Customer Reviews

Hokkaido Popsicle

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's Philip Marlowe as played by Bruce Campbell doing a Lupin the 3rd meets Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop in a Sam Raimi production. Isaac Adamson nailed a genre in his second book. This is not only a really good murder mystery, it's a really good noir tale, an extremely funny story, and a pretty adept caricature of Japanese Pop Culture. Or should that be characterization?

The lines are certainly blurred between the real Tokyo and the hyper-kinetic, overly neon pink, city of all things cute and quirky Tokyo as written by Adamson in Hokkaido Popsicle.

Some would take exception to this book as being "insensitive" to Japanese and Japan by stereotyping. My thoughts are, if you can't make caricatures of teen beat journalists, yakuza bosses and henchmen, strippers, self absored rock stars, or cops with chips on their shoulders then who can you make caricatures of?

This book is a romp from beginning to end. The dialogue and narration is inspired and genuinely funny throughout. The plot is quite well conceived and pulled off. And each and every character is unique, interesting, and given their moment to shine at one point or other during the story.

Billy Chaka, the protagonist, is a great launching pad for a slew of follups to Adamson's Tokyo Suckerpunch and the, in my opinion, better 2nd book, Hokkaido Popsicle. Adamson has created a character you love to love and hate through all of his bumbling, fetishistic adventures.

Chaka is irreverant and driven in his pursuit for the truth, whether it be in his spiritual calling to write bubblegum articles for teenagers in Youth in Asia magazine, or his next murder mystery investigation he gets drawn to like a moth to a flame.

Adamson has developed as a writer since his initial Billy Chaka adventure. There's less exposition, explanation, or asking of permission in the narration where Billy Chaka's wisecracks are concerned, so now you either get Chaka or you don't. Sometimes things can be obtuse, but if you give in to Chaka's mannerisms and thought patterns, it all falls into place naturally and is much more enjoyable.

Adamson has gone all out in crafting the dialogue this time around so that every line is interesting in phrasing and context, making it more rich than his work in his first book, Tokyo Suckerpunch. And it pays off in spaids! Tokyo Suckerpunch gives the reader a nod to what can be done with these characters in this setting, Hokkaido Popsicle takes it and runs!

It has been about eight months since I read Hokkaido Popsicle. I bought it on a cheap rack at the campus bookstore thinking it may satiate my interest and experience in Japan and be a nice way to kill a few days with plot and little substance. I read it, I guess I enjoyed it, but I have to admit I do not remember much from the plot. But that is just the plot. I do remember the basics of the story. The narrator of the story is a rather smug and confident American with a penchant for Japan. He makes no bones about it and sports his life by writing about Japan's pop culture for some teen magazine. Not something he is too proud of, so he tries to make himself more important. Which is not too hard. This is after all a whodunit thriller book so the main character is bound to be sent on crazy adventures that no person who makes a living writing for a teen magazine could ever dream of.

And as a thriller, I guess this book does work. Plot heavy and perhaps a little too esoteric to the extreme. I spent the better part of two years recently in Tokyo and so many of the references to places and words clicked with me, but I wonder if it would loose people who have little to no knowledge of Tokyo locality. The main character is smug to the point of me rolling my eyes. A James Bond of the teen foreign pop culture lot who talks a lot of hot stuff but seems to always leave the steamy stuff on a missing page.

Even though it immerses itself in the comings and goings of the Tokyo underworld and pop culture the book neither purports to be an accurate or reliable guide to such. (Thank goodness!) Instead I would have to say it tries capturing the zeitgeist of that world. Whether it does is iffy.

As a thriller with a tongue-in-cheek edge that is a quick read, Hokkaido Popsicle does its job. Good for a plane ride or two, or to kill some other time between importtant things. That is why I give it three stars plus. But as an accurate or even respectful view of Japan and the life that one can live in it, the book is a joke. (Minor case in point: colloquialisms. The conversations play in the book way too well in colloquial English for them to have been originally in Japanese as the story would have it.) Abounding with cultural fetishes, as another review has said, may just be the right way to explain it. But as I said earlier I am trying to overlook that. It could make me upset, but not everything we read has to be Lafcadio Hearn now does it? But it should be kept in mind.

Just as the James Bond film From Russia With Love improved on the already good Dr. No, so too does Hokkaido Popsicle succeed in comparison with its predecessor, Tokyo Suckerpunch. FUN - that's still the operative word when it comes to Isaac Adamson's Billy Chaka series. Although the mystery aspect is more than sufficent, I think Adamson's best moments as a writer involve the hilarious comedic set-ups that occur between the protagonist and the outlandish characters that populate his Japanese Chaka-verse. Overall, it's a fun book. (Though I do like it, I hesitate to give it a gushing five-star review. I mean, it ain't Shakespeare folks.)

These aren't sequels, so you can pick either one up and read them. I can't believe how good Adamson is...I started writing again because I was so inspired by him, and promptly remembered that I['m bad]. This stuff is smart and modern, and I can't wait for the next one. Gamers: just imagine how much fun it would be if Adamson wrote the next Duke Nukem story.

This one is as good as Tokyo Suckerpunch, with the same manic energy and humor. Part of the fun is the many bizarre but believable band names the author creates (like "Phantom Limb"), and the many pop music allusions - especially from Maki and Aki, the huge twin bodyguards who continually banter in pop lyrics from well-known songs. The journey through Japan's urban underside propels the reader, and Billy's cynicism about the music scene hits just the right notes. It looks like there will be more Billy Chaka books, and I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Bought this book on the advice of a friend just before RETURNING to Tokyo from summer holiday. What a great way to ease back into the Tokyo Metropolis! Isaac Adamson has managed to craft an exciting page-turner that pegs Tokyo and pop culture in Japan to a T. The characters are three dimensional, the plot keeps you glued to book, the twists and turns difficult to predict and...the story (or at least MOST of it) believable. My only disappointment was that I could not get my hands on Tokyo Suckerpunch before reading this book (I have ordered it though). I will be recommending this to my Japanese and Gaijin friends. Oh...great cover! I noticed quite a few Tokyoites checking out the cover on the Chuo train during rush hour. Looking forward to Billy Chaka's next adventure...Gambatte o kudasai!

HOKKAIDO POPSICLE is the follow-up to Adamson's Tokyo-Pop classic TOKYO SUCKERPUNCH. This sophomore effort has the return of high-kicking American journalist, Billy Chaka, who falls into a mystery deeply-rooted in the rarely seen world of Tokyo's rock scene. HOKKAIDO POPSICLE is witty, bizarre, fun, and a wonderful slice of east meets west. Like in CATCHER IN THE RYE, once the clever title is explained in the end, its profundity will resonant with you long after you've closed the book. The title is so clever, the big twist ending will put a smile on your face. Do yourself a favor and find out what HOKKAIDO POPSICLE means. If you liked TOKYO SUCKERPUNCH, you'll love HOKKAIDO POPSICLE.

I found this to be as humorous and entertaining as Tokyo Suckerpunch. The characters are explained in a little more depth and become more complex than in the first book, which leaves me feeling satisfied in the end instead of wondering what happened to so-and-so. The ending wraps up neatly and like another reviewer mentioned the title of the book pulls the whole thing together.

This is my favorite book in the series. I love Japanese rock, and the fact that this is about a Japanese visual kei musician is awesome. It's very interesting how the plot twists and turns. It's very captivating & I read it through in one sitting. This, for me, is a book I want to read over and over again. It's that good!

'Hokkaido Popsicle' is a like one never ending inside joke on how a American expat in Japan views the ultra modern and totally wild popular culture of Tokyo. I was such an expat in Tokyo several years ago and the author's observations are extremely keen, and are expressed with tongue-in-cheek humor. He also provides loads of humorous tidbits that only someone who has lived in Japan would appreciate, ... it's like on big inside joke.

Now as for the story, it works ... mostly. We have our young American journalist in Japan investigating the murder of a Japanese pop icon. He runs into all sorts of improbably situations and totally wacked-out characters. The story is completely unbelievable. Fortunately the author's deftness at writing readable prose and embellishing some of the more interesting characters make up for all the overly contrived bits.


Bottom line: more of a back door satire on modern Japanese culture than a memorable mystery novel. Recommended.