Wrong About Japan - Softcover

Carey, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1400078369 ISBN 13: 9781400078363

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2006

Synopsis

When Peter Carey offered to take his son to Japan, 12-year-old Charley stipulated no temples or museums. He wanted to see manga, anime, and cool, weird stuff. His father said yes. Out of that bargain comes this enchanting tour of the mansion of Japanese culture, as entered through its garish, brightly lit back door. Guided–and at times judged–by an ineffably strange boy named Takashi, the Careys meet manga artists and anime directors, the meticulous impersonators called “visualists,” and solitary, nerdish otaku. Throughout, the Booker Prize-winning novelist makes observations that are intriguing even when–as his hosts keep politely reminding him–they turn out to be wrong. Funny, surprising, distinguished by its wonderfully nuanced portrait of a father and son thousands of miles from home, Wrong About Japan is a delight.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Previous winner of two Booker Prizes, Peter Carey expands his extraordinary achievement with each new novel -- but now gives us something entirely different.
When famously shy Charley Carey becomes obsessed with Japanese manga and anime, Peter is not only delighted for his son, but entranced himself. Thus, with a father sharing his twelve-year-old's exotic comic books, begins a journey that will lead them both to Tokyo, where a strange Japanese boy will become both their guide and judge. The visitors quickly plunge deep into the lanes of Shitimachi -- into the "weird stuff" of modern Japan -- meeting manga artists and anime directors, "visualists" who painstakingly impersonate cartoons, and solitary "otakus" who lead a computerized existence. What emerges from these encounters is a pithy, far-ranging study of history and culture both high and low -- from samurai to salaryman, from kabuki theatre to the post-war robot craze. Peter Carey's observations are provocative, even though his hosts often point out, politely, that he is wrong about Japan. In adventures that are comic, surprising, and ultimately moving, father and son cope with and learn from each other in a place far from home.

""No Real Japan," said Charley. "You've got to promise. No temples. No museums."
"What could we do?"
"We could buy cool manga."
"There'll be no English translations."
"I don't care. I'd eat raw fish."
--excerpt from Wrong About Japan

"From the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Peter Carey is the author of eight novels, including the Booker Prize–winning Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang, and, most recently, My Life as a Fake. Born in Australia in 1943, Carey now lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1400078369
• ISBN 13: 9781400078363
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 180