Amrita

I was able to fly through this next book pretty simple now that I have conquered a big one, and it was not a bad one to go with either.

Sakumi goes through an eventful few years that include the suicide of her younger sister Mayu, the loss of her memory from falling down a flight of slippery stairs while rushing to work, and her little brother Yoshio’s self-discovery of his mental capacity. Other things happen, but I am not feeling up to spoiling. Once her memory escapes her, Sakumi relearns about herself and dives deeper into the world both around her and what is beyond Japan. This is Amrita by Banana Yoshimoto. No, I did not pick the book because her name was Banana.

I appreciated reading Amrita, it was very heartwarming to embrace and take in to myself. Sure, there is a large amount of sadness and so much contemplation and over the top analysis of life, the meaning of it, and what it is to live, only to always come to the result that at the end of the day it is about finding your joy, but sometimes you just go through that season in your life where you do look at everything in that analytical way. Something happened, now Sakumi has to walk through in her mind how this makes her feel, why she feels that way, what does it remind her of, and then validate it. It is an interesting way to look at things, and an interesting point to make is that we may be reading this step-by-step thing, but in reality we do not know how long it takes her to think through all of it to come to her conclusion and move on; it might be instantly. To be honest, I would not blame you if you were to read it and find the continual cycle of self-analysis to be a bit much. It is different, though; I do not think I have read anything life it. Somehow, I do not know how, but it works for me.

I appreciate that on the flip-side of the sadness, there is a lot of positive stuff going on as well. As negative things happen, the characters remain relatively positive, because that is another lesson Sakumi learns: life goes on regardless of the things that happen in your life and you have to be able to go along with it. No, do not sweep stuff under the rug, take the time you need to mentally power through stuff, but realize that the world around you has to keep moving. The way that Sakumi describes everyone around her is so uplifting, she is not someone to be negatively judgmental. Her friend Eiko is described as someone fearless regardless of the things she gets into. Ryoichiro is someone who is free and wants to ride on new experiences. Her mom and friend are strong women who care greatly for the people in their lives. That is a good example of something to have in your life: surround yourself with good people.

I am finding all sorts of lessons to be learned from reading Amrita, so I am glad that I got to experience reading it. I hope that you read it, too. I have other books by Banana Yoshimoto as well, so that is something I can look forward as well for books to read later on. If you would like to read Amrita, you can find it here.

9/10