Banana

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Traditional housewives "had been taught, probably by caring parents, not to exceed the boundaries of their happiness". Chances are, you’ve never heard of the guy who was famously called America’s Banana King. But if you’re not aware of some of the things he’s done, you’ll never be a big winner on Jeopardy or pass an AP test in modern world history. Just for example, he was the guy who engineered the CIA-led coup that overthrew the government of Guatemala in 1954, ushering in an era of intensified hatred for the United States throughout Latin America. Both stories have a dash of this. In the first, it's a dream that might be a premonition; in the second, there's an ethereal character who (maybe) shows another character a little gap in time.

There are times when certain cards sit unclaimed in the common pile, when certain properties become available that will never be available again. A good businessman feels these moments like a fall in the barometric pressure. A great businessman is dumb enough to act on them even when he cannot afford to.” Dan Koeppel’s Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World has incredible detail on the history and science of the banana but has significant issues with fluidity and focus. The treatment of transgender issues in the novel is a little of its time and place (deadnaming, misgendering and confusion between transgender and transvestite all feature), although rather less cringeworthy now than another translated novel I read recently, Ruth. See Yuri Stargirl's blog for a well balanced take on this aspect. Revolving around the theme of dealing with loss, Kitchen focuses on two young women as protagonists and their perceptions of life and death. This book covers the history -- and future! -- of the humble banana. It starts with its beginnings in Asia, its geographic and evolutionary progressing, and the arrival of the banana to America.In addition, there are innumerable turns of phrase that are unforgettable but I particularly liked: Last, but not least, I wish Koeppel had used footnotes to cite his source material. I suppose he deemed them too “academic” for the average reader or something. Instead, his sources (both major and minor) are dropped into the narrative with an audible CLUNK! �� Mensen bezwijken niet onder omstandigheden en krachten van buitenaf, ze worden van binnenuit verslagen, dacht ik uit de grond van mijn hart

It was also very disconcerting to be reading along in the 3rd person and then have the author interject himself as the story teller in the 1st person. En la primera novela, Kichen, la autora establece una original o al menos curiosa mezcla entre lo fúnebre y lo gastronómico que empaña el resto de los subtemas, incluso el amoroso. Mikage was an orphan, raised by her grandmother: "I was always aware that my family consisted of only one other person. The space that cannot be filled, no matter how cheerfully a child and an old person live together - the deathly silence that, panting in the corner of the room, pushes its way in like a shudder." (The punctuation is a little odd, though.) An interesting read about Sam Zemurray, the Russian immigrant who came to the United States penniless and died one of its wealthiest and most influential men.

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Mikage Sakurai has lost her dearly beloved grandmother whom she had been living with, and she feels lost, alone and vulnerable. She’s now an orphan as there are no other relatives. The tide has gone out and she doesn’t know when or whether it will return. She knows she has to find a new apartment to live in but hesitates. So when a casual acquaintance, Yuichi Tanabe, who used to work part-time in her grandmother’s favourite flower shop, invites her to stay with him and his mother, Eriko, she agrees, especially when she sees the enormous sofa, which would be her bed, in the living room and finally the kitchen. She was a particular lover of kitchens. This story is also about a young woman called Satsuki who has lost her loved one, Hitoshi but it has more of a metaphysical feel to it. Yes, she has this same dreadful sense of loss as the earlier story. Hitoshi had a brother called Hiiragi, who had lost his girlfriend Yumiko at the same time as Hitoshi had been killed. The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s the kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. White tile catching the light (ting! ting!). Truly great people emit a light that warms the hearts of those around them. When that light has been put out, a heavy shadow of despair descends. Perhaps Eriko's was only a minor kind of greatness, but her light was sorely missed. I also felt that many of the descriptions about Zemurray himself being a formidable figure came across as forced. He was the typical silent and gruff man who was smart about his business. Isn't Jay from Modern Family the same? Not trying to put down Zemurray here but I just didn't get enough details about him to form this larger-than-life figure that Cohen was trying to project.

Mikage and Yuichi's lives are brought together by death. They are on the cusp of falling in love or living as strangers. Dan buku ini, Saudara-Saudara yang budiman, memang bukan hanya bercerita tentang sejarah pohon dan buah pisang, tapi juga tragedi yang ditimbulkannya dalam sejarah. Bukan hanya tragedi awal mula manusia sehingga terpaksa menjadi khalifah di muka bumi, tapi juga tragedi yang ditimbulkan para importir pisang yang ingin memonopoli pasokan pisang, sehingga dapat mengacau-balaukan demokrasi di negara penghasil pisang (biasa disebut Banana Republic).Here the narrator is Mikage Sakurai, a university student, who has lost her grandmother, her last surviving relative (her parents died when she was young) and has only her kitchen (see the opening quote) left for comfort.