Shopping

Like Humbert Humbert, like the professor in The Blue Angel, Alistair Meadowlark is obsessed. Too tall, too fat, too clumsy, he is earnest but out of place in Tokyo where he has been sent to work in a law office. At first he does his best to satisfy expectations. And then he meets Sachiko, a would-be starlet, aspiring businesswoman, fashion fanatic. A dainty nymphet, she has an obsession of her own. And a remarkable pas de deux—a folie à deux—commences. Through the neon-lit streets and freak shows and love hotels of contemporary Tokyo, this remarkable novel charts an erotic culture clash—and the downfall of the besotted Meadowlark.