clash of cultures, east v west - symbolized in the relationship between the narrator and her nemesis, Fubuki. Easy read, funny ( )

I absolutely loved Fear and Trembling. I actually watched the movie first and loved it as well. I must say it follows the book almost exactly. It’s a fascinating study of the clash of cultures. The book is translated from the French, and the film is a combination of French and Japanese with English sub-titles.

In this short semi-autobiographical novel, Amelie Nothomb describes the experiences of ‘Amelie’ during her year at a Japanese corporation. Amelie is smitten with Japan, knows the language, and is ecstatic that she obtained a corporate position as a translator in the country where she was born. The job is not all she hoped, but she tries her best to stick out her position the way a Japanese person would. I found this book (and movie) to be truly fascinating. Nothomb obviously loves Japan and Japanese culture, but even she finds that the differences of East and West are sometimes difficult to overcome.

In speaking of the Japanese woman:

“It is best to avoid any kind of physical pleasure because it is apt to make you sweat. There is nothing more shameful than sweat. If you gobble up a steaming bowl of noodles, if you give in to s*xual craving, if you spend the winter dozing in front of the fire, you will sweat. And no one will be in any doubt that you are coarse.

The choice between sweat and suicide isn’t a choice. Spilling one’s blood is as admirable as spilling sweat is unspeakable. Take your life, and you will never sweat again. Your anxiety will be over for all eternity.”

I own two other books by Nothomb - The Character of Rain and Sulphuric Acid — and I’m very much looking forward to both!

1999, 2001 for the English translation, 132 pp.

4.5/5 ( )

Pour les amoureux du japon et avant lost in translation. ( )

Clever, and sharply written, Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb is a strange, unsettling little book. Amelie, the novella’s narrator, was born in Japan to Belgian parents. She spent her childhood there and considers Japan to be her homeland. Amelie now has returned with great anticipation to Japan to work for the Yumimoto Corporation. On first appearances, Amelie is naïve and eager. Her first work assignment is simple and expertly accomplished, yet is evaluated by her superior as unsatisfactory, and without explanation, Amelie is forced to redo her work repeatedly. Eventually, the assignment is taken from Amelie, and she is assigned Miss Mori as her direct superior. Tall, elegant, and beautiful, Miss Mori becomes Amelie’s object of desire and nemesis. As a Westerner, Amelie, despite her knowledge of and affection for Japan, is considered by Yumimoto Corporation to be an outsider, and as such, inherently an inferior and untrustworthy employee. Being a woman, an attribute she shares with Miss Mori, only reinforces this assessment. Amelie is given no real work to do, and so creates her own assignments. Initiative, though, is regarded by the Japanese Corporation as insubordination, and Amelie is punished by being assigned increasing humiliating tasks that are mindless and repetitive. Amelie responds to the increasing tyranny, not with shame or embarrassment, but rather with a calm, Zen-like acceptance. Or is Amelie’s acceptance really perverse pleasure and her response subversion? Hierarchy of power, the rigidity of roles, faceless corporate employees, hypocrisy, and sadomasochism are the novella’s themes, and little Amelie, by story’s end exacts her revenge on The Yumimoto Corporation and Miss Mori with cruel precision. ( )

Fantastic! Quick, intense cultural gap. Perfectly illustrated. This book, set in the contemporary corporate culture of Tokyo, is illuminating, stunning, and oh so witty. Sort of Zen philosophy meets theater of the absurd. A must read! ( )