Chanpon

The Sunday New York Times Book Review last week had a review of Peter Carey's new book, Wrong About Japan, and though I haven't read it, I think I can safely say, boy, are you ever. (More reviews and commentary related to the book can be found at Achikochi.com.) The book seems to be a loosely-constructed travelogue about one man's efforts to penetrate the eternal mystery of the Floating Kingdom - impossible as he is, of course, forever an outsider. His son on the other hand, a fan of manga and anime, has no problem connecting with the innocence and simplicity of a child. How trite. Carey ends his book with, apparently, a made-up Japanese character to underscore how easily Charley can make friends in strange places and how his fater still can't understand their fascination with Japanese pop culture.

I find the fact that Carey had to make up a character somewhat offensive, and emblematic of "the problem of Japan". Like the fictional character who befriends his (real) son, his Japan threatens to be a complete construct. One must wonder what else he made up in his quest to show that no modern American can be "right" about Japan.

I have to read the book to see. It surely cannot be as simplistic and as bad as the reviews suggest. But if the reviews hint at anything, it's that orientalism is alive and well in the twenty-first century.