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Prices of pleasure
By Sarah Fay |
January 4, 2009, Sunday
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THE Belgian writer Amelie Nothomb's latest autobiographical novel, "Tokyo Fiancee," isn't a love story; it's a tale about koi - a term used in Japan for a sexual relationship free of the melodramatic trappings of love, founded on camaraderie rather than romance. As the novel's narrator, also named Amelie, explains, love is serious and intense, but koi is "light, fluid, fresh ... elegant, playful, funny."
Koi is the only kind of relationship that Amelie can entertain. A 21-year-old Belgian, she has recently returned to the Japan of her childhood to refresh her language skills and tutor students in French. Her first and only client is Rinri, a young man who drives a "too-white Mercedes" and lives with his parents in the "luxurious neighborhood of Den-en-chofu." Amelie is attracted to his "polite fatalism" and his interest in Sartre.
At first, she and Rinri have difficulty communicating. Her first attempt to speak to him in Japanese is "a flood of utterly meaningless, puerile gibberish involving a police officer, a dog and some cherry blossoms." Rinri's French vocabulary is scanty and his syntax poor; he also keeps "his mouth shut as if to hide ugly teeth." But Amelie's garrulousness somehow complements Rinri's reticence, and they fall for each other.
Before they know it, they've embarked on a delightfully absurd affair. While Amelie indulges in koi, Rinri dabbles in love, that "very French lan." "Rinri and I had each contracted the typical inclination of the other's language ... which all goes to show how admirably open we were to each other's culture." Amelie likens their relationship to the water bed they sometimes sleep on - "outmoded, uncomfortable and funny."
Nothomb exoticizes Japanese culture without succumbing to Orientalist stereotypes. The situations she refreshingly depicts reveal Amelie's education in the Japanese art of living. Rinri's favorite pastime is "playing," which Amelie misinterprets as treating life like a game. But asobu, "to play," the way Rinri and his friends mean it, isn't something that can be taught. "In Japanese," an American woman tries to explain, "the minute you're not working, it's asobu."
Luckily, Amelie catches on quickly. In fact, she is catapulted into a euphoric state by something as simple as a stuffed pancake with plum sauce: "I was 5 years old again ... my taste buds in a trance. I devoured my okonomiyaki and my eyes glazed over as I uttered faint little cries of delight."
"Playing" is just the first of Amelie's lessons. She also develops a fondness for fireworks and revels in "the fantastic number of strings" that form when she eats cheese fondue.
The weakest moments occur when the novel itself fails to "play," when the narration feels overwrought rather than revelatory. After Rinri declares that his life was ruined after he failed his primary school exams, Amelie claims to hear the "symphony of stifled tears" of children throughout Tokyo. Earlier, she admitted to having a "megalomaniacal bent" to her lyricism.
For the most part, this spare, elegant novel unravels much the way Amelie describes the snow when she climbs Mount Kumotori: "Nothing is more mysterious than that which is unfolding before your eyes."
Koi is the only kind of relationship that Amelie can entertain. A 21-year-old Belgian, she has recently returned to the Japan of her childhood to refresh her language skills and tutor students in French. Her first and only client is Rinri, a young man who drives a "too-white Mercedes" and lives with his parents in the "luxurious neighborhood of Den-en-chofu." Amelie is attracted to his "polite fatalism" and his interest in Sartre.
At first, she and Rinri have difficulty communicating. Her first attempt to speak to him in Japanese is "a flood of utterly meaningless, puerile gibberish involving a police officer, a dog and some cherry blossoms." Rinri's French vocabulary is scanty and his syntax poor; he also keeps "his mouth shut as if to hide ugly teeth." But Amelie's garrulousness somehow complements Rinri's reticence, and they fall for each other.
Before they know it, they've embarked on a delightfully absurd affair. While Amelie indulges in koi, Rinri dabbles in love, that "very French lan." "Rinri and I had each contracted the typical inclination of the other's language ... which all goes to show how admirably open we were to each other's culture." Amelie likens their relationship to the water bed they sometimes sleep on - "outmoded, uncomfortable and funny."
Nothomb exoticizes Japanese culture without succumbing to Orientalist stereotypes. The situations she refreshingly depicts reveal Amelie's education in the Japanese art of living. Rinri's favorite pastime is "playing," which Amelie misinterprets as treating life like a game. But asobu, "to play," the way Rinri and his friends mean it, isn't something that can be taught. "In Japanese," an American woman tries to explain, "the minute you're not working, it's asobu."
Luckily, Amelie catches on quickly. In fact, she is catapulted into a euphoric state by something as simple as a stuffed pancake with plum sauce: "I was 5 years old again ... my taste buds in a trance. I devoured my okonomiyaki and my eyes glazed over as I uttered faint little cries of delight."
"Playing" is just the first of Amelie's lessons. She also develops a fondness for fireworks and revels in "the fantastic number of strings" that form when she eats cheese fondue.
The weakest moments occur when the novel itself fails to "play," when the narration feels overwrought rather than revelatory. After Rinri declares that his life was ruined after he failed his primary school exams, Amelie claims to hear the "symphony of stifled tears" of children throughout Tokyo. Earlier, she admitted to having a "megalomaniacal bent" to her lyricism.
For the most part, this spare, elegant novel unravels much the way Amelie describes the snow when she climbs Mount Kumotori: "Nothing is more mysterious than that which is unfolding before your eyes."
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