Fear and Trembling

Once upon a time, a year after the start of the 1989 japanese recession, a new employee came to work at the Yumimoto enterprises in Tokyo. Having been born in Japan, and having left it for several years before coming back there in 1989, Amelie's dream is finally going to come true. She is finally going to work in this wonderful country as a translator for this company. Unfortunately for her, although she tries to do her job as best as she can, which is with honesty and dedication, she has to deal with certain hypocritical employees, including one of her superiour who doesn't hesitate to employ certain unethical favours to put Amelie back to her place, remind her that although she knows how to speak and write japanese, she is not, and will never be, welcomed among them and that she has to kneel before them. Reading some of the negative comments posted with this book, mostly concerning about the supposedly racism contained in this book, it is evident that the belgian author Amelie Nothomb, who based her book on her experiences she lived in a Japanese enterprise, wrote down something that not every hardcore fan of Japan would want to hear. That deep down, the country that they dream, and almost worship, is not as wonderful and open-minded as the animes, mangas, and japanese movies pretend it to be. Although there are some good japanese who live there, like the wonderful Mr. Tenshi who works at Yumimoto enterprise, not all of them are ready to accept foreigners among their employees. For those of you who want more proof that the authour is not racist, read "The character of Rain", "biography of Hunger" and "Tokyo Fiancee" by the same author. There are, in those books, wonderful japanese, just ready to give their story to us.

One of the funniest books I have ever read, yet extremely subtle. If you don't read French, this book would justify learning.

The spare writing and stark story are captivating. This writer's magically elegant, restrained prose is magnetically beautiful. I felt as though I couldn't tear my eyes away. I started reading the book at lunch time, sitting alone at a table in a restaurant, and didn't stop reading until I had finished the whole book; I had completely forgotten where I was (and was blind to the rudeness of occupying a whole booth by myself long after I'd finished eating, while hungry people waited in line). Nothomb's prose brings to mind the haunting, restrained style of Jane Smiley in "The Age of Grief," or of Jamaica Kincaid in "Lucy." Like those works, it reads like a novella or a short story: each word that is written, as well as each word that the author chose to omit, carries individual weight and commands the reader's full attention. Equally compelling is the mysteriously fateful story arc that carries the heroine to ever greater suffering and isolation. Although it's a realistic novel, it reads a little like a fairy tale; it brings to mind Paul Coelho and, to some extent, Haruki Murakami. You feel, as with those writers, that you're reading about magically meaningful, symbolically rich events whose meaning you can't quite grasp. The book is also compelling in the way a nonfiction memoir of a miserable childhood or adolescence can be compelling; you can't stop reading it in the way you can't stop reading "Name All The Animals," "Prep," "Don't Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight," "The Glass Castle," or "Are You Somebody?" You have to keep reading just to discover whether the heroine survives. This book is a perfect little jewel; to change a single word would diminish it.

This young belgium writer - nominated by French Academy under her 30's, is one of the best contemporary french speaking writers. She has a strange sense of humour, an accurate aproach to FAR EAST culture (her father has been a dipomat in Japan and China,) and an extraordinary hability to build up plots on human miseries that arises disgust and empathy all together. I read all her books published in french, and I recommend them all. The ones I liked best are "La Métaphysique des tubes", "La sabotage amoreux", "Stupeur et Tremblements" and "Péplum".

According to legend, a person must approach the Emperor and Empress with fear and trembling. This is the analogy that Amelie draws on as she prepares a proper resignation speech to her bosses at the Yumimoto Corporation in Tokyo, where the right behavior, the right words, and the right demeanor are everything, even on resignation. Amelie (the character), is a college graduate, a Belgian, having been born in Japan and returing to seek employment. She is resourceful, independent, and bright, values which would earn her high marks in the West, but when she successfully completes an assignment for one of the managers, her superiors interpret it as willfulness and arrogance. There are a few on her side, but they are powerless to change anything. Although raised in Japan, speaking the language, Amelie quickly learns that her cherished adopted homeland also has a nightmare network of social and and work expectations, which she cannot fathom. As her supervisor, one of the few women in the company, becomes increasingly hostile and Amelie is given menial assignments which she is designed to fail at, things start to spiral out of control, until she winds up as a bathroom attendant in the company. Her supervisor hopes she will then resign, but she waits out her one year contract, adopting Kierkegaard's philosophy of serenity in the midst of mindless drudgery or even prison.The harsh indictment of Japanese society, its attitudes toward its own citizens as well as foreigners, is tempered by a fast-paced clever style full of wry humor, yet compassion for even its worst characters. This is a provocative work of fiction that will have you thinking long and hard about cross cultural relations, and the misunderstandings as well as the opportunities as cultures collide in the 21st century.