Shanghai: A Novel (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, 33)

Rating:
Summary: Dead Chicks in the Water
Review: This is the first book by Yokomitsu Riichi that I have read, and I hope to be able to find more books written by this extraordinary author. The book begins with a Japanese expatriate named Sanki who is waiting for a friend of his to arrive named Koya. Sanki is taking in the sights watching the coolies work and watching Russian prostitutes primp. His friend Koya never shows up so he decides to go to a Turkish bathhouse. The novel starts off simply enough the reader is introduced to the characters who're for the most part Japanese businesmen who are trying to make alot of money. Sanki works for a bank, Koya for a lumber company, and Yamaguchi who sells skeletons to doctors. The reader is drawn into this bookn and is able to see the nightlife of expatriates in Shanghai while at the same time seeing the pure squalor of the city. We also get to read about when the communists have had enough of foreign dominance and strike out against their Japanese oppressors. This is a very good boo that holds no punches back. Check it out.