Barrie Sherwood

Escape from Amsterdam is a fast paced coming of age. It’s incredibly enjoyable. Sure there is nothing particularly sympathetic about a man with a large gambling debt trying to rescue (or kidnap) his high class hooker of a sister but it makes for an interesting story.

The novel deals rather entertainingly with the difference between real and fake. Aozora’s quest for someone who he finds exactly like his ex, sex dolls, and what constitutes ‘real’ Japan all come into question. And the random yet valuable friendships Aozora makes gives us a glimpse into other lives and –if you are feeling optimistic- how your fellow men are willing to help out.

Richly intertextual, Aozora is presented as a modern day hero. He knows exactly what a hero is, how they are supposed to act, and falls incredibly short. Coupled with mobile phone snapshots, doodles and manga you won’t forget that this is a thoroughly modern novel. However, the themes of growing up, surviving you first love and first death are classics. Aozora’s coming of age is an old story, told in a brilliant way.… (mehr)

Aozara Fujiwara, a mediocre student at the University of Kyota, has been playing a little too much mah-jongg in his spare time and finds himslef in considerble debt to a gangster named Uno.

Luckily Auntie Okane has left Aozora and sister Mai an inheritance with the condition that both brother and sister need to be present to accept the inheritance.However sister Mai has disappeared from opera school.

The story is one of locating sister Mai who is working as a high class call girl in a theme park called Amsterdam. Gondo, a yakuza boss forbids her to leave.

This is a rollicking, engaging, light-hearted novel exposing the reader to a non-traditional side of Japanese culture. I look forward to future books by this engaging author.… (mehr)

Lovely portrait of court life, even with the anachronisms and oddities (sayonara?) signalling that it wasn't to be read as historically accurate in the details. But the bits of some other reality poking through didn't quite work, because I wasn't able to figure out what was supposed to be really happening: delusions, or what?. Kasa was the archaeologist, and her friend an american of some sort... I don't know how it tied together or if there was a point to it at all. So i read it as an amusing historical, with the other bits as distractions. The superficial layer was very prettily done, after all.… (mehr)

The Amsterdam in question in this book is a Japanese theme park, not the backpackers' landmark known for its citizens' liberal lifestyle. Amsterdam (the theme park) offers a homogenized version of the original; tourists can enjoy boat rides and bland, Western food. However, like its namesake, it has a seedy undercurrent that belies its homogenized facade.

This is where the bulk of the action in Escape from Amsterdam takes place. Aozora, our antihero, is a university student in Kyoto who has been dumped by his lady for a job in a ski resort. Due to his increasing indifference to school and life in general, he whiles away his hours playing mah-jong, and it's not long before he finds himself mired in debt to some local gangsters. After his friend gets beat up for his outstanding debts, Aozora is informed that he and his sister, Mai, are due to inherit a pricey art collection. The catch is, his sister has been missing for weeks.

Read the full review here.… (mehr)