More Japan Books

Trans-Pacific air travel and some longish bus rides allowed time for more reading about Japan (for an earlier list, go here).

• Kerr, Alex, Dogs and Demons, subtitled "Tales from the Dark Side of Japan" is a curiosity: an acerb look at Japan that does not mention porn or the Yakuza. Kerr is at is best as a preservationist, lamenting the depredations visited upon old Kyota and elsewhere; also in detailing the mechanics of domination exercised by the seemingly all-powerful bureaucracy. More shaky though still useful on economics and finance.

• Miyabe, Miyki, All She Was Worth. I know not what course others may take, but I read mysteries as sociology on the cheap: about Venice, for example, or Navajos, or, of course, Japan. This one, which Mrs. B picked up on spec at the San Francisco airport, turns out to be a twofer: Japan plus bankruptcy, with a sauce of organized crime. First published in 1992, I have no idea how much of it remains true, but it seems to fit well with some other pieces of the puzzle.

• Natsume, Satsume, Botchan (Umeji Sasaki, trans.), fascinating as a cultural artifact, this comic misadventure (first published in 1904) was reputedly a huge hit in an earlier time and remains readily available in Japanese bookstores today. The translation into a kind of B-movie Japenglish is probably unintentional in its comedy, but it works: "It is hard to have the desire of eating dumplings checked but harder still would it be to have one's btrothed transefer her love to another."

• The Tattoo Murder Case, a mix of cultural artifact (Natsume, supra) and sociology on the cheap (Miyabe, supra), this is a tantalizing look into the underside of Tokyo after the war. I'm somewhat guarded in my response because the publication page sayts it was "translated and reworked" by Deborah Boehm (italics added). Boehm evidently felt the need to include lots of explanatory asides that may help comprehension but can slow up the flow. How much else she chose to alter is unknown by me.

• Tett, Gillian, Saving the Sun, gripping ticktock of the American-led takeover of a failed Japanese bank. Good on the financial mechanics, even better on the human drama--Tett was trained as a cultural anthropologist; I hear she is working on a new one about the current uyproar--it's on the list.