'Ingenious . . . With great delicacy, Nothomb updates the age-old divide between East and West in this delectable little book.' O, The Oprah Magazine Am???lie, a well-intentioned and eager young westerner, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land where she was born is the fulfilment of a dream for Am???lie, but once there her working life quickly becomes a comic nightmare of terror and self-abasement. Disturbing, hilarious and totally convincing, Fear and Trembling displays an ...
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'Ingenious . . . With great delicacy, Nothomb updates the age-old divide between East and West in this delectable little book.' O, The Oprah Magazine Am???lie, a well-intentioned and eager young westerner, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land where she was born is the fulfilment of a dream for Am???lie, but once there her working life quickly becomes a comic nightmare of terror and self-abasement. Disturbing, hilarious and totally convincing, Fear and Trembling displays an elegant and shrewd understanding of the intricate ways in which Japanese relationships are made and spoiled. 'A vituperatively funny attack on an alien culture.' Daily Telegraph 'Nothomb is the latest enfant terrible of French letters - she has an acidic yet passionately romantic view of human nature.' Elle 'A scathingly funny novella.' Newsday
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Add this copy of Fear and Trembling to cart. $2.35, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Faber & Faber.
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Good in good dust jacket. Ex-Library Hardcover with usual marking, stamp, and sticker. Dust jacket has a clear, plastic covering over it. Inside pages are in really nice condition. -Disclaimer: May have a different cover image than stock photos shows, as well as being a different edition/printing, unless otherwise stated. Please contact us if you're looking for one of these specifically. Your order will ship with FREE Delivery Confirmation (Tracking). We are a family business, and your satisfaction is our goal!
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Very Good. Size: 80x6x120; Item may have minor to moderate cosmetic defects (marks, wears, cuts, bends, crushes) on the cover, spine, pages or dust cover. Shrink wrap or dust cover, may be missing. Item may contain remainder marks on outside edges. Pages may contain limited notes or highlighting. Good reading copy.
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Good Condition. Ext has Marking, Cover Has Shelf, Edge and Corner Wear, Looks nice. 132 pages. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Fiction; ISBN: 0312347324. ISBN/EAN: 9780312347321. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 1561064995.
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Very Good. Very Good condition. Good dust jacket. A copy that may have a few cosmetic defects. May also contain light spine creasing or a few markings such as an owner's name, short gifter's inscription or light stamp.
Add this copy of Fear and Trembling to cart. $3.99, very good condition, Sold by Sixth Chamber Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from River Falls, WI, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by St. Martin's Press.
Author seems somewhat less than honest with hersef
I strongly agree with the review by Cheryl
(UK, 10/2009).
As one grinds on through this woeful tale, it becomes increasingly clear that the protagonist is far less a "victim" of cultural misunderstandings than she is of her own personality. It is - very- difficult to believe that she could possibly have been so ignorant of Japanese etiquette, mores and business ethics. (Concerning the latter, one only need consider a moment how her self-serving actions might have been rewarded at a western corporation, and the the Japanese way seems infinitely more civilized!)
Summation: the story of an ambitious, snobby little egotist with a huge sense of entitlement (not very different from the author of The Devil Wears Prada). The comedy (I would rather call it irony) is that she actually does seem to believe she is destined to reap the best of both worlds, by displaying her unabashed western ambition in a culture known for nothing if not its centuries-old traditions of teamwork and self-effacement. Finding, to her shock, that she is not exempt from the rules, she rapidly degenerates into masochism and pathological attention seeking (a further clue that she probably knew what she was getting into- in for a penny, in for a pound). This does not prevent it from being an interesting situation, but Nothomb's persistent if muted insistence in her own victimhood is annoying.
My reading was of an English translation, so I will not comment on style.
