Jack Benton

I thought this might be an interesting book. It dealt with a young man from England who was sent by his parents to live in Japan for a time. I have a son and a nephew, both of whom went to Japan to live for a few years after they graduated college. So, I thought getting another perspective on the experience of learning to live in Japan might be interesting. Sadly, this book didn't foot that bill.

The young man sent to Japan, Jack Williams, was a complete asshole. He would likely have qualified as a "hooligan" back in Britain,: his life consisted mostly of lots of drinking and picking fights. His parents probably thought that sending him to Japan would help straighten him out. Well, it sort of did in the end. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, he repented his assholism and took up a new life...or something. I wasn't convinced.

Jack is sent to a Japanese college whose primary purpose is instruction in English, that is subjects are taught in English so the students can strengthen their language skills along with strengthening skills in other subjects.

One of his classmates is Kubota Miyu, who is a very complicated young woman. She and Jack become sort of friends, but also sort of enemies. After her "father" dies, Miyu learns that her "father" wasn't actually her biological father, but her uncle. Her biological father, apparently, lives in Nagano and is the man she always thought was her uncle. Also in Nagano, she thinks, might be her sister and her mother, both of whom disappeared from her life when she was quite young. She has only fleeting memories of them.

Well, Jack's assholism gets him in trouble with the police, so he effectively goes on the lam by accompanying Miyu to Nagano where she hopes to find her mother, sister, and "real" father.

The book is organized by alternating chapters from the points of view of Jack or Miyu. In the first half of the book, Jack is just a complete asshole. When he and Miyu travel to Nagano, he is mostly still a complete asshole, but for no apparent reason, suddenly turns into a decent human being in the last chapter or two.

I dunno, it didn't convince me, and I'd much rather have had glimmers of Jack's ability to act like a decent human being earlier in the book. Basically, I have no interesting in following the life on a complete asshole.
… (mais)