Asleep (1989)

by Banana Yoshimoto

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1,266	21	15,340	(3.55)	18
Banana Yoshimoto has a magical ability to animate the lives of her young characters, and here she spins the stories of three women, all bewitched into a spiritual sleep. One, mourning a lost lover, finds herself sleepwalking at night. Another, who has embarked on a relationship with a man whose wife is in a coma, finds herself suddenly unable to stay awake. A third finds her sleep haunted by another woman whom she was once pitted against in a love triangle. Sly and mystical as a ghost story, with a touch of Kafkaesque surrealism, Asleep is an enchanting book from one of the best writers in contemporary international fiction.… (more)

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Although I like Yoshimoto's writing and the themes of her books I struggled with 'Asleep'. (

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Acia | Jan 1, 2021 |

Asleep by Banana Yoshimoto is a collection of three short stories focusing on the transitory nature of life and nostalgia from one of Japan's most famous modern writers. Each story is tinged with loss, death, and sleep and how one, while shunning the ordinariness of the world, comes to terms with that. Of the three stories ("Night and Night's Travellers", "Long Songs", and "Asleep"), my favourite was the first one, which could have been extended just a little more.

All three stories do not really end but just stop, which when read in succession can be wearisome. However, Yoshimoto has portrayed beautifully the pathos of everyday life and its fleetingness, central to Japanese aesthetics, both of which are contained within these stories. Each is enjoyable. (

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xuebi | May 30, 2014 |

I loved this! Gorgeous prose, simple yet haunting. It's amazing to me that modern Japanese culture still has such strong ties to the spirit world. I loved these depictions of people drifting in and out of reality, fighting their addictions and demons. (

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emilyingreen | May 28, 2014 |

This book is comprised of three stories, all of which seem to deal with loss. Sadly none of them connected emotionally with me. Maybe it's because I've recently read two incredible novels of loss ([b:Threats: A Novel|11982625|Threats A Novel|Amelia Gray|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316640015s/11982625.jpg|16946100] and [b:A Prayer for the Dying|321623|A Prayer for the Dying|Stewart O'Nan|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311994597s/321623.jpg|312340]).

Maybe it's something that's lost in translation because I never feel emotionally engaged by Japanese literature (despite often enjoying it).

My advice is to skip this one and read Yoshomoto's [b:Kitchen|50144|Kitchen|Banana Yoshimoto|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327904393s/50144.jpg|1543818] instead. (

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dtn620 | Sep 22, 2013 |

This book contains sad yet heart warming stories. I wasn't too sure about it when I first picked it up, however I loved each story, and I found myself wanting to read more of each, and of the author. (

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AshuritaLove | Apr 7, 2013 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Banana Yoshimoto	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Brockmann, Anita	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Emmerich, Michael	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Ogasa, Gisela	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Ortmanns, Annelie	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Porta, Lourdes	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Canonical title

Asleep

Original title

白河夜船

Shirakawa Yofune

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Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Dear Sarah,

It was spring when we went to see my brother off.

Quotations

I'd noticed this for the first time just recently, after I'd started drinking more heavily. Each time I looked out on that scenery with drunken eyes I'd be overwhelmed by the unbelievable purity of those colors, and I'd start feeling as if nothing really mattered, like I wouldn't really care at all even if I were to lose everything I had.
This wasn't resignation, or desperation. It was a much more natural form of acceptance, a feeling that arose from a sweep of emotion that was quiet and cool and crystal-clear.

Somewhere within the borders of that day I left behind the healthy young woman I'd been, and came on without her. Nothing had change, not really, and yet before the day was over we found ourselves being dragged into the flow of some gigantic, dark, irresistible fate: the two of us together.

And since our house was much too big for a child to stay in all by herself, I made it my policy just to hold my breath and count to three and hurl myself headlong into sleep. The thoughts that twirled through my head when I turned out the bedroom lights and lay there gazing up at the dark ceiling were always so deliciously sweet and full of loneliness that I hated them. I didn't want to start liking that loneliness, so before I knew it I'd be asleep.

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Japanese

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Asleep (novel)

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Banana Yoshimoto has a magical ability to animate the lives of her young characters, and here she spins the stories of three women, all bewitched into a spiritual sleep. One, mourning a lost lover, finds herself sleepwalking at night. Another, who has embarked on a relationship with a man whose wife is in a coma, finds herself suddenly unable to stay awake. A third finds her sleep haunted by another woman whom she was once pitted against in a love triangle. Sly and mystical as a ghost story, with a touch of Kafkaesque surrealism, Asleep is an enchanting book from one of the best writers in contemporary international fiction.

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