East Is East

I have now read all of Boyle's work, except "Riven Rock," which is next on my list. "World's End" was so great, I didn't think another of his books would be able to equal it. Yet, "East Is East" does. It's great, simpler than "World's End," and just as interesting.

Quite simply, one of the finest examples of character writing there is. Boyle takes an absurd situation (a native Japanese man washed ashore in a Georgian swamp) and turns it into a compulsive page-turner. His dialogue, use of characters and acerbic wit are an absolute joy. The scene in the shop with the Japanese 'hero' showing a commendable grasp of the English language (seemingly gained entirely from Clint Eastwood movies) had me crying with laughter (and got me some strange looks from other folks on the London Underground at the time). Although the lunacy of the situation is reminicent of Boyle's short stories, readers familiar with his novels will recognise the style and attention to detail he pays his characters. This book should be required reading for anybody interested in writing their own fiction. You won't find a better example of modern storytelling anywhere.

In "East is East," T.C. Boyle shows what amazing things writers can do with sentences. I have never read another novel with better point-of-view characterization. Forget you readers out there; if you're a writer, you HAVE TO read this book. Yes, the plot is entertaining, but watch how he gets inside the heads of his characters and portrays them from the inside out. Whenever I'm feeling down about my own writing, I pull this novel off the shelf and read from it. One of the most original novels I've ever read.

Boyle's stunning novel about a Japanese merchant marine who heaves him himself off his ship and ends up in the world of micro america Georgia is engaging from begining to end. Boyle's characters represent the quirks and fears of everyone who has an encounter with another culture. Boyle goes beyond the language barrier and stereotypes that differentiate one culture from another to show us how our ingrained sense of nationalistic pride can detract our sense of understanding one another's cultures. He use's the Japanese man as a focal point while also pointing out our own predjudices that we have about other Americans. It reminds a lot of Russel Banks' novel "Trailer Park" in the way that it is written. The way boyle and Banks both seem to give the reader a sense of every character and where they are coming from...everybody that we meet in the story has a story of their own. Fantastic. Read and then re-read.

This novel is a great read. Boyle explores the rugged coast of rednecks and ruffiants through the virgin eyes of a young Japanese seaman (Hiro Tanaka). What Hiro develops are what he hopes to get rid of, learnes prejudices. After encounters with all kinds of wacky people the social commentary is clear, the lack of education leads to these feelings of hate. But dont get me wrong, this is all done with extraordiany story telling techniques, and with wonderful humor. It is fun to read and you will enjoy it