The Salaryman's Wife

Rating:
Summary: Just OK light reading...
Review: I took this book on a week-long backpack and it was great for that purpose. Nothing heavy or particularly downbeat. However there were a few bits and pieces that I found hard to swallow including a too-long glossed over obvious clue and the hate/attraction between Rei and Hugh.

Mysteries aren't in my usual reading fare so I can't comment farther on the quality of the mystery itself. I figured it out however.

But, you know, it might make a movie. The scenes and setting might just work. The sex component is there as is the beautiful people component. The violence is fairly subdued although Hollywood would probably insist on puffing up the violence level. The usual brainless, follow the leader approach.

Anyway, borrow this book and read it for fun. Don't expect great literature.

Rating:
Summary: The mystery here is why the book was published.
Review: There is a mystery in THE SALARYMAN'S WIFE. Unfortunately, it has little to do with the story told in the book and more to do with why the story was ever published. The story and the characters simply do not add up. The characters are single dimensional. (Yes, even more single dimensional than many non-Japanese expect Japanese to be.) The actions and conversations of the characters seem more like an attempt to make sure a certain mix of perceived Japanese idiosyncracies, the unusual actions of foreigners in Japan, sex, yakuza, a knowledge of Tokyo places, a knowledge of designer dresses, and occassional Japanese phrases is achieved with little regard to the contribution of these to the story. As far as the "strong and vivid sense of place and culture" noted by one of the reviewers quoted in the book, most of the mentions of place and culture could have been picked out of a a reasonably well written tourist's guide to Tokyo or Japan. In fact the reviewer quoted in the book who claims the author "saved me an airline ticket to Japan" made a sad mistake. Go. See for yourself. Japan is better than this book. There are mystery books written by westerners that provide a "witty, perceptive take on how contemporary society clashes with traditional cuture in modern Japan" (the words of another of the reviewers quoted on the book's cover). If you are looking for this sort of thing try Jan Willem Van De Wetering's INSPETOR'S SAITO'S SMALL SATORI (or if you want a little yakusa action thrown in try THE JAPANESE CORPSE by the same author). In any case, pass by THE SALARYMAN'S WIFE

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant storytelling in this author's debut work
Review: Three years ago, Rei Shimura left her wealthy parents' San Francisco home to accept a job teaching English at Nichiyu, a Japanese manufacturing company, located in Tokyo. To survive the cost of living, Rei lives in a depressing neighborhood, sharing a one bedroom apartment with a fellow teacher, Canadian Richard Randall, though nothing sexual goes on between them.

Rei decides to tour the ancient castle town of Shiroyama. Though the train ride was crowded and some bloke copped a feel, her first day at the town looks promising to Rei when she meets the handsome Scottish lawyer, Hugh Glendinning, an employee of the Tokyo based Sendai Limited company. However, things turn quickly sour when Rei goes outside to take a walking tour of the town only to discover the murdered body of Setsuko Nakamura, the spouse of Hugh's boss. Rei, who finds herself falling for the handsome European, decides to investigate the murder. As she gets herself embroiled in one incident after another, she soon becomes known as the "murderer's mistress". If she does not uncover the truth soon, Rei may find herself heading back to California, courtesy of the local government.

Readers will quickly understand why Sujata Massey won the Malice Domestic Mystery Conference award that enabled her to complete this thrilling novel. THE SALARYMAN'S WIFE is a fresh blending of the police procedural and amateur detective sub-genre that works extremely well because of its locale: modern and traditional Japan. The characters, especially Rei, are well drawn and the style of English used at times adds a cleverly developed foreign taste to the book. With this delightful debut, readers will want to peruse more novels by Ms. Massey, especially if there set in the Far East.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Explores Feelings of a Japanese-American in Japan
Review: I really enjoyed this book, but I never did warm to the main character.

I loved the fact that it was set in Japan, and I learned a lot about Japanese culture, and about how the Japanese think. This was actually the main reason I bought the book, as I enjoy novels set in foreign cultures. This author appears to be Japanese-American herself, and did an excellent job of showing the two cultures, and how a mixed person living in Japan would feel, and be treated.

The only reason I am rating the book four stars is that I didn't like Rei (although I did like her adventures).



Rating:
Summary: Cool Mix of Hip, CyperPunk vs Traditinal
Review: It was interesting to see the cultural crash of Hip, CyberPunk, Slummy, Night-life Japan crashing into the Beautiful, Traditional, frigid, rejecting Japan.

It also seemed that the seedy side of town was a lot nicer to her then the "upstanding" side of town. She hangs with the other rejected folks, the foreigners, gays, etc. They provide a family and support network that are fascinating to see. (It's this way here, if you don't fit in with the local environment's Barbie's and Ken's, then you drift to the rejected ones.)

It was a little sad to see her pursuing acceptance in a country that would never accept her. Their hangup: she's a mixed race, poor, short-haired, old-maid foreigner.

I've never been to Japan, but I've known (long-term) some (traditional) Japanese guys born here, that seem to reflect a lot of the attitudes that the Rei has experienced. Sorta extreme sexism, extremely spoiled, xenophobia, germ-aphobia, fat-aphobia, smell-aphobia, poor-aphobia... My sibling, hanging with foreign grad students would agree on 80% of the traditional guys.

Anyway so she's being rejected strenously by Japanese mainstream, yet getting groped on trains and getting tricked by her salary-men students to get up on desks to pose for a birthday-party picture, then the guys jab the camera under her skirt taking snapshots. Everyday's a frat party for the salarymen, they are gods.

Story line: she goes to the Japanese Alps for a vacation. She stays in a bed & breakfast and meets the other residents. One of the residents gets killed, her cretin husband is the suspect, as well as this HOT Scottish guy. Wierd things start to happen after the murder.

Overall, a good read, it made me want to visit Japan, see (if any of it exists) the Hip, bohemian nightlife, antique dealers and see the Japanese Alps.
Although, riding on the trains one might want to wear a hefty bag tied at the ankles. It would be an excellent money-maker to create a sting-operation for the rampant frat-boy behavior, taped for Pay-per-View, would be hilarious.

Ignore the reviewers that cry that this ain't the Japan they know, or this book ain't deep enough for them. It's expressing a certain style, pictures and atmosphere that the author wants to present. There's no way to present everybody's viewpoint of Japan.

As usual, in a mystery, the mystery is just the contrivance for the real story. (Everybody's fried chicken is different.) The overall story is about the people, places, things, experiences, --a nice slideshow portraying a view, mood and experience the author wants to give.
If I gave a tour of my small hometown, it'd be as unlike anybody else's viewpoint, as apples to oranges. And then it'd all change, depending on my mood, the receiver's mood, and passing time.

Rating:
Summary: A great look at life in Japan, but a mystery.....
Review: I bought this book because I have a family member who is living in Japan and married to a Japanese woman and I wanted to get a feel for what life there must be like for a foreigner. In this respect Ms. Massey paints a fantastic picture. I enjoyed the look at Japanese culture and interaction both with each other and with foreigners. However the mystery in this book was not really that hard to solve - I would have liked a little more trouble in that case.

Perhaps my real problem though is a lack of good editing. While Ms. Massey's writing is excellent I found myself on more than one occassion tripping over a reference to something that had never occurred anywhere in the book. An example is that the main character, Rei, is surprised in the bath when a man walks in, not realizing it was for women only. Later on the man apologizes to her and references having learned she has been sexually assaulted and post traumatic stress disorder. My guess is this must have been a plot direction which Ms Massey later disgarded, but this particular reference didn't get deleted. It is a small error yes, but when you are caught up in a story such a reference can be jarring to the reader. I found myself going backwards to see if I'd missed something rather than going forwards.

Rating:
Summary: An auspicious debut for a gifted author!
Review: "The Salaryman's Wife" is a must for those who like their mystery with a dash of the exotic. Rei Shimura is a young Japanese-American woman living in Tokyo. Like many of us, she's underemployed: despite her master's in Asian art, she's working as an English teacher. Rei becomes involved in a murder while vacationing in the Japanese Alps. This is both an engrossing mystery and a fascinating glimpse into modern Japanese culture. Another reason to appreciate Ms. Massey: she's a fellow Johns Hopkins graduate and Baltimore resident!

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional
Review: The last thing that Rei Shimura want to do on her vacation is get mixed up in a murder, but that is exactly what happens to this 27-year-old Japanese-American expatriate. She has been teaching English to ungrateful businessmen in Toyko and badly needs a break so she travels to a Shiroyama to search for antique folk art and relax at a minshuku (a family-run inn). Instead she ends up investigating the murder another guest, the beautiful wife of a salaryman, with the help of the obnoxious but somehow still appealing Scotsman, Hugh Glendinning. When Hugh is arrested, she races to solve the murder before he is convicted. This was a wonderful look at the life of a Japanese-American living in Japan and her struggles to adapt in a world where she looks Japanese but is too American to truly fit in. The mystery is engaging and the novel has a modern edginess and quirky romance that is appealing. This author has moved to the top of my "must read" pile.