27 Jan / Wrong About Japan: A Father’s Journey with His Son by Peter Carey [in AsianWeek]
Talk about bad first impression: Reading the jacket cover description with the glaring spelling error, “Shitimachi” (what does that sound like?!) instead of the correct “Shitamachi” (which literally means ‘below-town’ or more colloquially, ‘downtown’), I had that initial shudder of another Lost in Translation-sort of grating cultural misunderstanding thing. And certainly, while this thin volume could easily be written off as yet another white man’s fascination with the inscrutable East, in Booker Prize-winning writer Peter Carey’s deft words, Wrong proves itself to be an entertaining, touching father/son adventure through the land of untouchable ancient swords and the ultimate manga and anime. Oh, and the mistake is obviously the publisher’s – Shitamachi is spelled correctly (**whew**) throughout Carey’s highly readable text.
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, January 27, 2005
Readers: Adult
Published: 2005