Banana Yoshimoto's warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of
young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and bestseller
status, as well as a place among the best of contemporary Japanese
literature. In Lizard, Yoshimoto deftly fuses traditional and pop
culture to create contemporary portraits of love and life. 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 "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. 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. 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 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. Permeated by the author's own effervescent spin on magic
realism, Lizard cements a special place for Yoshimoto in 20th-century
Japanese fiction.
