Bedtime Eyes [Hardcover]

Japan Association for Cultural Exchange (Author), Amy Yamada (Author), Marc Jardine (Translator), Yumi Gunji (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312352263 | ISBN-13: 978-0312352264 | Publication Date: May 2, 2006

Amy Yamada is one of the most prominent--and controversial--novelists in Japan today.  She bursted onto the scene in 1985 with her short novel "Bedtime Eyes," which for critics embodied the spirit of the 'shinjinru'--i.e. Generation X-- in much the same way that Less Than Zero, Bright Lights, Big City, and Douglas Coupland did in the U.S. Bedtime Eyes is the first English-language publication of three of Yamada's novellas/short novels: "Bedtime Eyes," "The Piano Player's Fingers" and "Jesse." While all are centered around the relationship between a Japanese woman and a black American man, each explores love, sex, and the vast gulf between from different and equally revealing viewpoints. Starkly imagined and sharply observed, Bedtime Eyes introduces to the English language some of Yamada's best known and most influential work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Originally published in Japan in the mid-1980s (before Trash), the three novellas in this harsh, vivid collection each feature a Japanese woman in a destructive relationship with an African-American man. The title novella presents Kim, a nightclub singer who falls for a navy deserter called Spoon. As Kim and Spoon's coke-fueled sexual idyll spirals into violence, Kim remains desperate to keep him. Another sadomasochistic relationship forms the core of "The Piano Player's Eyes," about a woman named Ruiko who dominates her "new toy," Leroy Jones. When he returns to Japan two years later as a noted jazz pianist, they vie for the upper hand in the relationship, with devastating results. "Jesse," a wrenching story that unfolds more warmly than the previous two, revolves around a turbulent threesome: Rick, an alcoholic; his young girlfriend, Coco; and the title character, his 11-year-old son. Coco first sees Jesse as competition, but as she realizes the father-son bond trumps that between lovers, she struggles to win the boy's approval. In stark, profane prose, Yamada complicates racial stereotypes—the hypersexual black man, the submissive or dragon lady Asian woman—as she illustrates how cultural and racial difference amplify "the extraordinary power of sexual curiosity." (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Amy Yamada is the author of over twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. She is the winner of the Naoki Prize, Japan's equivalent of the Pulitzer, and - for "Bedtime Eyes" - the prestigious Bungei Prize. She lives outside of Tokyo, Japan.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312352263
• ISBN-13: 978-0312352264
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,816,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Pessimistic Book..., May 31, 2010

By 

Joel B. Kirk (Bay Area, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bedtime Eyes (Hardcover)

The author Amy Yamada is married an American man (of African descent) in real life. However, in regards to the novel 'Bedtime Eyes,' I think that is where life imitating art ends.

None of the characters in the book have any redeemable qualities. They hurt one another, either verbally or physically, and sometimes get pleasure from doing such. I actually stopped while reading the second story 'The Piano Player's Fingers'...as the book was just too much of a downer.

I understand that there was a 1987 Japanese film made from the first story, which shares the title of the book; however, judging from the story I read, and the rating on IMDB (Internet Movie Database), I don't think it would be something worth seeing.

It would have been interesting if we saw different couples with varying circumstances; but, as aforementioned, we get the same type of dysfunctional characters in each of the stories. Furthermore, I don't get what Amy Yamada is trying to say in her stories. (Although, one could say there is a certain rape fantasy, and/or a fetishism for black males in the stories--and that's about it).

I can't recommend this book: No point to the stories, and no characters I cared about. Still, I am going to attempt a reading of Yamada's 'Trash,' however, judging from the reviews on Amazon, I don't think it would be much of an improvement on 'Bedtime Eyes.'

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Some sick folk in these texts!, September 28, 2006

By 

Japanese in US "Yumiko" (Washington D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bedtime Eyes (Hardcover)

All, (and I really tried), of her books are almost on the verge of severe pathology. I know that inter-race-relationships are hard and sometimes mixed with other poor values, morals, and psychopathic people, they can be even very difficult. How can you enjoy these books ? I feel sorry for the way the Japanese woman characters are played out in her writings. They are made out to be promiscuious, ill-witted, and attracted to low-lifes. For the younger aged due to shock value.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We had a BLAST!, May 15, 2006

By 

Marc Jardine (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bedtime Eyes (Hardcover)

"Leroy must have been thirsty. He lapped at me like a dog, slurping at my skin deliciously, flicking the tip of his tongue over my electrified body, gorging himself on every last drop of the sweet, sticky liquid that covered me."

Amy Yamada doesn't mince her words and she isn't afraid to delve into the seedier side of life: a world of drugs, sex, violence and prostitution. So whilst I have to admit that they may not be everybody's cup of tea, we had a blast translating the three short novels which make up this single volume in the English.

But you have to put her work into context to understand just how ground-breaking Bedtime Eyes was when it was first published in Japan 25 years ago. These days we see a lot of sex and violence in literature, at the cinema and on TV, so with our modern perspective these stories may not have quite the same impact now that they had then. But it is important to consider that Amy Yamada was the ONLY female writer in Japan in the 1980s who dared to write this sort of material: she was a pioneer who wasn't afraid to tackle taboos head-on, whose dramatic debut spawned a whole host of "liberated" female writers and who blazed the trail for some of the more recent "controversial", prize-winning female authors such as Yu Miri ("Family Cinema", "Gold Rush"), Wataya Lisa ("The Back I Want To Kick") and Kanehara Hitomi ("Snakes & Earrings").

If I had any criticism at all, it would be that the characters could have been given a little more depth -- difficult, admittedly, given the length of the stories -- but Amy Yamada is more interested in what drives her characters' destructive relationships than in delving into what makes the individual characters tick.

I really hope you enjoy reading this book every bit as much as we enjoyed translating it. The images are powerful and strong... not always pretty of course, but they will stay with you for a long time: you certainly won't look at a piano the same way again.