Banana Yoshimoto is one of those writers you just can't get out of your head once you've read anything by her. With Asleep, Yoshimoto presents three unforgettable stories involving people and the ways their sleep patterns affect them.
Yoshimoto broke out from the starting gate at age 23, causing 'Banana-mania' in Japan with her first novel, Kitchen. Yoshimoto is the voice of urban Japanese twenty-somethings, primarily dealing with romantic versus familial relationships, as well as social and employment issues.
The most memorable of the stories in Asleep is "Love Songs" in which a woman who was once involved in a self-destructive love triangle begins to hear sweet singing just as she's about to fall asleep. After some time, she realizes that the "other woman" with whom she had competed for the same man, had died and was trying to reach her from "beyond."
The title short story, "Asleep," focuses on a young woman who is having an affair with a man whose wife is in a coma. As the relationship progresses, the young woman finds herself unable to stay awake. The third story involves a young woman who begins to sleepwalk at night, mourning for her lost lover.
Yoshimoto's writing is crisp and rich with description. A reader feels very grounded in the details provided, even when Yoshimoto deals with some very heady subjects. Try her once and I'm certain you, too, will fall under the spell of Banana-mania.
