Wrong About Japan
Checking Availibility...Description
Previous winner of two Booker Prizes, Peter Carey expands his extraordinary achievement with each new novel -- but now gives us something entirely different.
When famously shy Charley Carey becomes obsessed with Japanese manga and anime, Peter is not only delighted for his son, but entranced himself. Thus, with a father sharing his twelve-year-old's exotic comic books, begins a journey that will lead them both to Tokyo, where a strange Japanese boy will become both their guide and judge. The visitors quickly plunge deep into the lanes of Shitimachi -- into the "weird stuff" of modern Japan -- meeting manga artists and anime directors, "visualists" who painstakingly impersonate cartoons, and solitary "otakus" who lead a computerized existence. What emerges from these encounters is a pithy, far-ranging study of history and culture both high and low -- from samurai to salaryman, from kabuki theatre to the post-war robot craze. Peter Carey's observations are provocative, even though his hosts often point out, politely, that he is wrong about Japan. In adventures that are comic, surprising, and ultimately moving, father and son cope with and learn from each other in a place far from home.
"No Real Japan," said Charley. "You've got to promise. No temples. No museums."
"What could we do?"
"We could buy cool manga."
"There'll be no English translations."
"I don't care. I'd eat raw fish."
--excerpt from Wrong About Japan
About this Author
Peter Carey is the author of eight novels, including the Booker Prize-winning Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang, and, most recently, My Life as a Fake. Born in Australia in 1943, Carey now lives in New York City.
Reviews
"Thoughtful, sensitive exploration of contemporary Japanese culture."
--Kirkus Reviews
"This travel diary reads like a scintillating novella, and Carey has, in fact, added his own fictional embellishments to the real-life events he reports. . . . Carey's fluid and engaging writing style gets a boost from 25 energetic b&w anime/manga illustrations."
--Publishers Weekly
"Curious and affecting. . . . physically diminutive but emotionally huge. . . . Wrong About Japan reads like a literary version of Sophia Coppola's film Lost in Translation, minus the melancholy and stylish soundtrack."
--The Scotsman
"Carey describes the father-son relationship with great dexterity and open-eyed tenderness. . . . The mysteries of Japan and father-son relationships prove to be rich subjects, especially for a writer at the peak of his powers, and they make for an entertaining and uplifting book. . . . The result is neither memoir nor travel book, but one of those hybrids that can so easily go wrong, but that here goes life-affirmingly right."
--The Sunday Times
If the product is in stock at the store nearest you, we suggest you call ahead to have it set aside for you, or you may place an order online and choose in-store pickup.
