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A review by rukmini
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. Some other reviewers have complained that the non-yakuza stuff is boring, but I found all of it fascinating, especially the description of work culture in Japan.
I don’t think Adelstein’s attempt to do a Raymond Chandler / noir detective character voice is successful. It’s almost parodic in some places and it detracts from his credibility and the rest of the book. I honestly can’t judge if he’s making up or embroidering some of these stories, but I would assume that if they’ve been published in the WaPo and the LA Times, they’ve probably been vetted quite thoroughly.
I also can’t quite understand the hate in some of the reviews. Maybe it’s because of envy that he could do this job and speak such fluent Japanese (if his Japanese is good enough that the conversations recounted in the book actually went down the way he describes and he’s not glossing over a billion instances of asking for clarification or misunderstanding things)? Maybe it’s because (as Nick put it) he’s a bit of a prat? I really don’t know, but I do recommend the book.
I don’t think Adelstein’s attempt to do a Raymond Chandler / noir detective character voice is successful. It’s almost parodic in some places and it detracts from his credibility and the rest of the book. I honestly can’t judge if he’s making up or embroidering some of these stories, but I would assume that if they’ve been published in the WaPo and the LA Times, they’ve probably been vetted quite thoroughly.
I also can’t quite understand the hate in some of the reviews. Maybe it’s because of envy that he could do this job and speak such fluent Japanese (if his Japanese is good enough that the conversations recounted in the book actually went down the way he describes and he’s not glossing over a billion instances of asking for clarification or misunderstanding things)? Maybe it’s because (as Nick put it) he’s a bit of a prat? I really don’t know, but I do recommend the book.