Motions and Moments
More Essays on Tokyo
by Michael Pronko
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Pub Date Dec 22 2015 | Archive Date Jul 20 2016
Raked Gravel Press | Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Titles
Description
Based on Pronko’s 18 years living, teaching and writing in Tokyo, these essays on how Tokyoites work, dress, commute, eat and sleep are steeped in insights into the city’s odd structures, intricate pleasures and engaging undertow.
Included are essays on living to size and loving the crowd, on Tokyo’s dizzying uncertainties and daily satisfactions, and on the 2011 earthquake. As in his first two books, this collection captures the ceaseless flow and passing flashes of life in biggest city in the world with gentle humor and rich detail.
A Note From the Publisher
Also available in paperback format.
Advance Praise
—OnlineBookClub.org
This is a memoir to be savored like a fine red wine, crafted with supreme care by a man who clearly has fallen in love with his adopted city -- and we are the beneficiaries of his lyrical reflections, making us want to visit and absorb the rich megalopolis of Tokyo for ourselves.
—Publishers Daily Reviews
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781942410089 |
| PRICE | $3.99 (USD) |
Average rating from 6 members
Featured Reviews
Paul F, Reviewer
This is the third book in a series that features essays about Tokyo, from an American who’s been living there for decades. The first two books were excellent in his examination of the minutiae of Japanese life that everyone else misses, and this third is more of the same sheer joyfulness. For example, it starts with the Japanese take on staring contests, a small everyday thing that was exactly the kind of event the author explained so well in the first two books.
I would have never thought anyone could write so much about futons, or plastic. Every city has kiosks, but only this author writes about them, and seems genuinely fascinated by them. He even manages to find some fundamental truths about jazz, far away from New Orleans or anywhere else the style is famous. There’s even a whole section on the psychological impact of the giant earthquake and aftermath.
But it’s his prose that most gets me. “When someone drops a cell phone, when the little silicon center of the universe clatters to the floor, it is like a young child falling over: everyone looks to see if the child is OK.” Moments like these show we’re not so different after all.
4.5 pushed up to 5/5
Ilana W, Reviewer
A collection of fine, simple yet deeply observations about the everyday life in Tokyo. Each essay has the grace and strength of a Japanese letter, the result of the almost two decades of expat life experiences of the author. It is one of the few contemporary books about Japan and especially Tokya I'd read recently witnessing the curiosity and interest of the author towards the Japanese culture, instead of haughty outline of the difference 'we' vs. 'they'.
