- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Avon (Oct 26 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0380812916
- ISBN-13: 978-0380812912
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 14.5 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #611,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
This pop romp through the Tokyo of martial arts, yakuza and legendary geishas has more sly smarts than a Hong Kong gangster shoot-'em-up. First-time novelist Adamson hooks the reader with fast action, clever dialogue and all-over atmosphere, while complicating the plot mightily and implausibly. Billy Chaka is a popular columnist for the Cleveland mag Youth in Asia. He's come to Tokyo to cover the 19 and Under Handicapped International Martial Arts Championship. While Chaka is waiting in a bar for the arrival of his old friend filmmaker Sato Migusho, an apparently drunken woman enters and rushes for the ladies' room. Immediately recognizing her as a geisha in disguise, on the lam from disgruntled clients, ChakaDwho has a weakness for geishasDhelps her escape and handles the tough guys with some dandy kickboxing moves. After Chaka learns that Sato has died in a seemingly accidental fire at his secret luxury hideout, the Garden of Earthly Delights, he ducks his reporterly duties and sets out to find the geisha. While on this quest, underwritten by a yakuza leader named Kwaidan and an unnamed religious cult, Chaka keeps stumbling over imponderables in the Sato case, including the news that Sato was about to film an unauthorized version of Chaka's own life, entitled Tokyo Suckerpunch. This novel is all speed and no depth, but that's forgivable in a narration that detours around such marvelous (and doubtful) Japanese pop esoterica as current fashions in Japanese motorcycle gangs and the tape-recorded politesse of Japanese vending machines. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
?If you crossbred "The Big Sleep with "Memoirs of a Geisha and then took its offspring and crossed it with Chinatown you'd end up with Tokyo Suckerpunch--a tongue-in-bloody-cheek quasi-punk-noir tale of death and deception in the superfantastic Far East. Billy Chaka plays a sort of Drew Carey version of Philip Marlowe, which I guess makes Isaac Adamson the Cleveland version of Raymond Chandler. 'Nuff said.?--Bill Fitzhugh, author of "Cross Dressing and "Pest Control"Astonishing. Simply astonishing. Mind-blowing, in fact. Isaac Adamson makes those other Isaacs--Newton, Deutscher and Asimov--look like the slow-witted primates they doubtless were. "Tokyo Suckerpunch will bitch-slap you down and dare you to get up. Do. The pleasure is well worth the pain."--Dennis Perrin, author of "American Fan: Sports Mania and the Culture That Feeds It and "Mr. Mike
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I'm hardwired for geisha. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I'm hardwired for geisha. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Neo-Tokyo Tonic that packs a punch,
By "thedarqnite" (Sherman Oaks, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tokyo Suckerpunch (Paperback)
If you hate to read great books...DONT READ THIS...adamsons' dialogue and brilliant story telling create an amazing who dunit capturing the flaws and fanits of tokyo using various characters each unique in itself. If you love all things JAPAN and and a great story dont wait to read this book along with hokkaido popsicle and dreaming pachinko!!!!!
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Manga-nificent Tale,
By
This review is from: Tokyo Suckerpunch (Paperback)
Tokyo SuckerPunch Is a fast-paced and somewhat disjointed tale of Billy Chaka , American Reporter for an American-made Japanese Magazine Called "Youth In Asia". In Tokyo to cover a martial arts tournament. Chaka who seems more at home in Japan than America Is a laid back but intellegent Portagonist who falls for a mysterious woman who seems linked to the death of his friend a B-Movie director who was writing a movie based on Chaka's life called "Tokyo Suckerpunch". With the plot involving ancinet religious orders, the japanese Yakuza, and ancient mystical beings. Adamson Book reads like your typical Japanese Manga with a little pulp novel thrown in for flavor. The story seems to lose it's place and rushes to catch up. Some of the characters never seem to be more than window dressing or a rest stop onto the next plot point. The one character I wanted to know more about was his assistant who seemed a little more interesting than Fan-boy Chaka. TP is a great start to the character of Chaka and I hope Adamson grows him and his assiatant a little more.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A mystery novel with a kick (or a punch),
By Maggie the Lizard Tamer (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tokyo Suckerpunch (Paperback)
It seems there wherever you go, you encounter a weird glorification of the Japanese culture. From anime lovers to those who preach of Japanese traditions (more often than not without knowing much about them), it is hard to find an objective and yet an entertaining view of modern Japan.Here's where Isaac Adamson doesn't disappoint. In his character, Billy Chaka, an American journalist working for a teen magazine finding stories in Tokyo, Adamson combines a strong lead character who doesn't take himself too seriously while remaining a kick-bum (literally) smart mouth. In this installation of the Billy Chaka adventures, Billy pursues a mysterious geisha, finding a weird conspiracy full of what works best in mystery novels: personal tragedy, greed, and of course, dark secrets. Billy Chaka, one of the few gaijin speaking fluent Japanese has an easy time infiltrating the Japanese culture, but even he can manage to get in trouble before solving the mystery (and even that only partially). This is a fast-read novel, entertaining and engaging. It does not glorify the Japanese (nor any other) culture, but neither does it condemn it nor patronize it. Most of the characters are very well developed and work well with the plot. It is a good book, and an excellent beginning of a series. I highly recommend it.
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