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Title: Lost Japan by Alex Kerr ISBN: 0-86442-370-5 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: May, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.19 (36 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Thought Provoking and Insightful
Comment: I found the subtle convincing argument style of the author to be quite remarkable and effective. He leads his reader through a series of interesting personal experiences occurring over the many years he has lived in Japan - each one making up a single chapter within the book. He carefully explains the essential characteristics of each experience as to why it has had a profound positive or negative lasting affect on him. He describes how his friends, his educational background and his teachers, all of the highest caliber, helped him to appreciate the artistic values he encounters within the scope of the experience. Finally, when least expected, he hits the reader with a profound, but obvious, truth or conclusion that helps to explain deep aspects of Japanese culture of surprising significance.
It should be noted that the original text was written as articles submitted to a Japanese magazine, and that this series of articles was so well received by Japanese readers that they were incorporated into the original version of this book that was written in the Japanese language. Again the book was well received. The only criticism that I might venture to make was that I didn't find this compilation of articles to provide me sense of inevitability to make me feel that the book as a whole was going to reach a timely conclusion and final ending. On the whole, though, I think it's a really nice piece of work.
Rating: 5
Summary: You will love this book if you have actually lived in Japan
Comment: This was one of most superb books I have ever read on Japan. Having lived in Western Japan for two years, I found Kerr's insights right on. I have read and kept up on a number of Japanese analysts and Kerr's assessment of the beauty and losses of Japan is subtle and genuine. Ignore the readers on this page who gave it 1-star. This book is best for those who have actually lived in Japan for a significant amount of time, have studied various works on Japan, and better yet, have been to the Kansai region. I have lived in Kyoto and I absolutely LOVED the chapter "Kyoto hates Kyoto." No one who has ever been to that historical city can deny that glass-box architecture-loving Japanese-futurists promoted the 'uglification' of the most important city in Japan. I didn't find Kerr elitist; he is interested in different art forms than many regular citizens in Japan, but I urge anyone who loves and has lived in Japan to consider this book. Awesome.
Rating: 4
Summary: A passionate, but reactionary book
Comment: This book, written from an experience of living in Japan for 30 years, highlights many of the experiences the author has taken. It is however quite self indulgent in it's content.
Contrast Alex Kerr's description of Kabuki, with Dave Barry's "Somebody stab him again." Alex has entered a private world that few are able to enter,and as such is dying from it's own asphyxiation. There is beauty to be seen here, and is being lost in Japan but Alex's description of it comes across as a reactionary rant. That said though, sometimes it takes an outsider to point out what is wrong with the inside.
This book, written in 1996 also serves as a prequel to Dogs and Demons, which is a much better, more detailed and objective look at the problems besetting Japan.
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Title: Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan by Alex Kerr ISBN: 0809039435 Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub Pub. Date: 10 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan by Alan Booth, Joshua Sitzer ISBN: 1568361483 Publisher: Kodansha International Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Roads to Sata: A 2000-Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth ISBN: 1568361874 Publisher: Kodansha International Pub. Date: June, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Japan: True Stories of Life on the Road (Travelers' Tales Guides) by Donald W. George, Amy G. Carlson, Donald Richie, Alan Booth ISBN: 188521104X Publisher: Travelers' Tales Inc Pub. Date: December, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Learning to Bow : Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce Feiler ISBN: 0395647266 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 22 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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