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A review by arthuraugustyn
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan by Jake Adelstein
5.0
Really enjoyed this book the second time through it. First read it when it came out and revisited for the television show (which has nothing to do with the book). Adelstein's narrative voice is so important at hooking the reader. He's got a good sense of humor as well as a classic observational ability necessary for any reporter. He adds weight to mundane details of Japanese life and fills in cultural context throughout the story.
My only gripe is there's not a good connective thread across the whole book. You meet these array of characters in Part 1 and assume they'll be central to the story but all of Adelstein's colleagues only exist for one chapter. Even the mentor figure — Sekiguchi — disappears for huge portions of the book. I understand this is more of a memoir than an actual story, but at some point it felt like I was reading a new book in a different world. That's probably true to life, but it took some of the momentum out of the storytelling. Especially because the ending is such a bummer... but there's a lot of honesty and truth in that ending too (specifically the nature of Adelstein's "big scoop" isn't the result of his skill as a reporter, but because he was basically played).
Since reading this the first time 10 years ago, I haven't found a better book about 1) journalism how it really is or 2) Japanese culture. It seems the veracity of the book's details have been disputed, but even if the broad strokes of the crime stories were inaccurate, it's really the storytelling that makes such an impact.
My only gripe is there's not a good connective thread across the whole book. You meet these array of characters in Part 1 and assume they'll be central to the story but all of Adelstein's colleagues only exist for one chapter. Even the mentor figure — Sekiguchi — disappears for huge portions of the book. I understand this is more of a memoir than an actual story, but at some point it felt like I was reading a new book in a different world. That's probably true to life, but it took some of the momentum out of the storytelling. Especially because the ending is such a bummer... but there's a lot of honesty and truth in that ending too (specifically the nature of Adelstein's "big scoop" isn't the result of his skill as a reporter, but because he was basically played).
Since reading this the first time 10 years ago, I haven't found a better book about 1) journalism how it really is or 2) Japanese culture. It seems the veracity of the book's details have been disputed, but even if the broad strokes of the crime stories were inaccurate, it's really the storytelling that makes such an impact.