I really enjoyed this novel of Japan. It's about an American psychologist, Alex Thorn, who is in Japan to find out what happened to his son, Cody, an exchange student at Shizuyama University, who was killed in an accident. Cody's body was shipped back to the States with no explanation as to what happened to him or who had paid any medical bills for him. All Alex had to go on was a bill from "Gone With the Wind" funeral services for shipment of the body. And when the body was received, it had had its heart surgically removed. So what had happened to Cody and why? Alex's quest leads him to Gaby Stanton, a professor who was fired from Shizuyama and is now working for "Gone With the Wind" selling extravagant fantasy funerals to older Japanese. Gaby insists that the funeral company did not ship the body back to the States and she has no knowledge of what happened. So Gaby ends up helping Alex get to the bottom of the mystery. This leads to finding that Cody may have met up with members of the Japanese mafia, the yakuza, which then leads to questions about the people Gaby is working for. And how does this all relate to her getting fired from the university and a somewhat questionable professor there? Gaby tells Alex to expect the unexpected and to try to understand what is not being said. As Alex is drawn to Gaby, she is reluctant to get into a relationship because of a medical condition which she feels keeps her as an outsider especially in the States.
I thought this novel really gave the reader a sense for life in Japan showing how the Japanese feel about Americans or gaijin and the many differences between the two cultures. The book also discusses the Japanese medical system which appears to be a universal system where all are treated without insurance. This seemed very relevant to the debates going on in Congress about Medicare for all or a universal health care system in the U.S. The novel also contained many interesting characters that were well developed and added to the storyline. One of the most interesting was Mr. Eguchi, Gaby's boss at "Gone With the Wind", who could only communicate in English using Beatles lyrics. I have never spent time in Japan other than being stationed in Okinawa during the 70s which was very Americanized at the time. I will probably never get to go there so this book was a good substitute for a Japanese experience.
I thought this novel really gave the reader a sense for life in Japan showing how the Japanese feel about Americans or gaijin and the many differences between the two cultures. The book also discusses the Japanese medical system which appears to be a universal system where all are treated without insurance. This seemed very relevant to the debates going on in Congress about Medicare for all or a universal health care system in the U.S. The novel also contained many interesting characters that were well developed and added to the storyline. One of the most interesting was Mr. Eguchi, Gaby's boss at "Gone With the Wind", who could only communicate in English using Beatles lyrics. I have never spent time in Japan other than being stationed in Okinawa during the 70s which was very Americanized at the time. I will probably never get to go there so this book was a good substitute for a Japanese experience.
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