Tokyo Vanilla

Rating:
Summary: Thriller about Tokyo's multi-layered underworld.
Review: Great read. Well written. A must for Gay readers visiting Tokyo.

Rating:
Summary: Thriller about Tokyo's multi-layered underworld.
Review: I enjoyed this book which is more than simple gay history, it's literature. It shows the complexity of the Japanese mind in human relations, and how they can live with opposite thoughts and purposes. It's quite interesting how it depicts the deep search for beauty and armony. Fumio,a nineteen years old virgin boy, puts his eye in a drilled tiny hole in his room contiguos to a neighboor room, and he watched his forever love: Tatsuya. A lot of boyeurism and a complex internal life. Fumio's great achievment was to have the seeds of his lover in his wife, to guarantee the posesion of the beauty of his beloved lover in his non-biological own son!

The books also shows the rush for life in the new generation and in large cities. Gay people will find in it more than a fantasy, but a lot of possible events in a complex unpurposed web.

Thomas Boggs is an excelent writer. I don't have any doubths that he will be one of the best writers of Japanese Literature of this time.

Rating:
Summary: Tokyo Vanilla: A Splendid Milshake of Japanese Literature
Review: I enjoyed this book which is more than simple gay history, it's literature. It shows the complexity of the Japanese mind in human relations, and how they can live with opposite thoughts and purposes. It's quite interesting how it depicts the deep search for beauty and armony. Fumio,a nineteen years old virgin boy, puts his eye in a drilled tiny hole in his room contiguos to a neighboor room, and he watched his forever love: Tatsuya. A lot of boyeurism and a complex internal life. Fumio's great achievment was to have the seeds of his lover in his wife, to guarantee the posesion of the beauty of his beloved lover in his non-biological own son!

The books also shows the rush for life in the new generation and in large cities. Gay people will find in it more than a fantasy, but a lot of possible events in a complex unpurposed web.

Thomas Boggs is an excelent writer. I don't have any doubths that he will be one of the best writers of Japanese Literature of this time.

Rating:
Summary: Not your typical "coming out" novel
Review: I found this book to be a very pleasant surprise. I read "Tokyo Vanilla" straight through on a long business flight and was very sorry to see it end (although I did find the ending a bit of a letdown). It is the story of a Japanese college student who gradually realizes his sexual orientation and falls in unrequited love with a handsome Japanese heartbreaker. The plot takes many twists and turns, some of which I found a bit implausible, but overall I enjoyed the ride. According to the cover notes, Thomas Boggs is "an American Japanese writer who has spent most of his life in Japan's capital." I cannot speak to the accuracy of Mr. Boggs' description of Tokyo's gay world, but I have definitely placed it on my list of future vacation destinations. I must agree with other reviewers on the title, though - I haven't a clue what "Tokyo Vanilla" means