J'ai commencé mais pas fini ce livre. Il se passe au Japon et fait partie de sa série de livres "autobiographiques".

Enjoyed the insights into Japanese culture. ( )

Ok enough story, but it went off on unrelated tangents that pulled away from the main plot and were honestly quite boring. I ended up not liking the author for how she treated Rinri later on. ( )

Another Europa edition publication, my foray into ‘foreign fiction’ continues with this autobiographical novel of youthful love and cross-cultural identities.

Nothomb, of Belgian descent, was born in Japan and lived there until aged 5. She is overcome with 'Japanophilia' upon her return as a language teacher.

This book is a charming, off centre study of cultural differences. It tells of the relationship between the ‘fictional’ Amelie and her Japanese amore – his eager love and her ‘koi’. She defines “Koi as less serious than love - “light, fluid, fresh . . . elegant, playful, funny.” There is no equivalent in European language.

This is a short, sharp, wacky yet nostalgic novel that examines young love, and the outsiders perceptions of a culture. One experience she describes is the exotic meals - eating seafood fresh, for example. As a vegetarian, the idea of eating something alive is particularly revolting. This is her experience with eating octopus live:

“.... (I) shoved it in my mouth and tried to plant my teeth into it. Then the most dreadful thing happened: the octopus’s nerves, still alive, commanded it to resist and the vengeful corpse fastened itself onto my tongue with all its tentacles and would not let go. I was screaming as loudly as you can when you are having your tongue swallowed whole by an octopus. “ (eeeww)

This is perhaps the only part of the book that made my stomach turn. The rest was well worth it. I can recommend this book to all those interested in Japan and cross-cultural relationships. ( )

This a charming semi-autobiographical book. The author has returned to Japan after spending very young years in Japan. She decides to become a French language tutor and a young man of university age, a year younger than she, comes into her life. What follows is a series of funny encounters as each tries to figure out how to be with each other beyond the mere language class. They fall in love, but never quite make the cross-over of understanding that marriage wold require. However, her student, Rinri, virtually believes he has snagged a wife, hence the title.

Nothomb mentions one problem that gets her into trouble is that her pronunciation of Japanese is much better than her understanding and so people talk with her assuming she rally know what she is saying. I remember having the same situation when I was using French in Paris, and got 15 word answers to questions that might have only required oui or non.
Rinri's cooking exploits were fun to read about -- his lavish preparations with modern technology with tasteless results. Notwithstanding, Amélie herself admits that she can't cook, but we really never know what Rinri thinks about this. ( )