Customer Reviews

The Japanese Chronicles

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

 

 

I read this book one month into a year-stay in Japan. The country which was becoming increasingly unattractive to me became fascinating again. I love this book. Like Alan Booth, the author presents Japan and its people in a unsentimental, yet loving way. Highly recommended.

Excellent writer, however sometimes specially at the end of the book he sort of loose focus and ramble a little bit. He explored Japan at a time when Japan was affordable, mid-fifties, and sixties and the Japanese people in general were less cosmopolitan, so there is great charm in that, as for today I am sure some of that charm is lost, of course this is not a travel guide, but reminiscences of his stays there, and his impressions as an educated Swiss-French writer.

This is definitely not a book for those who know little of Japan and/or are planning to visit that country soon for the first time. It covers the author's life and travels in the 1950s and 60s, a Japan that was still post-war and pre-economic miracle, a world light-years away from the Japan of the 21st century. Then the book is quite somber in tone; it doesn't make you want to go see Japan at all. There is a section on history but nothing on culture or the arts. Finally, much space is dedicated to the northern island of Hokkaido, a place with almost no culture or history, and so should not be in an introduction to Japan.

On the other hand, for those who know Japan well, there are some gold nuggets to found here. The book is a collection of notes that the author wrote here and there. So as an historical document, illuminating the country's recent past, it is valuable and interesting. I found, for example, the parts on Tokyo and Kyoto worth while.

Large parts I found to be of limited interest because these chronicles are more about the author than about Japan.

The writing is good, in general, and the translation well above average.