Tokyo Fiancée

This is not really a novel, but a personal memoir written by Belgian author Amelie Nothomb. Amelie was born in Japan and lived there with her diplomat parents until the age of five. She adores Japan and its culture and returns when she is twenty-one. To earn some money she places an ad to advertise her services as a French tutor. A twenty year old Japanese student, Rinri, contacts her for help as he is majoring in French. She begins by being his sensei, his teacher, but quickly they become involved in a romance. Rinri comes from a wealthy family and shuttles Amelie around Tokyo and beyond in his white Mercedes. The clash of culture quickly arises when she meets his parents. His mother is shocked by the fact that she doesn't wear pantyhose under her dress despite the stifling Tokyo summer heat. The book is a look at the clash of two cultures with often hilarious results. Two of the most beautiful scenes in the book involve Amelie's excursions up Mt. Fiji or surrounding mountains. "It's impossible to narrate the sublime', Nothomb writes, but that is exactly what she does with her glorious prose. Amelie revels in her solitary acts and therein lies the problem at the heart of the book. Rinri adores her and wants to marry her. With marriage would come citizenship in this country that she adores, as well as financial security. Rinri is depicted as loving and kind. In fact the one negative in the book is that he seems too perfect. She totally enjoys his companionship, but she doesn't love Rinri.She loves her freedom. This entails a decision, one with which Amelie must come to terms. This is a beautiful little book, particularly for those interested in Japanese culture.

I liked the book. It's breezy, fresh, unusual, fun. The only part that didn't quite work for me was the last section when the novel suddenly seems to become a factual autobiography. But I like the book and will someday read it again.

Acclaimed Belgian author Amelie Nothomb reminisces in this novel about her life in Japan in 1989. She was twenty-one that year, a recent college graduate seeking her emotional roots, and she had just returned to Japan, where she was born and lived with her diplomat parents for the first five years of her life. To earn some money while she studies business, she posts an advertisement offering language classes in French. She is immediately hired by Rinri, a twenty-year-old college student whose French is at the beginner level, despite several years of teaching by Japanese teachers. Before long, their teacher-student relationship becomes more intimate, and Amelie is learning more about Japanese culture than she ever expected. Perceptively analyzing the communication problems faced by Amelie and Rinri because of their different cultures, the novel warmly and humorously explores their relationship, never taking the differences too seriously despite the confusions that sometime arise. When she meets some of his friends whom she has not met before, she knows that "To meet someone and fail to talk about the weather is to betray a lack of manners," yet she persists in trying to get to know his friends better and to find a subject of common interest for conversation, even though she may be intrusive. She is embarrassed and surprised when he insists on paying her teaching fee when they have been out socializing with his friends, yet Amelie genuinely likes Rinri, and he makes her happy. As one calendar year passes in the lives of these two young characters, the author incorporates other aspects of the culture into the novel--the educational system with its exams for pre-school, its hierarchy of colleges from the most elite to "train station universities," and its lax requirements regarding attendance and assignments. Friendships and leisure activities are also explored, and Amelie and Rinri meet members of each other's families. She becomes a fan of quail eggs and sea urchins; he likes salami with mayonnaise. When Rinri proposes marriage, Amelie encounters a serious linguistic problem different from anything she has ever before experienced. Written as a memoir, the novel contains important observations about the cultural misunderstandings that sometimes arise between even the most committed lovers. Their relationship itself becomes the plot, and the author is especially careful to avoid making value judgments about either culture as she explores issues of the heart. Rinri, a well developed character, evokes sympathy, though the author offers fewer insights into her own behavior. Easy to read and perceptive in its insights into the cultural aspects of love, Tokyo Fiancee is an honest portrait of a relationship between two lovers in their early twenties--one Belgian and one Japanese--both of whom find they have much to learn. n Mary Whipple Sulphuric Acid, 2005 The Life of Hunger, 2004 The Character of Rain: A Novel, 2000 Fear and Trembling: