A review by iggnaseous
The Bicycle Man by Allen Say

3.0

I have mixed feeling about the book. In part it's a story about authentic cultural exchange. It also portrays post WWII Japan as a dreary place, in need of the color and entertainment only the US can provide. The titular bicycle man is an African American soldier. The author attributes the characteristic exoticism of the East to the soldier. Is that a positive change, or just an expression of U.S.-style racism with the trappings of a Japanese tale? The story has the structure of another white-savior narrative, except that it's the black man whose doing the "saving"--from rigid structures and into fun.