“Nihonbashi” (Watercolour and ink on B4-size paper) Just happened to find myself looking at the famous bridge in Tokyo from the windows of a restaurant last week. The bridge was a little underwhelming since there is a whopping great motorway plonked on top of it.
Hello!
I’ve been getting my head down between typhoons and writing a little every day on the third Hana Walker novel, and every day I oscillate from thinking what I’ve written is my best stuff ever, to knowing it’s the worst thing anyone has ever strung together and called writing (outside of Twitter). Twas ever thus.
While I wrestle my self-doubt to the ground, here are a few links to my latest projects and other stuff worth a click or two.
- I had a very fun, free and frank discussion about writing books with thriller novelist and screenwriter Simon Lewis. He flits between Japan, China and London, but writes some seriously good stuff in between. My interview with him is here.
- Want a worthy (but slightly dull) list of 100 books vital to the understanding of modern Japan? There’s one here. I only have one of the books listed on my shelf, Roland Kelts’ Japanamerica about Japanese culture invading the US, and I haven’t read it yet…
- But I did read two stonking books on Japan: Higashi Inoue’s comical but moving Tokyo Seven Roses (as recommended by a loyal newsletter subscriber) set on the Tokyo home front in the final days of the war (my review here), and Keigo Higashino’s more formulaic (but enjoyable) contemporary whodunnit The Salvation of a Saint (my review here).
- I didn’t know anything about the banned Japanese feminist magazine from the 1910s, but now I do, you can too.
- All of Japan is talking about a gruesome case of nine mutilated bodies found yesterday in a young man’s apartment. Tokyo Vice author Jake Adelstein writes up the case here. I prefer my crime decidedly more fictional. True crime is just too implausible.
- I bought a new microphone for doing videos and took it for a spin by reading three poems by Brit-in-Japan Paul Rossiter.
- I try not to link to the Gomiuri, but this article on old folks in manga was interesting. And short.
- I always enjoy the You Are Not So Smart podcast, and this “Narrative Persuasion” episode was good on using stories to change minds.
- I subscribed to Crime Fiction Lover and it looks like a great review site for Brit and US crime fiction. Haven’t searched it for Japan crime, but it’s probably there.
- QOTM: Last month, I asked “What is your all-time favourite children’s picture book, or one that you would buy for your or your best friend’s kids?” Books I’d not heard of were recommended by Maria Godebska, who plumped for Eloise, the original, and Linda Lombardi who frequently gifts this featuring pigs. I have an asexual, easy-to-draw grumpy cat in mind who can teach English vocab to preschooler Japanese that I’m testing on kindergarteners next week. It’s a living. This week’s QOTM: Do you prefer your crime fiction dark or cosy, or somewhere in between? I only ask, as I’m thinking of developing a new crime series set in Japan and am toying with going darker, and it would be helpful to know what your take is.
Thanks for reading, if you have enjoyed reading any of my stuff, be a sport and leave a review or drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook. You can find past issues of this newsletter at Letter from Abiko.
Next month, if Abiko is still here after Trump’s impending visit to Japan, I’ll post the long-delayed, but almost complete interview with Alexander O. Smith, Keigo Higashino’s translator. Have a good November.
Patrick
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