Yoshimoto\'s elegant, fey touch with such weighty themes as despair and fate, and] her urban images distilled and shimmering as haiku . -- The New Yorker. are] quick and delicate, building, one after another, in a gentle crescendo of understanding and intensity. . .
These stories . . . .
Earnest, deep, and unaffected.
Permeated by the author\'s own effervescent spin on magic realism, Lizard cements a special place for Yoshimoto in twentieth-century Japanese fiction.
In different ways, these six stories explore what it takes to navigate the perils of the modern world as well as what it takes to reinvent one\'s self.
And in the title story, Lizard, a woman who has never before felt truly secure in her life admits a deep secret to her lover--that she has the ability to heal others with her mind.
In Blood and Water, a woman recalls how she left the village she grew up in--which was run by a New Age cult--in order to lead a fulfilling life, even against her parents\' wishes.
In Newlywed, an unhappily married young man deliberately misses his stop on the train, only to be questioned by a shape-shifting homeless man about the trials of his marriage.
These six tales explore themes of time, healing, and fate--and the journeys of self-discovery through which young urbanites come to terms with them.
In Lizard , now available in Grove Press paperback, Yoshimoto deftly fuses traditional and pop culture to create contemporary portraits of love and life. -- Paper magazine Banana Yoshimoto\'s warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and best-seller status, as well as a place among the best of contemporary Japanese literature. continue to make her a welcome and uniquely assured voice. . .
Yoshimoto\'s elegant, fey touch with such weighty themes as despair and fate, and] her urban images distilled and shimmering as haiku
