Japanese men hardly know what has hit them. In a single generation, women in Japan have rewritten the rules in both the bedroom and the boardroom. Not a day goes by in Japan that a powerful woman doesn't make the front page of the newspapers. In the face of still-fierce sexism, a new breed of women is breaking through the "rice paper ceiling" of Japan's salary-man dominated corporate culture. The women are traveling the world -- while the men stay at home -- and returning with a cosmopolitan sophistication that is injecting an edgy, stylish internationalism into Japanese life. So many women are happily delaying marriage into their thirties -- labeled "losing dogs" and yet loving their liberated lives -- that the country's birth rate is in crisis.
With her keen eye for all facets of Japanese life, Veronica Chambers travels through the exciting world of Japan's new modern women to introduce these "kickboxing geishas" and the stories of their lives: the wildly popular young hip-hop DJ; the TV chef who is also a government minister; the entrepreneur who founded a market research firm specializing in charting the tastes of the teenage girls driving the country's GNC -- "gross national cool"; and the Osaka assembly-woman who came out publicly as a lesbian -- the first openly gay politician in the country.
Taking readers deep into these women's lives and giving the lie to the condescending stereotypes, Chambers reveals the vibrant, dynamic, and fascinating true story of the Japanese women we've never met. Kickboxing Geishas is an entrancing journey into the exciting, bold, stylish new Japan these women are making.
]]>Chambers paints a vivid image of the political and socio-economic climate of New York in the early 1980s. The most entertaining and heartfelt scenes of this novel come when Angela describes her parents riveting admiration for Assata Shakur's escape from prison, or her father's sense of pure joy at meeting Muhammad Ali after performing at a PBS telethon to benefit the United Negro College Fund. Where the author falls short is in capturing the essence of Angela's grief; at no point does the reader feel any true investment in Angela's emotional or mental fate. Insincere lines like "My father was a magician, but Mommy was the real Houdini" do little to align the reader with this young girl's plight. Even at the end, when Chambers offers us a glimpse of Angela's adulthood, we feel no attachment to the character, no sense of triumph in her achievements and accomplishments. In fact, it is easier to identify with Teddo, Angela's proud, stubborn father, simply because he seems more genuine. His anger and grief at his wife's disappearance are palpable ("…He knelt down beside me and rested his head on my lap. His head shook and my hands trembled. I tried to still him. He cried so long that the legs of my pajamas were wet through.") while Angela's pain seems contrived and detached.
When Did You Stop Loving Me is a noble first effort, but Chambers, who has achieved success as a journalist and a critic, would benefit from abandoning clichés in favor of deeper character exploration. --Gisele Toueg
]]>Now she must find the confidence to vanquish skinny rivals, fend off sleazy photographers, and banish scheming frenemies in her rise to superstardom, all while trying to get her ex-boyfriend back. But Bea learns that to win prince charming, you first have to find a way to love yourself.
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