Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire
Book Description
Magda is thrilled to leave her globalization-protesting boyfriend in Toronto and head to Tokyo to teach English conversation…or so she thinks. Upon her arrival she is whisked off to save the life of a suicidal salaryman with the help of a strategic idiom. Magda has unwittingly joined the Anne of Grey Tokyo Emergency English Response Team, and she better brush up her vocabulary in a hurry, because the English emergencies keep coming. Suddenly caught up in the politics of English and pop culture in Japan, Magda soon realizes to expect the unexpected. She’s now the student–and Japan definitely has a lot to teach.
Modern Japan and the art of humourous pathos.
An Interview with Janice Valerie Young, author of Sweet Daruma, a Japan satire.
Day 1 – Q1. Your book has an intriguing title. Can you tell us about it and how the idea came about?
Reply:
I wanted the title to reflect the element that ties all the characters and the narrative together—there’s an idea in the story that Japan needs something new, but not another disconnected high-tech gadget—instead an idea, a gift to society, if you will, that connects the old with the new, the folkloric with the modern. I’ve always been enchanted by darumas and find the whole idea of daruma apartments not only feasible, but fantastic. And I felt the need to point out that the novel is a satire, lest readers take the events in the story literally!
Sweet Daruma is available at Amazon.com now and will be sold in-store at Kinokuniya Takashimaya Times Square in a few weeks, plus Kinokuniya and Maruzen online stores.
A website about the book and the author will be up at the end of January.
www.sweetdaruma.com
UPCOMING INTERVIEWS
* Writer Liane Wakabayashi on Breakthroughs in Art and Writing with The Genesis Cards.
* Barbara Ferretti Matsuura , Tai Chi Instructor, Reiki Master and healer extraordinaire.
* Leza Lowitz Writer, Yoga Teacher and Healer on her new book.
* Erik Bragg on Hypnosis and the 7th Path.
* Tsunami Disaster Appeal – Rotary Reaching Out – 9 Hour Concert in Fremantle Australia www.rotaryreachingout.com