|
A View From the Chuo Line
Author: Donald Richie
Format: Paperback
Green e Books Price:￥1,575 (1,500)
Publisher: Printed Matter Press
ISBN: 0-965330-46-X
*with his Autograph!!!
In this collection of twenty-seven short stories Donald
Richie has shown people set in their ways but caught off guard by life itself.
The minimally of the form emphasizes that moment of truth which James Joyce called
an equiphany - the revelation which he said was the only reason for writing or
reading stories. The people are almost all Japanese - and Richie is not. Yet,
though the peculiarities of culture may form them, it is a common humanity which
is his subject. If, as Henry James once said, a story consists of a movement toward
an understanding, then these small works are true stories - each plants a bonsai-like
seed which grows in the mind and achieves its own full form.
|
|
TOKYO NIGHTS
Author: Donald Richie
Format: Paperback
Green e Books Price:￥1,575 (1,500)
Publisher: Printed Matter Press
ISBN: 1-933606-00-2
*with his Autograph!!!
Donald Richie's savage social satire
of bubble-era Tokyo is as withering and hilarious as when
it was first published in 1988. It's a dreamy but raunchy
Shakesperian comedy of manners.
Paunchy company president Hiroshi and his aging mistress Mariko
play out their little machinations against the backdrop of
nightclub The Yamato (Old Japan), set to be remodeled at Hiroshi's
expense - if only Mariko can parlay his wandering eye into
guilt enough to open his bulging wallet.
Recently reissued, "Tokyo Nights" is required reading
for the city's English-speaking ghetto of sociology majors
with no fixed address: the foreign perspective coming from
inside the house.
|
|
The Smoke Week
Author: Ellis Avery
Format: Paperback
Green e Books Price:￥1,500
Publisher: Gival Press
ISBN: 1-928589-24-3
*with her Autograph!!!
Reading Avery's poetic documentation
of the days before and after 9/11, I realize that she was
able to put to paper what I could not. If you were in NYC
or anywhere, this book taps into the uncertainty and sorrow
that so many of us felt during this snapshot of time. I too
was living in the East Village at the time and I too did not
know anyone who died. What I did (and still) know is that
the community of NYC grieved, connected and undoubtedly has
been altered. What struck me most about The Smoke Week was
the honesty displayed in noting a community in confusion mirrored
with the personal. What to eat today? Is my phone going to
work? Should we fly? Average tasks became grand activities.
Avery's account is an honest first-hand peek into one New
Yorker's perception on how a world-changing tragedy is just
as significantly, a personal one.
--------------------------------------- A review from one
of the big online bookshops
I was probably in same situation as the author when
Kobe earthquake happened (1995 January 17th, magnitude 7). I was just about to
leave high school for the day.
My Town is 40min away from the center of damage, but still I thought I was going
to die soon. Luckily, my hometown was not damaged much, and at my parents' house
only few things on the shelves fell down (very lucky).
An earthquake and 9.11 are not the same, but the "panic of the town"
was. I wanted to do something. But as a high school kid, I did not know how to
join the volunteers, how to help, how to get involved. All I could do was sit
in front of the TV all day, just watching what was going on. When I read this
book I think, if I had only had more courage, if I had only known what to do,
if only something had guided me, had helped me come up with something one young
person could do...
To tell the truth, some of the poetic lines were hard to understand for me, since
I don't have a huge vocabulary in English; even so, I thought her writing was
easy to follow. And the topic really guided me to the end.
To remember the facts, to think of other people, to hope for peace in this world,
to keep this planet beautiful, even for no reason; I want everyone to read this
book at least once, that is why I decided to keep it in Green e Books and why
I am proud to do so. - Yuko
|
