wrote a "trashy" book.Honestly, for me, there is almost nothing new or nothing to like in this book. However on the very last page of my edition was an Afterword by the author and she sounded apologetic: "I give my deepest thanks to the one who translated this book, so random...

An exquisite book about the ebb and flow of a young Japanese woman's life.Although I generally don't like magical realism,I still enjoyed this book.The title "Amrita" means immortality.Sakumi is a young woman whose sister,an actress commits suicide in scandalous,mysterious circumstances.She herself has had a head injury which results in the loss of her childhood memories.She is visited by ghosts and receives telepathic messages.Her brother who has mystical powers,predicts an air crash and the ap...

The main character of this Yoshimoto book is quite similar to all of her novels: a young, modern Japanese woman who has endured great trauma but manages to keep an open heart to the world despite it. A lot of tragedy besets the particular narrator of this book, Sakumi; before it even begins her father and then sister have passed away and she has had an accident that causes her brain damage. Despite the heavy scene that sets up, this novel is breezy and fantastical. It may be about family and los...

I feel a need to defend this book...I picked it up during a Japanese-authors phase and just couldn't put it down. Some might argue that Yoshimoto's story is too surreal, too fragmented, "too detailed" (as a friend put it). For me, it was just right. Every other page I felt like underlining a quote. Every sequential chapter, distinctly out of joint with the previous, made me feel like I was floating out in the ether somewhere. The story is supposed to be about the way life turns on itself; the eb...

I adore Banana Yoshimoto for the ability to create atmosphere I find myself at ease in. She is, for me, the master of ‘ichi-go ichi-e’ - this elusive Japanese awareness of treasuring the unrepeatable nature of a moment. “Amrita”, like many other works by Yoshimoto, is a perfect novel embodying it.Many people have a problem with “Amrita”, saying it is too weird or about nothing in particular. Some characters possess powers most people don’t: they can enter other people’s dreams, they have premoni...

It might be unfair to rate this novel so low when I skipped most of it, and will probably toss it away before I could finish it. It is not necessarily boring, rather, not interesting. I did not find any appeal in the story or the author's approach to narration. Banana Yoshimoto is a talented writer. She is very popular in her native Japan and has a loyal following. Her writings however seem to target young women. Her popular novels (at least the ones that I have read) were written in the 90s whe...

In Sanskrit, Amrita means immortality. And this book was in between surreal and reality. I've read few magical realism before, but never one like this. A fresh kind of vibe. Talking about plot, as what Yoshimoto said-- this book is very simple. It was about daily life and what's happening around. I love how it relates to most of familiar scenes in life-- people come and go, incidents happen, loneliness and betrayal, friendship and families, gifted and ungifted. As what Yoshimoto said in foreword...

Audible Version. I really enjoyed the narrative and the narration. The storyline explores loss-the loss of someone you care for and, by an unfortunate accident, the loss of memory. The narrator navigates her way back to life with the help of a unique cast of characters. I loved the relationships between characters and the supernatural element of her brother’s clairvoyance. I really liked the trip to Saipan and the couple that resides there. This is one I would like to re-listen to or find a copy...

Maybe 3.5I find it hard to say how I feel about this book. It felt much more disjointed and unpolished that Banana Yoshimoto's other works; it's a lot longer than her others, and I wonder if her writing is more suited to shorter fiction. Saying that, it has an odd charm to it - I love the relationship bet Sakumi and her younger brother, which was for me the heart of the story, and I feel like it explores a lot of really interesting themes. Yoshimoto's writing has that strange and beautiful quali...

The thing about Banana Yoshimoto's books is that I feel like I'm being introduced into a real and raw, yet dreamy world. The main character Sakumi (aka Saku-chan) describes her "mixed up" family and the death of her younger sister and her own accident with crystal clear and unapologetic simplicity.All the characters have some flaw and we see the flaws, but the flaws are so real and we are able to view them as natural part of life, not a problematic thing to overcome. The characters all seem to s...

Just love this book. It's about the love of life, love of living, love of all the tiny little things and moments that everyone of us would encounter in our daily life. Having undergone so many tragedies and hardships, the main character is still so strong and so full of hope. To me it's the Japanese spirit of "build back better", it reminds me of how blessed I am having another day on Earth, breathing and enjoying the (even not so fresh) air and living the life that I have been fighting for. Một...

I remembered loving Kitchen, so when I saw this book was on sale, I couldn't resist.I probably should have.People seem to like Banana's books for her writing style -- oddly enough, that's exactly what I dislike about this one [and, now that I think of it, I didn't much like it in Kitchen, either]. It may be more "real" to have a character constantly contradict herself, but it makes for really annoying reading when those contradictions happen in the same paragraph, over and over and over.I also h...

i will always be amazed by yoshimoto’s ability to describe the ordinary and mundane aspects of our lives with such vibrancy and detail.

After more than a year I finally had the opportunity to read another lovely novel from my very favorite author. Thanks to dear k_chan79, who gave me this most adored gift last time she came to visit me, I could dive into Yoshimoto-san’s familiar reality in a perfect time to fully understand its depths. What I like the most in her writing is the simplicity, the way she describes life as this succession of happenings, related or not to one another, something that does not necessarily makes sense,

Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto is one of those books that is a terror to summarize. The book I think is best summarized by one of the quotes by the protagonist "The world around us often goes thru changes. It doesn't mean it gets better or worse. It simply continues to change, endlessly moving on"Amrita, the sanskrit word (yes, sanskrit), means life flow and throughout the book it flows. There is a cycle of events, emotions and thoughts which doesn't really have a 'story' that has a beginning and en...

Some books are great, some are pretty good and some are written by Dan Brown. But what's even worse than a book written by Dan Brown is a book which is critically acclaimed, hailed as "extraordinarily powerful", "difficult to forget", "astonishing", "endearing", but which is so annoyingly bad, you begin to doubt your own ability to recognize good writing. Is this book "difficult to forget?" I would say... probably not, since I just gave up on it yesterday (having reached page 87 and finally deci...

Sadly, this Banana Yoshimoto failed my 100-page test.

This ended up being a truly surprisingly enjoyable read for me! I loved the emphasis on everyday life and relationships that are special, even if they sometimes seem to be simply 'routine'. This fulfilled 4 prompts on 4 major reading challenges in which I am participating this year. I had no book to fulfill these specific prompts regarding a book set in Japan, written by an author from Japan, related to the 2020 Olympics which were planned for Japan, and translated from an Asian language. Then o...

the fact the author had to apologise for it says a lot - a complete mess, an upsetting read, unsalvageable.

I adore Banana, but it's hard not to feel that her style is better suited to short fiction after finishing Amrita. All the definitive aspects of her writing are here and, often, beautiful - the deep introspection, sensitivity, and surrealism that make her so enjoyable to read - but after a certain point it feels expected, even redundant, as the story drags on with seemingly little direction. I understand the thematic significance of the story's length and progression, but the payoff doesn't fe...

Freak. I thought it would take me forever to finish reading this book as I lost tracks a hundred times and still managed to find out what the title "Amrita" has anything related to the character. Of course I was amused by how random it is. There are tons of details I couldn't skip and guess what, it made me entirely exhausted. I even had a nightmare of losing my beloved. It was so haunting of a book yet so random and trashy it can be. Is this "Banana-maniac" everyone is talking about? Meh. But I...

One of Banana Yoshimoto's fully realized works available in English, a travelogue about a woman who lost her memories and, along for the journey, her kid brother, whose burgeoning psychic powers threaten to overwhelm him. In all, a life affirming novel with some odd quirks.

I like Yoshimoto but I don't think this one lives up to her N.P., Lizard, and Kitchen. It's a saga of a Sakimu who injures herself and while recovering tells her story and her sister's and borther's.

One of my most favourite books I've ever read!

This is a book that’s kinda about nothing but everything all at once. There are a number of significant, often tragic, events that occur, but the book isn’t really about those big moments. Instead, it zooms in on the small moments of everyday life that happen in between the life changing ones. There’s also a lot of magic and the unexplained happening, from ghosts to telepathy, but again this isn’t the focus. Instead the focus is on everyday interactions, sunsets, street food, memories, beaches.

This did not work well for me and I think it was hugely due to the audiobook. The narrator did not do a good job in my opinion. I was often confused as to who is talking. Other times I didn't know when exactly things were hapening that might have been clearer in writing than on audio. Overall I also didn't understand what the book wanted to tell me.Do not start with this book and do not use the audiobook.

Banana Yoshimoto’s Amrita is an intriguing story that seems to abstract time as one reads it. It tells the story of the death of a fragile young actress, and the fragmented lives she leaves behind. In her absence, strange things begin to occur. Her younger brother begins to have extrasensory visions, her ex-fiance travels the world in search of a story to tell, and her older sister Sakumi is there to pick up the pieces of her own broken memory, after suffering a severe fall. On her journey navig...

An usually long novel for Banana Yoshimoto, but just as beautiful and touching as everything else I have read from her.

Amrita by Banana YoshimotoWow. Unbelievably, this is the 50th book I’ve read for 2020. Time really flies. Amrita is Banana Yoshimoto’s longest book yet, and the title Amrita is Sanskrit for immortality. It’s a strange novel about a girl, Sakume, who’s just recovered from a concussion, and her relationships with family and friends. Her telepathic brother is able to predict events like UFO sightings and read people’s minds. Sakume herself seems to attract tons of weird people too, one person even

On Audible I gave overall and narration 5 stars, and story 4. I still give it 5 overall. The reviews for this are from 1 to 5 stars, perhaps because it won't appeal to some people. The main character, Sakumi, is a young woman who has suffered the loss of her younger sister, and experiences memory loss after an accident. There is also an otherworldly feeling with people who have supernatural powers. It's not anything extreme like a Stephen King novel, but it is an integral part of the book. The p...