Audrey Hepburns Neck

Rating:
Summary: Evocative
Review: This book is a gem. I lived in Japan in the late 1980's and so I have read many books written by ex-pats. This book is not only one of the finest in the gaijin-written genre - but it is one of the best pieces of fiction I have read in quite some time.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, funny portrait of contemporary Japan
Review: This is a terrific book. Although I enjoyed the story, the crisp prose, the wry comments on sexual politics, and the deft portrait of contemporary Japan, I most liked the book for its depiction of Americans as seen by Japanese -- it beautifully captured how peculiar and inexplicable the Western style is to someone from outside its orbit. I was also impressed by the author's bravery in moving into subjects, such as the treatment of Koreans during the Second World War, that the Japanese deal with either by denial or in the most glancing, oblique way possible. My only complaint is that it seemed to me that by making the Japanese protagonist someone from such an isolated, rural chunk of Hokkaido the writer tinted the book with the kind of nostalgic "Japanoiserie" (if that's a word) that he otherwise so smartly avoided. Being American, I can't say if this book captures the Japanese mind, but as someone who has visited the country a number of times I can say that the book _feels_ right -- and, more important, is great fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: A Complete Book
Review: Whenever I have an opportunity, I recommend this book to foreign residents of Japan, or anyone else who has an interest in Japan. While this book has a wry sense of humor and fantastic events occur all the time, it still has a ring of plausability to it. Things may not happen in the real Japan the way Brown describes them, but if you have lived here for a while, you certainly can imagine that they might. The characters are brilliantly developed. Your first impression is of a cardboard-cutout stereotype, but as the novel progresses, each reveals personal quirks and characteristics that give them depth and make them interesting. The range of feelings the book covers are fantastic, going from slapstick to poignancy and everything in between. Some people talk about "Memoirs of a Geisha" as *the* novel to understand Japan, but even though it is excellent, it describes a Japan that no longer exists. The Japan in Audrey Hepburn's Neck is alive now, and it shows no signs of disappearing. If you want to know about the modern Japan, and be highly entertained while doing it, this is the book.