Synopsis
The author of Under the Sickle Moon shares a narrative of life in the heart of the Japanese business world, offering colorful portraits of the personalities he encounters and providing insights into the workings of Japanese society. 10,000 first printing.
Reviews
The author, a British investment banker in Tokyo, writes that he thought of Japan as "a labyrinth which anyone who wants to understand the Japanese has to enter in order to find the secret of Japan." Having lived there as a student, Hodson ( Under a Sickle Moon) spoke the language and felt at home in the culture. Quoting from his undated diary, he here enters the labyrinth with euphoria. In spare prose reminiscent of Japanese brush strokes, Hodson conveys details of place, the manners, dress and quirks of those he met. To his surprise, he finds himself isolated in the office, his colleagues paranoid, dull or vacuous; and old friends who are longtime residents are cynical and anxious to leave the country. Hodson himself leaves at the conclusion of this journal--a searcher for the "heart" of Japan who discovered, in puzzlement and disaffection, only emptiness.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Subjective, albeit detached (even alienated), reflections from a gaijin who returned to Japan as much in search of himself as the soul of his host country. A British barrister who had traveled through and written about war-torn Afghanistan, Hodson (Under a Sickle Moon, 1987) was seconded as a securities trader to the Tokyo branch of the London- based bank for which he had worked a couple of years back. While in Japan, the vaguely discontented, thirtysomething author (who had visited Japan as a youth in pursuit of enlightenment) kept a journal, which he draws on here to offer allusive and episodic impressions of his not-altogether-happy stay. Although fluent in Japanese, for example, Hodson experienced great difficulty communicating in a self-absorbed, status-conscious society where urban materialism had all but vanquished traditional values. After constant contact with Japanese colleagues and European friends, in fact, he concluded that money is ``the one-word language everyone understands.'' Notwithstanding cultural and spiritual shocks, Hodson (who seems to have led a notably active night life during his 12-month sojourn) provides vivid examples of the joyless hedonism, sexual license, violence, and other of affluence's less appealing excesses that have undermined the consensual harmony if not moral fiber of an economic superpower. For a variety of reasons (a lost love, office politics, a new flame, existential angst), the author eventually decided to return home, thereby completing his ``circle round the sun.'' Though Hodson largely lets his observations speak for themselves, he occasionally lapses into fortune-cookie wisdom: ``In the yoga of the direct path, one life is enough. But it depends on the trajectory.'' That cavil apart: a different and rewarding appreciation of modern Japan. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Working as an investment banker for a European bank in the late Eighties, Hodson accepted a post in the bank's Japanese office. A Japanese speaker who had previously lived in Japan, Hodson ( Under a Sickle Moon: A Journey Through Afghanistan , LJ 9/15/87) kept a diary and made audio recordings during his recent stay in Japan; these memories make up the book. Hodson's stay in Japan is marked by frustration and a growing pessimism engendered by his inability to find a place the office or the country. The author quotes foreigners and Japanese who believe that the West has already lost a battle that it wasn't aware it was engaged in and that relations between Japan and the West will continue to worsen. This highly subjective book isn't always cheerful reading, and it requires some understanding of Japan. Recommended for larger collections with an interest in contemporary Japan.
- Robert Andrews, Duluth P.L., Minn.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
