- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Kodansha International; New edition edition (May 30 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1568361483
- ISBN-13: 978-1568361482
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14.2 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #323,797 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Library Journal
Booth's The Roads to Sata (Weatherhill, 1986), which recounts his impressions and experiences during a 2000-mile walking tour of Japan, is considered a classic of its genre. In the present work, Booth, who died in 1992, offers a sequel. The book is divided into three parts, each involving a journey connected to a famous person or event in Japanese history. The first, entitled "Tsugaru," follows the path taken by the Japanese novelist, Osamu Dazai (1909-48), in a work by the same title; the second, "Saigo's Last March," follows the retreat of the tragic leader of the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, Saigo Takamori, to his death in his home city of Kagoshima; and the third part, "Looking for the Lost," explores the setting of the 12th-century Japanese classic, The Tale of the Heike. All three episodes contain Booth's customary blend of rich historical and cultural background with fascinating and often humorous anecdotal experience. Recommended for all libraries with an interest in Japan and especially for those owning Booth's earlier work.?Scott Wright, Univ. of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Likening Booth to fellow quirky British traveler-writer Bruce Chatwin is inevitable, but Booth was kinder and gentler--less of a curmudgeon, more down to earth, more of a collector of people. For this book, the last before he died of stomach cancer while still in his 40s, Booth set off to retrace three journeys through Japan originally made by literary and military figures. The resultant miserable, rain-sodden walks he made yielded him seldom-seen, tiny villages populated by Japan's lost generation of rural, elderly, unsophisticated folk. He delighted in them but realized, bittersweetly, that such people will soon be lost forever as the new Japan of laser discs and karaoke creeps into even their precincts. Always, Booth transmits his fascination with life's small moments and the country's small details and thereby makes of his book a truly engaging, fascinating look at the Japan that doesn't make headlines. Booth's love for and frustration with his adopted country and his traveling both come out, too, and seem particularly poignant because we know that these journeys were his last. Mary Ellen Sullivan
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The late spring rain in Tsugaru is a mixture of sleet and hail. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The late spring rain in Tsugaru is a mixture of sleet and hail. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Journey through Japan,
By
This review is from: Looking For The Lost (Paperback)
I wish I could write as entertainingly as Alan Booth. This book will not disappoint you, especially if you like traveling and are fascinated with Japan. And if not, it's still a great read anyway. The most brilliant thing about this book is that the author combines Japanese history into his narratives as he traces three historical figures and/or locations in Japan by foot. The way he makes the characteres he meets along the way of his journey come to life is outstanding. I really enjoy this book and wish that he had written others before he died. The only thing that bothered me somewhat and makes me feel unsympathetic towards him, however, is that he drank too much. But who am I to judge? This is a great book. Highly recommended.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sadness Over the Horizon,
By
This review is from: Looking for the Lost: Journeys Through a Vanishing Japan (Hardcover)
Will some publisher PLEASE print a collection of Alan Booth's outstanding newspaper articles? These would be a wonderful complement to Looking for the Lost and Roads to Sata.Looking for the Lost is an oddity. A book that I remember few details of, yet I remember with great vividness that I was moved by a intangible sadness that was always just over the next horizon of his journeys. Alan Booth was a writer of invincible good humor. Too much so to speak of his own impending death (though his newspaper writings about his trials with the Japanese medical system are classic). But the alert reader is constantly aware of an impending passing of life, seemingly inseparable from the passing of beauty in this country. I was in Japan during the final years of Alan Booth's life here, pretty much in the same circles. It is my deep regret that I never took the trouble to make his acquaintance.
5.0 out of 5 stars
an outsider's inside look at Japan,
By michael p karn (south orange, nj United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Looking For The Lost (Paperback)
This is a facinating book. You get unusual and fresh perspectives on national/racial identity and the travel book. The story of how Alan Booth came to Japan, and his unique viewpoint as a foreigner who speaks the language, and knows as much or more about Japanese culture than many of the natives, is woven throughout his accounts of walking through different areas of the country. The way the people he meets view him, and the way he reacts and responds to them is often funny, and just as often instructive and meaningful. This a great book, and reveals much upon repeated readings. I only wish there more from him.
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