Crawling At Night: A Novel [Hardcover]

Nani Power (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2001

Crawling at Night is a darkly lyrical, charged exploration of the double-edged sword of urban anonymity. Nani Power brilliantly paints a cityscape like no other and makes visible the people often condemned to its shadows: in late-night Chinatown clubs; in downtown restaurants after the CLOSED sign goes up; and behind the closed doors of small studio apartments in the city's high-rises and walk-ups. This searing, unforgettable portrait of New York City and of the appetites and self-sabotaging patterns of its displaced inhabitants introduces a remarkable new storyteller. Ito is a literate yet tongue-tied sushi chef who recites haiku in his head as he labors over shopping lists, which at once define and confine him. Alone in his apartment at night, he reads pornographic comics while dreaming of Mariane, a lost, alcoholic waitress who works with him at a Chelsea sushi bar. Ito's loneliness is punctuated by flashbacks of his life in Japan, of the dead wife whom he betrayed, as well as of his beloved mistress, Xiu-Xiu. Across town, Mariane lies in her bath with a drink in her hand, longing for the baby girl she left behind almost fifteen years before. She plans to save her money, get her life and her "baby" back, only to wash her dreams away yet again with alcohol and sordid sex with strangers. In the spinning haze of two nights in Manhattan, Ito and Mariane find themselves careening on a downward spiral through the dark streets of the city. As they navigate a sea of alcohol, sex, and exotic food, we are taken inside the minds of the scarred people they encounter, whose paths, like the streets of the city itself, criss-cross and overlap, skimming one another for some sort of connection. Crawling at Night is a dazzling evocation of the way people draw each other in to absorb the shock of loneliness, and how they then either drift out of orbit or are pushed away. With heartbreaking intimacy, Power shows that the dark, prurient underside of the city and its struggling inhabitants is but an extension of the purest, most noble longings and intentions of those very same, very human people.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The two protagonists of debut novelist Powers's compelling tale of urban despair are by turns hopeless, deluded and self-destructive, but their misguided stumblings are transformed by the charged prose and headlong pace of Power's skillful narrative. Ito is a Japanese sushi chef, recently arrived in New York City, haunted by his past. Mariane, an alcoholic waitress in her 30s who longs for the baby daughter she left behind in Virginia, exudes a frail, broken beauty that captivates Ito. There is something in her that reminds him of Xiu-Xiu, the prostitute he frequented in Japan while his wife, Tomoko, slowly wasted away from cancer, a loss soon compounded by another, violent death. These two virtual strangers scramble for salvation over the course of two nights in downtown, down-and-out Manhattan. When Mariane is fired, Ito leaps at the opportunity to be her savior: he vows he will help her reclaim her baby, her sobriety and her dignity. Their stunted blossom of intimacy is all awkward fits and starts, revelation and self-preservation the delicate yet harsh experience of the emotionally wounded and fiercely, desperately lonely. Borrowing tricks from Virginia Woolf, Powers weaves her narrative through raw present and bittersweet flashbacks, making forays into the minds of supporting characters and walk-ons; she manages to blend literary, experimental and straightforward writing to brilliant, heartbreaking effect. Her starkly realistic characters and terse, lyrical prose herald her as an exciting new voice and she should captivate a wide range of readers. (Apr.)Forecast: The publisher is putting a good deal of enthusiasm into this release, with a first printing of 50,000 and a 16-city author tour. Some good reviews and word-of-mouth and the author's own varied background, including a stint as a sushi chef could go a long way toward building sales. The cover photo of a near-naked young woman won't hurt the book one bit.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Ito, a sushi chef in New York City and a widower who lives alone, has developed a crush on Marianne, a waitress who also lives alone. When he notices her sneaking a sip of saki, he decides that she needs help and invites her to dinner. As their relationship develops, we learn about their histories, Ito's life in Japan, his wife's death, and his mistress, and Marianne's life in North Carolina, her daughter, and her string of one night stands. Along the way, we meet a cast of other characters who are also living isolated, lonely lives, including a Vietnamese refugee, the owner of the sushi bar, and an erotic dancer. Each chapter is introduced with menu of foods that affect the story. In her debut, former sushi chef Power focuses on the dark picture of urban life, poignantly exploring the failure of people to build meaningful relationships. Recommended for larger collections.
- Joshua Cohen, Mid-Hudson Lib. Syst., Poughkeepsie, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 234 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1st edition (April 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871137844
• ISBN-13: 978-0871137845
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,408,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating and different., March 27, 2001

By 

Miguel (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crawling At Night: A Novel (Hardcover)

I was amazed...started reading this new author, and found myself unable to stop reading. The characters develop as if they are personal friends, and maybe you are learning too much about them...but you can't stop knowing more. I frequently read a good story, and fall in love with the story, but in this novel, I fell in love with the characters.But, the story will not disappoint you: rather it is captivating and the sex is realistic without being stupidly pornographic. The authoress seems to have an unusual amount of worldwide education, or has done extraordinay research. Her understanding of foreign cultures is exceeded only by her ability to weave this understanding into the plot and to make the feature characters real and infinately interesting. Ms. Power's vocabulary is extensive but not excessive. Her language ability seemingly diverse, and her use of tying the preparation of Japanese food into the fabric of the story is brilliant. This is a 'good read'. I can hardly wait for her next Book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A dark and lurid read!, March 27, 2003

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Crawling at Night: A Novel (Paperback)

Dark and lurid novels have always enhanced my reading experience, and the beautiful descriptions and passionate prose in Crawling at Night floored me from beginning to end.

Set in Manhattan, Crawling at Night is the story of Ito and Mariane -- a tormented sushi chef and the woman of his dreams. Painful pasts, loneliness and the cruel anonymity of the city nights bind these two together -- and the result is a powerful and literary tale of love and loss.

The characterization is flawless... Nani Power has created two protagonists that touch the reader's soul. Also, Manhattan is the perfect backdrop for this book, for it illustrates the darkness and piercing loneliness the characters endure. This is one of the best dark reads I've had all year. Nani Power is a wonderful new voice in fiction and I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ruthless Review, July 21, 2002

By 

erich r schulte (Dekalb, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crawling At Night: A Novel (Hardcover)

Courtesy of ruthlessreviews.com

The book jacket informs us, in the kind of bio all publicists dream of, that before she wrote this, her debut novel, Nani Power was a caterer in Manhattan, a sandwich seller on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, a chef in a Japanese restaurant, and a nanny to a family living in a trailer. All of these experiences seem relevant when taking into account Crawling At Night but one title is missing; sensualist.

Two discordant protagonists paint the narrative alive in this nihilistic and self-destructive tale of loss and decay. Ito is a Japanese sushi chef with a dark past who runs to New York City to escape his demons, but, as Walden once said, "you cannot run from your past. Wherever you may go, the giant goes with you." Mariane is a raging alcoholic with a similar attachment to her past failings who loses her job when her boss attempts, and fails, to rape her. Ito discovers that he cannot save Mariane from herself, and her past, where she longs to reclaim the daughter she gave up, and therefore he cannot forgive himself for abandoning his violent son.

Told largely in flashbacks blended with the present bitterness, Crawling At Night seethes with sexuality and desire, utilizing it as a means of temporary escape until reality comes crashing back in. Unfortunately, without the sex, and the naked woman on the cover, this story would have lost me in the first five pages. I particularly enjoyed the passages where Ito recalls his time in Japan spent in a whorehouse where he fell in love with a girl named Xiu-xiu while his wife was being eaten alive by cancer at home alone. It was there that I found Nani's real power coming through, in the subtle sifting of sex and death, which is what, at its core, all great literature is about.

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