Rating: 
Summary: Banana stuck in her 20s?
Review: "Kitchen" is my favorite novel in the world, and I love "Amrita," so my expectations are always sky-high when I read a new Banana novel. "Tsugumi" is charming and readable and has some hilarious scenes -- and it's better than 99.99% of the novels out there -- but it's not one of her very best. While reading it, I kept thinking about that theory you sometimes hear, that everyone is the same age all their lives (some people are ALWAYS 10; some people are ALWAYS 70; some people are ALWAYS 34 1/2; and Banana, even though she's chronologically 38, is ALWAYS in her early 20s. Her best characters are always women in their early 20s (and this book centers on 3 women around that age). I wonder if she'll still be writing about 20 year olds when she's 60? I hope so, because I love her books!!!
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Summary: Perfect End of Summer Reading
Review: "Asleep" was the first book of Yoshimoto's that I read, and I enjoyed it so much that I immediately read all her other books. "Asleep" and "Kitchen" were my favorites, along with "Lizard," and now I have a fourth favorite. "Goodbye Tsugumi" is just as delicate as Tsugumi is difficult. Tsugumi's character is very complex, and even as a character in a book she is a bit hard to get used to. But if you try to understand her you can, and you find that she is so memorable you won't be able to say goodbye, you will just take her with you after you finish reading. Thank you, Banana Yoshimoto, for another fantastic book! This was the perfect book for the end of summer.
Rating: 
Summary: Goodbye Tsugumi
Review: A disappointing book from an author whom I came to love after reading Kitchen and N.P.:A Novel. Goodbye Tsugumi is told in a simple way. Yoshimoto's story is lacking a simple elegant style, instead it feels sophmoric.
Much of the writing comes off as a teenager recollecting the past with a friend. This might work if there was something more to be gained from the story, but there is not. Reading this book is like unraveling a simple square knot,once it is released there is nothing more there.
Rating: 
Summary: One of her better works...
Review: Although I have been reading a lot of Yoshimoto, there is something continously unsatisfying about her works, and this is no exception. Perhaps thats why I continously read them, seeking that book which finally satisfies. Her masterpiece, or whatever you wish to call it.
I don't necessarily want to the works to be conclusive, I like their delicacy and gentle flow..so I can exactly put my figure on what it is or why it so frustrates me.
I guess I feel as if they could be so much more. So much greater than the sum of their gentle little parts. There could be so much more she develops, in her wistful way. But rather, there is an emptiness which permeates throughout her works.
I accept that this her style, but Murakami is a perfect example of an author who taints his work with the same emptiness, but something more ebbs beneath. I just don't really get that impressive with Yoshimoto. The tales are lovely and delicate and divine, but mostly face value.
However, this is undoubtedly one of her finer works, along with 'Kitchen' and better than 'N.P' and 'Asleep.' I was really hoping that she was going to embrace one of those short stories of hers and write a full length novel, but this work definitely differed in its content from the other works. Though the gorgeous whimsical style remained.
I thought the descriptions of the seaside town and the salt air were utterly captivating. I do wish that Tsugumi's sister had been more throughly explored and that the ending was just slightly more appealing, because the beginning is quite entrancing.
Though, of course, I will read the rest of her works, waiting for that masterpiece. Because when it comes, its going to be something quite extraordinary.
Rating:
Summary: Subtle,fine-tuned,beguiling,bittersweet and melancholy
Review: Goodbye Tsugumi, originally published in Japanese under the title Tsugumi in 1989, is a charming novelette about bratty girl Tsugumi who lives in a seaside town. Maria Shirakawa, Tsugumi's cousin, is the narrator. She reminisces her childhood when she and her mother lived in Yamamoto Inn owned by her aunt and uncle. Maria was the daughter of an unmarried woman (it was considered a shame to the name of a family in Asian culture). Maria grew up with her two cousins Tsugumi and Yoko. Through a prank Tsugumi played on her, Maria became very close to her cruel and foul-mouthed cousin, to whom everyone in the family spoiled and relented due to some unknown illness that could take her life at any moment. The actual story begins when Maria, who attends university in Tokyo, goes back to visit the seaside town in note of the last summer of the inn before its imminent closure. Through Maria's eyes and reminiscence we see a different Tsugumi, someone who if not in a fits of spleen and cruelty can love and embrace those around her. A dogfight on the embankment chances Tsugumi's encounter with Kyoichi, son of a hotel owner. Together they weave a bittersweet and ephemeral love tale. It is through her capacity of love and the blessing of the relationship that keep Tsugumi alive though she lapses into illness occasionally. "On rainy days like this both the past and future dissolve quietly into the air and hover there." "Nighttime turns people into friends in next to no time." Yoshimoto's prose is subtle, fine-tuned, and beguiling. She shrewdly employs beautiful skeins of words that evoke the peaceful, charming, and yet melancholy atmosphere for her backdrop. Yoshimoto achieves a fine balance between a carefully etched, seemingly unlikable character to which readers will have sympathy and like. Not until the end would the readers fully appreciate the impact Tsugumi has made and the mark she has left in Maria and others' lives. Maybe it's the cultural difference or language barrier, the English translation, however excellent and thorough, inevitably (as is usual case for translated literature) loses some vernacular essence and connotation. This subtlety, however, should not undermine the pleasant reading experience Yoshimoto has to offer. 4.0 stars.
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Summary: Another great one from the master storyteller!
Review: I have read all of Banana Yoshimoto's novels. She is a rare talent and a master storyteller. I'd looked forward to reading another one of her gems, and I couldn't wait to read Goodbye Tsugumi. This is the story of Maria, a young woman who has always resented her cousin, Tsugumi. Tsugumi has an unidentified disease and she will die young, which is why her family satisfies her every need -- thus turning Tsugumi into a rude and selfish person. But Maria discovers that there's more about her cousin than meets the eye. There are some great developments in the novel. Yoshimoto, like in her previous novels, uses magical realism in a quite subtle way. I wish I could read her novels in Japanese, for I'd love to read the novels in Yoshimoto's language. I enjoyed reading Goodbye Tusugumi and I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Banana--split
Review: I read Yoshimoto's Kitchen, which I loved, and Amrita, and I could not get beyond page 20, and this fell somewhere in between. The story hinges on the relationship of Maria and her cousin, Tsugumi whose behavior becomes out of control, but apparently forgiven because of her chronic unnamed illness. Maria lives in a seaside inn with her mother, aunt, and cousins until her father brings mother and Maria to Tokyo. Maria moves back just for the summer, and eventually we get to Goodbye, Tsugumi. The plot was so-so, but the dialog hurt the most, often to the point where it felt jarring. I always like to give Yoshimoto's books a whirl, maybe it's because of that Banana as a first name. She is worth reading, so try her first novel, Kitchen, if you want a better sample.
Rating:
Summary: Speechless
Review: I really do not know what to say, in fact I am at a total loss of words. This book was much more than I ever expected. This is not just some teenie-bopper novel, it is high art. I have been crushed, broken, and undone by this story, it is so beautiful and so tragic, and so..................
Rating:
Summary: Searching For A Simile
Review: I've been trying all day to come up with a simile to describe the neat, simple elegance of Banana Yoshimoto's writing, and I think I've finally found one! It's like reading out of a bento box.
Rating:
Summary: review of 'goodbye tsugumi'
Review: In 'Goodbye Tsugumi', Maria (the narrator) has lived with the Yamamoto family comprising Uncle Tashadi, Aunt Masako, Yoko and Tsugumi. Tsugumi is a rude and nasty young girl threatened by a potentially fatal illness. As such, everyone is accustomed to her ill manners and behaviour but no one really understands her as Maria. Maria sees Tsugumi's rude and unpleasant front as a barrier Tsugumi uses to prevent others from understanding her. During a summer holiday, Tsugumi meets Kyoichi and falls in love with him. Things turn unpleasant when Kyoichi and his dog get into trouble with locals who are unhappy with Kyoichi and his family. Tsugumi decides to revenge for Kyoichi, but exhausts too much of her strength. She runs a high fever, her kidneys stop functioning properly, she is drained of energy... Maria is filled with unease as she faces the possibilty of losing Tsugumi forever... The central theme of the book is family love. Here, Maria learns to love her family and her cousin Tsugumi. 'Each one of us continues to carry the heart of each self we've been, at every stage along the way, and a chaos of everything good and rotten. And we have to carry this weight all alone, through each day that we live. We try to be as nice as we can to the people we love, but we alone support the weight of ourselves.' (pg 39, faber and faber paperback edition) Compared to other Banana Yoshimoto books, I would say that this one is average. The book starts off tremendously well, but it gets a bit muddled in the middle and late-middle sections. Fortunately, this letdown is somewhat redeemed by the book's ending. I would consider this book a worthwhile read in spite of its shortcomings. I recommend it to everyone.
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