Donald W. George & Amy Greimann Carlson
Japan: True Stories of Life on the Road (1999)
Author: Donald W. George & Amy Greimann Carlson, editors
Genre: Nonfiction (Travel narratives)
Book Summary:
This is a collection of short stories that aim to give the Westerner considering a trip to Japan a unique primer on Japanese culture, customs, and traditions. There are 50 stories ranging in length from 5 to 15 pages. Some of the authors are professional whose work has appeared in journals and newspapers like the Atlantic Monthly, the San Francisco Examiner, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and the New York Times. Other authors traveled extensive in Japan or went there for vacation and never left. The tales cover a spectrum of topics from Japanese toilets to love and capsule hotels, death rituals, rice harvests, baseball, bathhouses, sumo, and cherry blossoms, to the allure of cities and places like Tokyo, Osako, Kyoto, and the southern islands. This format is surprisinly effective. Having traveled to Japan, I found this to be one of the most interesting introductions to the country (though I still wouldn't travel without my Lonely Planet guide). My spouse is native Japanese as well, and she was insistent that I read at least one story to her each night. Each story closes with a short blurb describing the background of the author and a short blurb from another book or traditional Japanese text. Also included is a glossary of Japanese words and handy travel tips. Consider it a collection of travel narratives that doubles as a guide book to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Geographical Setting: Japan
Time Period: 1990s
Series: part of the Travelers' Tales Guides series
Appeal Characteristics:
It's hard to nail down specific appeal elements in this one. It has them all. Some stories are humorous, others are nostaligic (even somber) in tone. Some contain dialogue; others don't. Some use Japanese terms heavily; others don't (though this isn't a huge issue given the glossary). Given that the book is a collection of short stories, it's hard to make a statement about pace. I found that I'd just pick stories by length depending on my mood or the hour of the day. It would definitely appeal to those interested in traveling to Japan or those interested in perspectives rarely shared in most travel guides. The writing is excellent. The editors have chosen 50 tales from scores of submissions. This is the case with all of the books in the Travelers Tales series. In fact, many of the titles in the series have won awards including the books Thailand: True Stories of Life on the Road, The Road Within: True Stories of Transformation and the Soul, and Food: A Taste of the Road.
Read-alikes: Consider other titles in the Travelers' Tales series [link]. If you're specifically interested in life in modern Japan, try tracking down the books that serve as source material for most of the stories and anecdotes in this tome (e.g. The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth, Dave Barry Does Japan by Dave Barry, 36 Views of Mount Fuji: On Finding Myself in Japan by Cathy N. Davidson, Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei by David Mura, or Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce S. Feiler. Other titles in the series with a focus on the Orient include titles covering travelers' tales from Hong Kong, Nepal, India, and Thailand. Click here for a longish bibliography of nonfiction titles concerning Japanese politics and society.
Red Flags: some sexual references in a few of the stories, some strong language in a few of the stories
|top|
|
