BEDTIME EYES

Author: Amy Yamada ISBN: 0312352263 5/2006 CONTEMPORARY FICTION Publisher: ST. MARTIN'S PRESS

Amy Yamada is one of the most prominent—and controversial—novelists in Japan today. She burst onto the scene in 1985 with her short novel Bedtime Eyes, which for critics embodied the spirit of the shinjinru—i.e. Generation X—in much the same way as the ground-breaking work of such writers as Bret Easton Ellis and Douglas Coupland did in the U.S. Bedtime Eyes is the first English-language publication of three of Yamada's novellas/short novels: Bedtime Eyes, The Piano Player's Fingers, and Jesse. While all are centered around the relationship between a Japanese woman and a black American man, each explores love, sex, and the vast gulf between their different and equally revealing viewpoints. Starkly imagined and sharply observed, Bedtime Eyes introduces to the English language some of Yamada's best known and most influential work.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

These are compelling stories of the darker side of love and relationships. Yamada has written about women who would do anything for love, even if that means degrading themselves or putting their own well being at risk.

This is certainly no lighthearted read, and the sex becomes quite graphic at times. However, I found myself entranced by the events in the lives of these women. The stories were so captivating that I was content as a reader to experience the lives of these women, rather than wishing they would leave their undesirable situations. Their tilted view of love became my fascination. I found no matter how bad the situations I could not put the book down. Yamada wove a web of betrayal, deceit, punishment and forgiveness, and I was ensnared.

If you are looking for a happily-ever-after ending, this is not the book for you. If, however, you are willing to look at "love" from a view that is probably more prevalent than we would care to imagine, than this might be worth your time.

Amanda Rutherford