The book Snow Country offers cold prose and interactions appropriate to its name. The story follows Shimamura’s love affair with the hot spring geisha Komako and his developing interest with a young woman named Yoko. The book can be a little difficult to follow if you don’t read carefully. Kawabata writes with spareness and suggestion…
Category: Book Reviews
Wabi Sabi by Beth Kempton
The other day I was at a library for a teen mental health conference. As I usually do, I took the lunch break for some alone time. Conferences have far too much group work and socialness! After wandering around town, I returned to the library and found the book Wabi Sabi by Beth Kempton. I’ve…
African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke
Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard’s book African Samurai tries to mesh nonfiction with historical fiction. The result is a patchwork that felt more fiction than historical. The seams quickly appear when they switch from the narrative of Yasuke’s life to a more objective historical tone. Their sources are solid, but their experiment made the book feel…
The Courage to be Disliked – A Book Review
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga combines Greek philosophy with German psychology in a distinctly Japanese package. Don’t let that put you off to it. The book uses the old Greek discussion format: a young man argues with an older philosopher about Alfred Adler’s psychological ideas. Adler was an opponent…
Considering Japanese Incest, Cultural Obsession, and the Book The Six-Foot Bonsai
Recently, I’ve read a memoir written by Stacy Gleiss that shares her experiences with an abusive Japanese husband and her immersion into Japanese culture. I’ve considered doing a standard book review, but it’s difficult to critique a memoir. By their nature, memoirs share intimate details about a person’s life that I don’t feel right critiquing….
Fanfiction Review: The Heart of the Ocean. Chapter 2.
Alex continues her review of Mystrade in this mashup of Titanic and BBC’s Sherlock. For those who are not familiar with Mystrade fanfiction, the story concerns a yaoi pairing between Mycroft Holmes and Gregory Lestrade. The original fanfiction is written by somebodyswatson. You can read it here. Starting off, you immediately share in Mycroft’s displeasure…