Sophia C. reviewed on 9/5/2011 + 289 more book reviews

Bar Flower is a memoir that is more about its author than Japan or the Tokyo hostess bar scene. American Lea Jacobson, having studied Japanese and East Asian studies in college, lands a job as an English teacher in Japan immediately after college. Eventually she is fired from this job, and drifts into hostess work in the upscale Ginza district of Tokyo. During these years, she parties and drinks excessively. I had to put the book down several times in the beginning because of her love-Japan-but-hate-the-Japanese attitude which I've also noticed in other American authors who are quick to notice and criticize differences between Japanese and Western culture. Having previously read about Japan and hostess bars, I don't think I learned anything new. Nonetheless, Jacobson is an edgy writer with keen retrospective insight into her mental health and gender roles who narrates an entertaining story in short chapters.

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