Escape from Amsterdam is a fast paced coming of age. It’s incredibly enjoyable. Sure there is nothing particularly sympathetic about a man with a large gambling debt trying to rescue (or kidnap) his high class hooker of a sister but it makes for an interesting story.

The novel deals rather entertainingly with the difference between real and fake. Aozora’s quest for someone who he finds exactly like his ex, sex dolls, and what constitutes ‘real’ Japan all come into question. And the random yet valuable friendships Aozora makes gives us a glimpse into other lives and –if you are feeling optimistic- how your fellow men are willing to help out.

Richly intertextual, Aozora is presented as a modern day hero. He knows exactly what a hero is, how they are supposed to act, and falls incredibly short. Coupled with mobile phone snapshots, doodles and manga you won’t forget that this is a thoroughly modern novel. However, the themes of growing up, surviving you first love and first death are classics. Aozora’s coming of age is an old story, told in a brilliant way. ( )

Aozara Fujiwara, a mediocre student at the University of Kyota, has been playing a little too much mah-jongg in his spare time and finds himslef in considerble debt to a gangster named Uno.

Luckily Auntie Okane has left Aozora and sister Mai an inheritance with the condition that both brother and sister need to be present to accept the inheritance.However sister Mai has disappeared from opera school.

The story is one of locating sister Mai who is working as a high class call girl in a theme park called Amsterdam. Gondo, a yakuza boss forbids her to leave.

This is a rollicking, engaging, light-hearted novel exposing the reader to a non-traditional side of Japanese culture. I look forward to future books by this engaging author. ( )

The Amsterdam in question in this book is a Japanese theme park, not the backpackers' landmark known for its citizens' liberal lifestyle. Amsterdam (the theme park) offers a homogenized version of the original; tourists can enjoy boat rides and bland, Western food. However, like its namesake, it has a seedy undercurrent that belies its homogenized facade.

This is where the bulk of the action in Escape from Amsterdam takes place. Aozora, our antihero, is a university student in Kyoto who has been dumped by his lady for a job in a ski resort. Due to his increasing indifference to school and life in general, he whiles away his hours playing mah-jong, and it's not long before he finds himself mired in debt to some local gangsters. After his friend gets beat up for his outstanding debts, Aozora is informed that he and his sister, Mai, are due to inherit a pricey art collection. The catch is, his sister has been missing for weeks.

Read the full review here. ( )

My 1st Review.

I find myself torn after reading this book. I do love Japanese culture and a good thriller. I am both elated and disappointed with this book. If you were hoping for something like Michael Crichton's "Rising Sun", keep looking. This is more of an adaptation of a screenplay of a Anime movie you don't quite understand, yet can't pull yourself away from. The story is basically about a young man; "Aozora" who finds himself on a mission to save his sister; "Mai" at a fantastical amusement park; "Amsterdam" while bearing the burden of his endebtedness to gangsters. Although there are a few colourful and interesting characters in the story, "Aozora" personifies the self-centered, shallow, socially detactched, self-loathing youth of today that you'll find yourself compelled to want to smack upside his head a la Leroy Jethro Gibbs [N.C.I.S.]. At times WAY too detailed, and at other times quite whimsical, "Escape From Amsterdam" is, in a word, convoluted. I did very much enjoy the many manga illustrations & photos the book offered. Perhaps if Sherwood expanded upon those and didn't get so bogged down in the details, it would have been a better book. I believe this would have been exceptional if it were completely illustrated and contained not a word of text. A part of me loved this book, but a bigger part of me is suffering the bitter aftertaste of a first draft. ( )

At first, the extreme ennui and detachment of the protagonist of Escape from Amsterdam, Aozora, might put you off. The only thing that motivates him is his fear of the gangsters who are intent on collecting his mah-jongg gambling debts. His aunt has died, and his only hope of collecting the money to pay off his debtors is to find his sister, who, he suspects, has disappeared into the world of high-class prostitution.

The story really picks up steam when Aozora enters the fantasy world of Amsterdam, a theme park attached to Japan's version of Las Vegas. Aozora locates his sister, Mai, and a host of new outcasts and outlaws give chase. I found myself hooked into the story and pulling for this unlikely hero. ( )

If you’re looking for a detailed description of a Japan you couldn’t imagine or wouldn’t believe, this is a great book. If you’re looking for a plot or even one likeable character, stay far far away.

This story of an odyssey by a Japanese student to find his sister (who is potentially in danger—but is really in a whacky servitude) left me feeling bogged down in detail. The main character, Aozora is beyond unlikeable. He is so unconcerned with his mission (until the last few pages) that I don’t care either. It feels like the loss of anyone, except a monkey feeding do-gooder that appears toward the end, and the father, would be no great loss to the universe.

The rest of the characters were more than one dimensional, they seemed to be the same person showing up in different jobs. They, as well as their roles in this book felt ridiculous.

The detail was compelling, the description sublime, but it was far too much of a good thing. By the end, I wanted to read only the dialogue.

The Manga and photographs scattered throughout felt like not enough to really work, and yet left me with more of a clear picture than the over-detailed descriptions. I admit to being wholly unfamiliar with Manga and I would like to have seen more of it.

It’s possible that it’s only me, but I couldn’t recommend this book. ( )

I got Escape from Amsterdam through the early reviewers program. I found it enjoyable, in a cotton-candy kind of way - it was superficially tasty but disappeared quickly and didn't leave much behind. Sherwood can throw off the verbal pyrotechnics with ease. The book revolves around a young Japanese student Aozora, and his attempts to spirit his sister away from her new environment, near a Japanese theme park called Amsterdam. Aozora is a punk, no two ways about it. Self-centered, disrespectful, congenitally unable to tell the truth or keep his mouth shut at the right time. Frankly it was hard to like him much or care about him.

The book itself is like a carnival ride - wild, crazy swings, odd encounters, memorable characters who spring out of nowhere. The format of the book is a bit unique - there are photos and diagrams and manga scattered throughout. Sherman can turn a phrase, there's no doubt. Describing a decrepit old hotel Aozora was staying in (alongside some of these photos), Sherman writes: "I could probably go on at length, but these snapshots I took do the place a kind of vigilante justice".

In the end though, I didn't really get it. The book didn't really seem to have a point - I think maybe the carnival ride was the point. Aozora didn't really go anywhere as a character - he didn't grow up, he wasn't rewarded or punished for being a self-centered young punk, other than getting half a million dollars in an inheritance. I didn't really feel edified about some underlying phenomenon of modern Japanese culture. ( )

Escape from Amsterdam, by Barrie Sherwood was a quick, fun and compelling read. And, for a first time novelist, the guy can write.

Any writer who can throw in a reference to reading War and Peace, at the end of a violent scuffle (in this case, to illustrate the length of time spent waiting for the elevator to escape said scuffle) has earned my admiration and caught my interest.

The novel is the story of Aozora, a cynical, bitter university student who is not much engaged with the world around him. He is also deep in debt to a local gangster, after losing too often at the Mah-Jong tables. An inheritance from an aunt may save his neck but to collect the money, he must find his sister, Mai (who has inherited along with him).

Aozora’s search for his sister leads him to the South of Japan, through the red light district and underworld to a gigantic theme park called Amsterdam. Along the way we meet a cast of characters reminiscent of the best of Carl Hiaasen (if Hiaasen’s novels were set in Southern Japan). The action moves quickly and even the most violent scenes are touched with ironic humour.

I didn’t much care for Aozora as a person, but I don’t typically have a ton of patience for the studied cynicism of middle class disaffected youth (although I did warm to him towards the end of the book, as he goes some distance to redeem himself). But I did appreciate his ability to laugh at himself (even after being thrown off a bridge by a pair of thugs or being chased at gunpoint by a gangster who just found him in bed with his girl). However, I appreciated the book’s cast of characters as a whole, most of whom are deeply flawed yet seem to have at least one redeeming characteristic.

The book’s setting is a character in and of itself – modern, tourist-driven, westernized Japan at odds (and yearning) for more traditional times. The author’s descriptive passages were perhaps what I loved most about the book, not overdone but highly evocative.

I also loved his descriptions of people. An old woman is said to have “the face of a dried prune” while a mobster is “a cross between Kim Jong-Il and Liberace.”

I can’t help but wonder, though what a Japanese reader would make of the book. While Aozora is Japanese, Sherwood is not and I don’t know enough about Japan or its culture to judge the authenticity of his voice.

The book is sprinkled with black and white illustrations. I am not sure that they added anything to the narrative and I actually, for the most part, just found them to be unnecessary distractions from the text.

On the whole, I really enjoyed Escape from Amsterdam and I found myself thinking about it when I had to tear myself away. look forward to another novel from Barrie Sherwood. ( )

Escape from Amsterdam is the first book for Barrie Sherwood and it is an excellent first attempt in the difficult medium of adventure/suspense. Sherwood has obviously spent extensive time in Japan and does a good job of presenting the Japan we have all been exposed to in some way. The book tries to present the ideal and thus perpetuate the stereotype that many Westerners have of Japan. The stereotype that it is a country full of hip youngsters, motorcycle gangs, and an elderly generation that is trying to instill a sense of culture in the youth. The book itself tries to be hip and further perpetuates the Japanese mystique by interspersing manga comics, drawings and cell phone photographs within the text. The author makes a bold attempt to keep the action taut while trying to keep the main character relaxed and aloof. Unfortunately, this does not bode well for the story line which slowly erodes as the plot jumps between action and Aozora's rambling thoughts. In the end, all the loose ends of the plot are neatly tied up within the final ten pages, as if it were a Hollywood sitcom. Regardless of the herky jerky plot, the story does hold together fairly well and is entertaining, if only for a few hours. ( )

Escape from Amsterdam is a creative thriller about modern-day Japan. The main character, Aozora, is an apathetic student at Kyoto University, aspiring to do nothing more than fix bids at the Ministry of Construction. He's obsessed with brand-names and just wants to make easy money and retire early. When his Mahjong debts become too much, he's given a gift. An old Aunt left him and his sister a priceless collection of art. The only problem, he must find his sister. She's been non-communicative for the past few weeks, so Aozora must set out to track her down, before his debtors track him down. The characters in this book are quirky, and none of them are black and white. Every person in this book does questionable things, even the "good guys." As the circumstances of his sister become apparent, even Aozora's motivations come into question. Some of the foreshadowing is a bit heavy-handed, but the story-line keeps your interest piqued. An interesting feature to the book is the manga and illustrations. Peppered throughout are xeroxes of manga, photographs the main character snapped, and drawings he's made. It's an interesting story filled with yakuza, family amusement parks with sinister underbellies, and families, as strange as they may be. ( )

Escape from Amsterdam was a surprisingly good read. It is the story of a Japanese college student in substantial debt over Mah Jong gambling loses. His Aunt has left him a large inheritance but he needs his sister to sign some papers first. Unfortunately, he doesn't know where she is.

The novel describes his adventures in finding his sister in modern Japan. The story is both an adventure tale and a amusing travelogue though one aspect of modern Japanese culture.

This is the author's first novel, but you wouldn't know that from the writing. While I would describe Escape as a light read (a few hours of good entertainment), there is also a subtle understory about the yearning for traditional Japan. ( )