Rika Yokomori has published over thirty books in the last ten years, ranging through novels, essays, travel writing, reportage and female-oriented self-help books. Her top-ranking work of fiction is EAT & LOVE, 'a tale of two men and five women centered on the themes of food and sex', and her most recent work is IMA SUGU SHIAWASENI NARU AIDEA 70 (Seventy Ideas for Achieving Immediate Happiness). She is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines. Key themes are those dealing with the emotional development of girls as they become women in contemporary Japan, with an emphasis on their interests in sex, food, fashion and money that can so easily grow into obsessions.
Not best narrative book. But very good for real life in Japan and esp. for real life of Japanese women. Young heroine in university (with flashback to her childhood) falls in love with mam nicknamed Bogey in age of her father (who abandoned her family because her wife was more succesful than he and his male pride was hurt - heroine looks after her fther in Bogey) and lives with him. He is gambler and works in shabby busines, also sometimes he is very poor and sometimes very rich. And she is allways with him, in great poverty and in great luxory. Before in school she slept with many boys (classmates and friends) and didn麓t love no one of them,and she made some money for her shopping as call girl (half prostitute - she sometimes slept with old rich men for her pocket money, but allways only from her free will). But Bogey is her GREAT LOVE. He cheats happily on her but he is jealous toward her (his theory is that man is polygamous creature and woman monogamous creature - he with others women only "enjoys himself", if she would sleep with other men, she would be "commit terrible crime on him"). He is good exemple of typical Japanese man... And she accepts it. Because all Japanese men are alike. (She believes it.) She marry him and lives as rich housewife (in this time is his good period in work) who must absolutely serve (slave) to her husband. And she is desperately bored without him because she has no her own job. She finds herself work as scriptwriter and makes new friends. (For Bogey is her work only her silly hobby and he tries to make it difficult for her - becuase her only purpouse in life must be to serve him.) And than she falls in love with (body of) young handsome designer named Kaoru Nakatani :o) and she sleeps with him. She wants leaves Bogey who threats her that he kills her, her lover and so on (and tells her that she is only ungrateful cheap whore which shocked her very much - she believed in his love before it). She runs to USA with Kaoru, but not much later fights with him (Kaoru is young and handsome, but similar egoistic bastard as Bogey) and breaks with him. And Bogey has new young mistress. :o) But heroine studies in USA design (as she allways dreams) and she becomes happy in her work. Later, Bogey is sents to prison for his shabby busines. She ends with words, that Bogey is not bad man and she loved him deeply. But now she is happy alone and free, as healthy and succesful independant young woman - who still looks for her love. Also this is book about one heterosexual love relationship - and about it麓s ending. And about it Japan after 1980 (and about Japan in this time from young woman麓s perspective). Not very sweet and romantic, much more sad and bitter. Heroine is very similar to wretched heroines by Ryu Murakami (he can write his typical novel about her - from his male perspective :o)). But the story is not so cruel and bad as in his novels. Heroine is understable there. And end of this book is not depresive. It is about it, that love is NOT most important thing in life of human being - not love for another human. Everybody must at first to love herself/himself. He/she must have has his/her own happy life, her/his own good work. What is money without such work? Only food for boredom. And to live for another person, for (in case of heterosexual woman) one man - for Japanese man :o) is pure noncense. Such woman usually becomes his slave, owned but not respected or loved. Traditional Japanese marriage is slavery. And if it is Japanese woman succesful, she is usually hated and hurt by her Japanese lover/husband. (This is main reason for girl麓s/women麓s dreaming in shojo/josei/BL manga about kind and nice tender guys...)Japanese women had very hard times 20 years ago (and in the all past). And today is maybe not much better. I wish I can read more by modern female Japanese authors! For these readers, who want to read something really good, who want strong story, it is not best option (rather boring, I mean). But for the readers, who love Japan and want to know more about it, esp. for readers, who want more about Japanese women in 80麓s (more than to find in novels by Hiroki Murakami or Ryu Murakami) or for readers, who want to know more about women in certain specific world (which is Japan 20 years ago - and maybe today, too), this is great book. Very realistic and open. I am glad that I could read it.
A novel that smells like the nineties ... full with rebellion and urge to find a life-path, Saya ended up loving an older gambler man to add to her crumbling life.
To discover what life could mean to a -25 years old girl at that time in Japan, she was involved in a series of acts that highlighted her straggling childhood and teenage years living with a single mother and a disappearing-depressed father. Along with the social-cultural surroundings that shapes her mentality, Saya was even hungry to discover what is worth to live for. All the ups and downs in her college years, love-sex life, and the commitment she made with her significant "Bogey" what make this novel special (a troubled-significant life experience),and worth- reading.
This book wasn't something I would normally read or buy, I got it at a book sale for next to nothing. I found it interesting yet not quite exciting or engaging enough to get me hooked. The writing style is a bit strange, as if you were reading someone's thoughts as they jump back and forth between events and ideas. Some parts felt repetitive and I could not figure out where the story was heading or how it would eventually reach an interesting conclusion.
However, I will say that I found the sneak peek into Japanese culture and the mind of a young impressionable Japanese woman from the 90's to be very interesting to me. The book read with ease, but just wasn't the most engaging narrative in my humble opinion.
Some parts were a bit rushed or tangled up, which took some charm away from the story. But all in all, I enjoyed reading it from start to finish, which is really the main point, isn't it?