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Novels and More Fiction - Asia
Most books on this
page are sold by imcbook.
IMC is located in Tokyo.
Most are also available from Amazon.com or other sources. All books are
paperback unless stated otherwise. The weight (grams) shown may be
higher or lower than the actual book you buy. Prices quoted
are in
US$ unless otherwise indicated. Prices do not include any
applicable tax or shipping charges.
Also see Stories, Poetry,
Business
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Big
Motorcycle: A Story of Tokyo by Fritz Logan
$27.95, 2003, 668pp, 160x206mm, 726g, 1-40339-829-1
Fussy Frank Donner is a Tokyo guy. A Viet-vet and journalist
wanna-be,
he worries about all of the above. Donner and Buddy Nakamura are
jogging along, and baby comes
screaming over a railing then down, down, down--and into Donner's
arms. The baby's parents have just been
hacked to pieces by a right-winger on a glory trip. Donner saves
her,
he's a hero. Next day, Donner loses her, he's an
idiot--as his wife points out to him, just before she too dies.
And the kidnapper, on a tight Tokyo schedule, plans
to save the baby too, from all the horrors of life. --- a fast paced
story for action lovers.
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Birnbaum A Novel of Inner Space by Michael Hoffman
$39.99, 2008, 321p, 140x215, 530g, 978-1-933606-13-2
"Don't be alarmed! I'm harmless. A harmless crank, and very, very old. Older than I look. You have nothing to fear from me." -- Mort Birnbaum Seventy-three when the novel opens, 88 when it closes. Mort Birmbaum
seems destined to live forever. As he himself says, "Just because no
one else ever has doesn't mean it's impossible in principle." A
former AP journalist, a resident of Japan since 1958, burdened with a
23-volume personal diary he fears will fall into the wrong hands but
can't bring himself to burn, Mort seethes in restless retirement at the
home of his son (or is it his son?) and daughter-in-law in a Hokkaido
village called Zenibakko -- as near to nowhere as you can get, though
not near enough to suit him. He makes up his mind to approach closer --
and almost succeeds, discovering in the process that the laws of "inner
space" are quite different from those of outer space.
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Border
Town by Hillel Wright, artist Taeko Onitsuka
$15.00, 2006, 170pp, 127x190mm, 243g, 1-933606-08-8
The life, loves and legend of a fictional female mange artist whose
controversia comix story challenges a Japanese Emperor. Frederik L.
Schodt (author of Manga!
Manga!
the World of Japanese Comics): I enjoyed Border Town and the author's
wry sense of humor. It's semi-absurdist tone reminded me of some of Tom
Robbins' novels, which I always enjoyed. Leza Lowitz (author of Green
Tea to Go):
... zany tale of manga madness, relationship mayhem and fish fetishism
tkes us into J-pop Tokyo with just the right mix of absurdism and
realism, humor and humility |
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Companions
of the Holiday by Donald Richie
$15.00, 2006, 180pp, 149x210mm, 283g, 1-933606-06-1,
3rd revised ed
First edition published by Weatherhill in 1968. Comments: James
Merrill:- ... a wry, humorous novel, entirely out of the ordinary,
which I shall read again and again. The New Yorker - ... a tale of
intricately wrought illusion and refined below-stairs debate ... this
most delicatw of dramas yet encompasses hatred, love, and death ...
told with loving humor and nostalgia for the old Japan. The New York
Times - ... the real theme is the importance of honoring the
past, of continuity ... the old and new blend most felicitously ... the
book is most praiseworthy for its sympathetic and often funny insights
into Japanese character.
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Lightning in
the Void: The Authentic History of Miyamoto Musashi by
John Carroll
$25.00 (+), 2006, 518pp, 139x209mm, 1-933606-02-9
Thanks largely to the novel Miyamoto
Musashi by Yoshikawa Eiji, the swordsman Miyamoto Musashi is
considered a national hero embodying the best national characteristics:
modesty, resourcefulness, courage, perseverance, simplicity, the desire
to improve spiritually and, above all, sincerity. This book presents a
different portrait. In fact, very little is known about the real
Musashi. Historical references are scattered and contradictory. Carroll
maintains that Yoshikawa used references from works written by members
of Musashi’s own school, with the primary reference being the
highly-embroidered Nitenki (Writings on the Two Heavens), completed
more than a century after Musashi’s death and based on third-hand
materials.
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Losing Kei by
Suzanne Kamata
$14.95 (+), 2008, 195pp, 152x227mm, 270g, 978-0-9728984-9-2
Told with tenderness, humor. and an insider's knowledge of contemporary
Japanese family life. The story of a young American woman who comes to
Japan, marries a Japanese man, has a son (Kei), .... Few books in
English look honestly at the realities of Japanese family/social life,
and far fewer with a real and caring understanding of the further
complications when cultural expectations clash. An enjoyable read that
will also educate.
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Love
as a Second Language by Roy Garner
$26.95, 2004, 257pp, hardcover, 153x230mm, 608g, 0-595-66351-6
(softcover, $16.95, 0-595-31637-9)
"An intensely original story of love, betrayal and survival, played out
in a foreign, yet familiar land,"- Donald Richie
When Justine Cooper's world suddenly collapses he finds that his
ould-be rescuer is the very same woman, Kishiko, who triggered
his downfall; except she is now the Kishiko of his dreams--and
invisible to all but himself. He senses that to survive, he must follow
the lead of his phantom lover, trusting in the powers of instinct and
imagination. Provided the original Kishiko doesn't kill him
first.
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The
Coat that Covers Him: and other stories -- by
Michael Hoffman
$29.50, 2004, 632pp, 127x203mm, 1-4184-9440-2
The characters are, willy-nilly, participants in plots that don't add
up. Some emerge stronger; others, shadows of their former selves. The
six stories and one novel that make up this book are set, wholly or
primarily, in Japan, the land of the artful mask. Meet the man who
loses his key and sets in motion a chain of events whose
incomprehensibility he will never understand; a small girl who accosts
a fugitive murderer (is he really a murderer?) for sex, only to be
admonished to go back to school; a murdered body who is resurrected (is
he really?) and wreaks his mad revenge; and finally, Sidney Levin,
whose reunion twenty years later with a lost Japanese girlfriend ends
in a hopeless entanglement with her growing daughter.
(review Mainichi Daily News) Reviewed by Ryann
Connell - Michael Hoffman, long one of the most gifted wordsmiths based in Japan,
has come up with a gem with his latest book, "The Coat That Covers Him
and Other Stories." Hoffman's seven tales -- five short and one long
story, as well as a novel length piece -- weave a wonderful narrative
tapestry of modern Japan, even if it's not quite the Land of the Rising
Sun that many Japanese would prefer be seen. ...
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the snake that bowed
by Edward G. Seidensticker
$15.00, 2006, 143pp, 140x215mm, 1-933606-03-7
A smooth tale that will intrigue readers wanting to learn a bit about
Tokyo in the latter part of the Tokugawa era, about police methods and
about the society of that time. The character of Hanshichi was created
by Okamoto Kido (1872-1939). Sixty-eight stories were
published between 1917 and 1936. Seidensticker has taken
three of the stories and created a novel in which Hanshichi works
methodically on the three cases at the same time. These are not the
usual chambara sword slashing samurai tales of Japan that are so common
and so popular. Hanshichi takes his time and methodically does his
work. The reader thus has time to view something of what Edo (Tokyo)
was in those long ago days. Okamoto was a writer better known for his
work in the kabuki theater. In his day he was a modernizer combining
the realistic characterization of Western theatre with the visual
beauty of kabuki.
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Tokyo Nights by
Donald Richie
$15.00, 2005, 223pp, 128x190mm 1-933606-00-2
A fast and enjoyable read. Take three men and three women. Mix them
well in the summer heat and cool autumn of Ginza. This book was first
published in London in 1988, revised edition published in 1994. This
second revised edition contains a new introduction by David Cozy. See
what reviewers have said of previous editions:
"A Bizarre manga, a post-modern comedy of manners
full of withering insights into contemporary Japan." -- Joseph Lapenta
in The Japan Times
"A satire on Tokyo night life ... like a fugue in that the characters
are interwoven by their constant changing of partners." -- John Haylock
in London Magazine
"A witty short novel about nightlife in Tokyo ... perhaps no other
author could have written about it in quite this way." -- David
Burleigh in The Mainichi Daily News
"The tension between the neutral style and the maddening characters
creates the real drama of the novel ... repetetion and humor make of a
programmed text a dizzying experience." -- Arturo Silva in Tokyo Journal
"It is Richie's unswerving commitment to make it only too plain what
these sorts of people do say (and don't say) to each other that makes
the novel so suffocatingly authentic." -- William March in Intersect
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Tokyo
Stories: Life, Love and Laughter in the Big City by
Christine Miki
$15.00, 2004, 195pp, 145x205mm, 4-902425-00-9
Entertaining glimpses into the almost comical lives of some foreigners
in Tokyo, and shows us how their very different adventures and
experiences become hilariously and unthinkably intertwined within the
vast social landscape of this anything-goes metropolis. Peter is an
underachieving English teacher in a perpetual state of depression and
bad luck. Henry, a successful stockbroker prowling the city for
romantic fun, gets stuck with a hysterical girlfriend with marriage on
her mind instead. Ernesto, a popular diplomat and bachelor-about-town,
hosts a chaotic dinner at home. Marjorie and Paul launch World War III
in the city's finest neighborhoods. Stephanie, a free soul struggling
as a proof-reader by day, reinvents herself to gatecrash Tokyo's best
networking parties. Alastair considers buying a monkey to replace his
dead fish. Reena plans a party that turns into a shocking screaming
match. And much more.
"... painfully delightful ..." Jim Merk, Co-Publisher, The Tokyo
Weekender
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NOTES:
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note 1 - If you are in Japan, be
sure to look for this book using the Amazon.co.jp link in the right
column of this page.
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