GOLDSEA | ASIAN BOOKVIEW | FICTION
Smoking Hopesby Victoria Alexander
Permanent Press, New York, 207pp, $22
REVIEW: Up in Smoke
ictoria Alexander treats, sometimes ruefully, sometimes comically, the subject of American women who work as hostesses, talking and waltzing with Japanese men in private clubs in New York and Tokyo. Smoking Hopes begins with an exchange on Japanese-American relations.
Charlie Dean tells the cab driver that she's on her way to work at a Japanese hostess club. "Oh man," he says, slapping the steering wheel. "Watch out for them places... Those Japanese want to buy America, even our women!"
"I don't have xenophobia like the cab driver," Charlie muses, "but I may have xenomania. I like to examine Japanese, which may be as dehumanizing as fearing them. It's fascinating," she thinks, "the phenomenon of Japanese Man being served by American Woman."
Alexander undermines such simplistic sterotyping. Smoking Hopes is about shared human experiences. It doesn't try to define the Japanese as opposed to Americans, though Alexander seemingly doesn't want to know what the "real" differences are.
The title refers, on one level, to the popular brand of Japanese cigarettes, but on another more important level, to hope in the global sense. This it does subtly, before you realize what's happening. The narrative is addictive. It may be tough on the constitution, but Smoking Hopes is a book that anyone who has ever been involved in a foreign affair will find fascinating.
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