Moshi Moshi by Banana Yoshimoto

I don’t remember where I saw this title but I was intrigued by the author’s name.  Who names their kid “Banana”? 

This edition was translated from Japanese and the title was “Moshi Moshi Shimokitazawa”.

It is a coming-of-age story about a young girl whose father dies in a tragic situation.  Yoshi talks about the heartbreak that she and her mother feel as they try to move on. They can’t even stay in the same house that the three of them lived in. She has dreams that her father is calling from his cell phone.

Yoshi is a young girl in her early twenties whose father doted on her as a little girl and even as she became an adult. She never knew her parents were growing apart from each other until her mother told her after he died.  As she matures and tries to figure out what to do next, she comes to learn other things about her father and her mother.

The author wrote intensely from her characters heart and soul.  You almost feel Yoshi’s hurt as she tries to find some normalcy in her life.  She even contemplated how her mother must feel differently as the woman who lost a husband then the girl who lost her father. 

I really enjoyed reading this novel and could not put it down.  I finished it in three days.  Now I want to know more about the small town Shimokitazawa. 

Long White Con by Iceberg Slim

This story is a continuation of Iceberg’s ex-cellmate, White Folks.

After Iceberg got out of jail and squared up, he began a new career as a writer.  He ran into White Folks who was checking into a hotel in Los Angeles.  They caught up with each other on their lives and Iceberg felt another story about White Folks could be done after White Folks told him more about his life as a confidence man.

 I still can’t figure out how White Folks never got caught.

I Almost Forgot You by Terry McMillan

At first I was trying to figure out where the story was going, but it got interesting as only Terry McMillan can do.  I have always enjoyed her novels.

This book made me think about old boyfriends. Do you only do that when you are single?  Or do married folks have the same thoughts? 

Trick Baby by Iceberg Slim

White Folks is a dude that Slim met in jail. Slim writes this story as told to him by Folks while he served 10 days in jail.  They were cell mates.

“Trick Baby” is the story of a black man who is as pale as his white father.  He is the product of a black woman and white man.  

John Patrick O’Brien Junior aka White Folks is alone in the world when his mother is put in a sanitarium.  He tells his story to Slim of how he became a confidence man.  He also talks about the problems he faced as a black man who looks like a white man.  He was teased and taunted by kids in school and they told him that their parents forbid them to play with him because he looked white and because his father was white.  The rumor in the neighborhood was that his father was a trick (a john) and his mother was a prostitute.  I liked how his mother told him that the children were not to blame for how they treated him, but their parents were because they poisoned the children’s minds about people who have different skin color. 

Robert Beck knows how to tell a story.  His writing is pure and raw and sincere.  He knows how to bring depth to his characters. 

The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin

Richard Garay lives with his mother and bares a secret that he cannot tell anyone. A funny anecdote from the story is that his mother notices how happy Richard has been acting and starts to tease him that he has a girlfriend.  He was happier but not because of a girl. 

The setting is Argentina during a time that the country is going through a political change.

Richard teaches English and also cares for his ailing mom.  When she dies – he is left feeling alone.  When he is approached with a job offer to work with 2 Americans he wonders how their influence can help him.  All the while, he keeps his secret life a secret until he can’t keep it a secret anymore.

A deeply written novel involving the inner turmoil of a young man which is happening the same time as turmoil in the country he lives in.