Ni d'Eve ni d'Adam (edition 2007)

http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/nothomba/nideve.htm
translated to English as "Tokyo Fiancée" ( )

Nowhere nearly as mesmerizing, unique and compelling as her Hygiene and the Assassin. But extremely good and compelling readable nonetheless, in spite of the fact that it is a essentially a plot-less, meandering memoir/novella about her two-year visit to Asia and her affair, engagement and eventually parting from a young Japanese man. It is hard to understand exactly what "Amelie" saw in Rinrin, beyond his almost mysterious refrain "you'll see" as he whisked her from climbing Mount Fuji to boat trips to boat trips to Japanese islands. Eventually she reluctantly agrees to an engagement, prolongs it, and then tragically responds to a very late night question "are you still not going to marry me" with a "no", only finding out a day later that her fiancee was thrilled to interpret this as an agreement to marry him.

Tokyo Fiancee ends with an epilogue about the writing of Hygiene and the Assassin and her return to Japan--and seeing Rinri for the first time since she left him fie years before.

it is hard to tell how reliable the narrative is meant to be, it does not feel like it is playing any sort of games or has any degree of unreliability, but it is hard to tell--and from what I know of her other books they are very much characterized by that. But I'll certainly make sure to read them. ( )

As this book opens, twenty-one year old Amelie has just left Belgium to return to Japan, the country in which she was born. Having not been in Japan since the age of five, she deicided that “the most efficient way to learn Japanese...would be to teach French.” It didn’t take long for her to encounter Rinri, a twenty-year-old Japanese university student of French, who wanted to hire Amelie as his teacher.

It was at this point in the book that I wanted to check if this book was an autobiography or simply fiction. I found out that it was “autobiographical fiction”. Well, okay.

Amelie and Rinri begin to keep each other’s company until the relationship starts to look more like boy-friend and girl-friend than teacher and student. Never mind. The beauty of this book, beyond Amelie’s relationship with Rinri, is in her becoming reacquainted with Japan. Sometimes together with Rinri and sometimes alone, a status important to her, Amelie once again experiences true Japanese culture - from the okonomiyaki (a shrimp and cabbage pancake, more or less) that Rinri made for her, to the nasty remarks of Rinri’s mother, to the remarkable sight of Mount Fuji when she discovers it from another mountaintop. It is these kinds of experiences that give this little book its grace.

My favorite quote from this book is this:

Belgium...must have sounded like one of these obscure American states no one ever talks about, like Maryland.

If you haven't guessed, I live in Maryland!

I’m not sure how I feel about the ending. Maybe I was a little let down. Anyway, this is not my story. It’s Amelie Nothomb’s. Let her tell it to you. ( )

A short and memorable novel about the author's love affair with a Japanese man. Nothomb writes with candor about her relationship with Rinri, whom she meets tutoring French. While searing in its own way, it has none of the brutality of her (earlier?) book, HYGIENE AND THE ASSASSIN but instead is characterized by a sort of frank yet tender sweetness. I loved this and will remember it for a long time! ( )

After Stupeurs et tremblements, this book shows the other side of Nothomb's life in Japan, what happened away from work. Written in her typical style, it's a very easy read, and we get to know her complex personality really well. Interesting and entertaining. ( )