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casualblasphemy's review against another edition
2.0
An interesting read that suffers from some repetition and a challenge to the veracity of some of Adelstein’s stories.
sbaunsgard's review against another edition
4.0
Jake Adelstein's page turner of a memoir about being a police reporter at a large daily Japanese newspaper in the 90s. The material is fascinating, funny, scary and heartrending. The book is partly about the business side of crime in Japan and partly about what it's like to be a reporter in Japan. You also get that horrible gut churning feeling of knowing these 'characters' are all real people. The crimes have real victims. The toll of the job on Adelstein (and the people he loves) is significant. Part of whether you will enjoy this book will depend on whether you like Adelstein as a narrator. If you do not, you will loathe this book. The tone is pretty casual, as if this guy were telling you about all of this at a bar. It's not poorly written. But it isn't really artistic or stylish as prose goes.
I enjoyed the book very much in a gut churning vicarious kind of way.
There are significant portions of this book about sex workers and human trafficking. There are also some portions that include descriptions of grisly violence. If that is something that is going to be very upsetting to you, I would avoid reading this. Obviously, due to the subject matter, I would not recommend it for children.
I enjoyed the book very much in a gut churning vicarious kind of way.
There are significant portions of this book about sex workers and human trafficking. There are also some portions that include descriptions of grisly violence. If that is something that is going to be very upsetting to you, I would avoid reading this. Obviously, due to the subject matter, I would not recommend it for children.
100onbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Jake is quite a character...
And Japan....hard not to fall in love with it. So rich & full of interesting social norms.
Came across as the stereotype of the American abroad (back home...the Japanese) but claws back points for painting yakuza as people rather than caricatures.
Fast read. Found myself referring to business cards as 'meishi'. Telling.
And Japan....hard not to fall in love with it. So rich & full of interesting social norms.
Came across as the stereotype of the American abroad (back home...the Japanese) but claws back points for painting yakuza as people rather than caricatures.
Fast read. Found myself referring to business cards as 'meishi'. Telling.
snvsdo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
4.0
frasersimons's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
2.5
Bit of a weird one for me. I watched the TV show and wanted to see how rooted in the memoir it actually was, which was neat. It is quite candid, with the author being pretty open about their trajectory as they report in Japan, and the emotional and mental toll the beat took on them.
It takes a while to demonstrate why this is actually a thing; as in, why it is being written. For a while it actually isn’t particularly clear. It is narrated by the author and the distant tone and rendering of an already disillusioned approach to the human figures being talked about makes it feel meandering, or even pandering and indulgent as to what the reader may want out of it. Lots digressions into the cultural context of sex, until it migrates to the true focus: human trafficking and that particular story.
This was fine, overall, but feels like a product of it’s time and oddly really generational in its thinking and pseudo progressive outlook toward sex, sex workers, and indentured sex workers imported to the country, which the government and laws just did not serve. It’s admirable doing something about it, but the mix between the professional and personal and those later decisions colours it as somewhat suspect in some areas, and feels more like unfocused fiction than anything else.
It takes a while to demonstrate why this is actually a thing; as in, why it is being written. For a while it actually isn’t particularly clear. It is narrated by the author and the distant tone and rendering of an already disillusioned approach to the human figures being talked about makes it feel meandering, or even pandering and indulgent as to what the reader may want out of it. Lots digressions into the cultural context of sex, until it migrates to the true focus: human trafficking and that particular story.
This was fine, overall, but feels like a product of it’s time and oddly really generational in its thinking and pseudo progressive outlook toward sex, sex workers, and indentured sex workers imported to the country, which the government and laws just did not serve. It’s admirable doing something about it, but the mix between the professional and personal and those later decisions colours it as somewhat suspect in some areas, and feels more like unfocused fiction than anything else.
brettwooley's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
3.0
2kimi2furious's review against another edition
4.0
This was really good and sometimes really hard to read. The epilogue punched me in the fucking gut.