Following the Brush - A Book Review

Following the Brush, a personal memoir international conference call an American living compare auto insurance quotes Japan, is one of the best introductions to the culture and psychology of the Japanese persons that you likely to read. That is because it is written from such an "up close" perspective. The author, John Elder, does not pretend to offer a big-picture overview of Japanese culture. South Dakota Lemon Laws he simply reports his experiences, and those of his family, during a year they spent living in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan.

Elder is a college professor, and his year's sabbatical in Japan allowed him the leisure to engage in intensive study of such Japanese traditional arts and pastimes as calligraphy ("following the brush") and the game of go. He also gets behind-the-scenes lessons, as it were, in the Japanese theatre tradition of noh.

Meanwhile, Elder's children are enrolled in a Japanese school where they try to learn the language and to fit in to an environment where they are impotence help the proverbial fish out of water. As you might expect, the booka series of essays, reallyis replete with tales of cultural misunderstandings (from both sides), leavened with humor, much of it self-deprecating. Elder is honest and humble enough to admit that one year in Japan does not make one a Japanologist. Despite that disclaimer, his New Mexico Lemon Laws observations about his host country during what he calls a "richly marginal year" are astonishingly insightful.

Following the Brush (subtitled An American Encounter with Classical Japanese Culture) is written with elegance, wit and quiet erudition. It is one of those books that one can imagine will establish itself as a classic in the field of travelogues, although it is both more and less than what most persons mean by that category descriptor. Even those who have not previously ben especially interested in Japan previously, and who have no plans to travel or reside there themselves, will find it a compelling read.

Following the Brush is published by The Akadine Press as one in its Common Reader series; ISBN # 1-58579-005-2.

H. Tim Sevets is books editor for the www.solid-gold.info/index.htmlSolid Gold Info Writers Consortium, where he specializes in objective reviews of the top money-making reports available over the Web. Recently, he reviewed an e-book that claims to show how to make money by tearing up old books and magazines and selling them on eBay. Read his opinion at www.solid-gold.info/tear-up-old-books-sell-ebay.htmlwww.solid-gold.info/tear-up-old-books-sell-ebay.html