The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice

#702
Title: The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice
Author: Trevor Corson
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Year: 2007
256 pages
Audiobook

This is two intertwined narratives, one interesting, one not. The uninteresting narrative is an account of a sushi training academy that doesn’t ring true for two reasons: First, the focal character, Kate, does nothing right until she is fairly advanced in her program. For someone who wants to work in sushi preparation, she and her classmates know less about sushi than I do as a casual consumer of Japanese food. Second, the knowledge deficits of Kate and company too neatly serve the structure of the book, providing the hook on which the interesting exposition hangs. Though the book identifies a website where one can see photos of these people, the audio version doesn't explain the author's relationship to them. Who are they to him? Did he follow them for three months? Reconstruct from interviews? Make up a tale based on some other source?

The part of the book that works well is the informational/descriptive sections, though early on I almost stopped listening when the author referred to ATP in the cells as "power pellets." This is a mystifying description and weirdly oversimplified given that he frequently references osmotic processes, amino acids, and the like. Perhaps the author was advised that the book would draw more readers if he associated the explanations about dashi, eels, and Japanese food preservation with a human story. This might work, but not if I don’t believe in this particular set of characters.

I did read this as an audiobook so it’s hard to check my recollection, but I come away with the impression that Kate is tolerated in the class because she is cute and wears tight clothes. Perhaps the real barrier to being a female sushi chef is that the profession, judging by this narrative at least, requires a great deal of oogling female patron’s breasts. 

#701
Title: Some Girls: My Life in a Harem
Author: Jillian Lauren
Publisher: Plume
Year: 2011
352 pages
Audiobook


The title is a misnomer—the author spent several months in a contemporary harem, but not her life. This is not a memoir about social justice or women’s rights, so although the author mentions the Asian women who may not have the option to leave, it is only in passing and without analysis.

Lauren is definitely a handful, and though her parents are not portrayed as stellar, neither does she seem particularly easy to have a relationship with. This is her self-report, but there was not enough emotional depth for me to tell whether the tone is intended to be matter of fact, proud, repentant, or something else. I experienced two commingling impressions throughout this fairly psychologically superficial book: First, that there were even more drugs involved than the narrative names; and second, that fairly early on, the author saw herself as writing a contemporary version of The Happy Hooker. Although there is a fair amount of detail, the “plot” of the story isn’t very compelling.

Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China's Other Billion

#700
Title: Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China's Other Billion
Author: Michael Levy
Publisher: Holt
Year: 2011
256 pages

Another in the Tales of the Peace Corps/Tales of China categories, though a reasonable rendering of both. More like River Town than Iron and Silk, Levy's memoir manages to be both entertaining and educational. Like Hessler, Levy captures the absurdity and at times the horror of living in an unfamiliar culture. Unlike Salzman, he describes what he's doing in the classroom ands his relationships with his students. The Chinese fascination with Judaism allows Levy certain outs of the "I'm not an American, I'm a Jew" variety. These are often useful when he needs to distance himself from inaccurate assertions about US culture. The statements about Jews are also often stereotypical or incorrect, but they are more admiring than vitriolic.

Levy wrestles with questions of identity and how to balance Peace Corps ideals with his own beliefs and practices. In this regard he does a better job than many, and I'd have wished for even more. Though not stylistically the best of the Returned Peace Corps authors, his writing is straightforward and flows without awkwardness. This and his self-reflection make this memoir better than some others for teaching international studies/field work preparatory classes.

The Magician King (The Magicians #2)

#699
Title: The Magician King (The Magicians #2)
Author: Lev Grossman
Publisher: Viking
Year: 2011
400 pages
Audiobook

Highlight entry to see spoiler text.

It's better than The Magicians, but still disappointing. The high point is Julia's back story; the rest doesn't hang together very well. Grossman seems to have decided that he's writing amusing fantasy rather than a parody of fantasy, which at least clarifies his genre. There is nominally more sense of Quentin, though there is still much more telling than showing. I can live with this, but what I can't live with is the arbitrariness of the action. Characters appear and disappear with little coment. Perhaps some will return in a third book, but wouldn't their absence be commented on more by the main characters? Janet is nothing, absent from most of the narrative; I don't think it spoils the story overmuch to say that Jollyby is killed very early, but his death is never explained; Penny is now, for unknown reasons, sort of an okay guy. The action of the novel recalls Angelica Button and The Dragon King’s Trundle Bed from The Simpsons (season 18, episode 8), from magic of the quality of Headmaster Greystach's "Moustache powers! Activate!" and story progression startlingly similar to Angelica's exposition, "I somehow escaped from the hourglass!" And the climax: Really? All those Maxwell's demon-type gods are going to be thwarted by turning some keys in locks? How? And why do the keys also unlock keyholes in the air? And why is everyone hurtling around between worlds? And how are the two gods encountered (rapey fox and succor-mamma) related to the cosmic electron-plumbers looking for who tapped the cosmic magic sump? Oh--and ending courtesy of The Truman Show, more or less.

The Best of It: New and Selected Poems

#698
Title: The Best of It: New and Selected Poems
Author: Kay Ryan
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
Year: 2011
288 pages

At their best, Ryan's poems are gem-like, with astounding observations that give a brilliant little flash as you examine them: Oh! At worst, they are doggerel, sing-songly little nothings with no point beyond description (in the manner of giraffe...carafe, though that isn't actually one of her rhymes). This collection includes both and allows a longitudinal look at how Ryan has streamlined and improved her work over time. Her rhymes are less clangy; her abstractions less pronouncements than observations; her descriptions more emblematic or symbolic. This is a very good volume for seeing both ends of her capacity as a poet.

The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2)

#697
Title: The Son of Neptune (Heroes of Olympus #2)
Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Disney/Hyperion
Year: 2011
513 pages

Yes, it's a little repetitive in some ways, in part because of the previous Percy Jackson series, in part because it's the meanwhile, on the other coast at the other demigod camp story that parallels The Lost Hero. Like Jason of that narrative, Percy has had his memory erased in order that Juno may manipulate events to try to save the world from Gaea. This volume seemed more self-conscious to me, with joking cultural references (such as Amazons who work at Amazon) that were slightly entertaining. I acknowledge that if I were 12, I might have found them hilarious. This read like a bridging volume to get the heroes from point A to B, setting the scene for the third book.

Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

#696
Title: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
Author: Samuel Johnson & James Boswell
Publisher: Audible
Year: 1775 (original)
~160 pages
Audiobook

Read as an audiobook. Audible (the edition I listened to) claims it's unabridged and it clearly is abridged. They've intercut Boswell and Johnson's narratives and included what I'd estimate from the length of the recording as perha;ps 160 pages. The 2-memoir set tends to run 300-something to 400-something in print editions.

I like Boswell less the more I read of his sycophantic fawning on Johnson. As to the journals themselves, I enjoyed both men's descriptions and explanations of daily live, scenery, and history. I'd have liked to hear more about whiskey, this being my greatest preoccupation with Scotland, but perhaps this topic is better represented in the version that's actually unabridged.