moomints's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
This is the single worst thing I have ever read and I loathe my uni professor for subjecting me to it.
kavarnistka's review
2.0
It's getting those two stars for the last story which was actually quite a good one. I liked the difficult relationship between Coco and Jesse and how it was developing throughout the story.
The other two stories are just something to shock japanese readers; oh my god, just imagine - a Japanese woman and a black man! And they're having sex! That's ground-breaking, no wonder it got some award.
Maybe interesting to Japanese readers, not so much for foreigners...
The other two stories are just something to shock japanese readers; oh my god, just imagine - a Japanese woman and a black man! And they're having sex! That's ground-breaking, no wonder it got some award.
Maybe interesting to Japanese readers, not so much for foreigners...
lexxorfern's review
4.0
Bedtime Eyes is a collection of three novellas centering on dysfunctional relationship between a Japanese woman and a Black American.
In Bedtime Eyes, erotic dancer and occasional prostitute, Kim falls in love with a black American navy deserter, Spoon, who constantly abuses her. Their love affair is as real as it is cocaine fueled.
Now famous jazz musician Leroy returns to Japan to give Ruiko a test of her own medicine in the sadomasochistic story of The Piano Player’s Fingers. Ruiko was the dominatrix before stardom hits Leroy. After years of not seeing each other, he wants the tables turned. It is now Ruiko who comes to him and submits to his whims. His revenge proves to have fatal consequences.
Jesse is a tale of a young woman and an eleven-year old boy competing for the love of a middle-aged man. Coco is having a hard time pleasing her lover’s son, Jesse, who often ignores her. When her husband has to visit his dying father in San Francisco, Coco and Jesse are forced to settle their differences once and for all.
All three stories relate the confusion between love and hate and the irony of love being simultaneously simple and complex.
Bedtime Eyes is extremely provocative and shocking yet heartwarming. Amy Yamada’s stark and vivid depiction of consensual sex liberates her readers of social taboo. It is not all sex, it is an overpowering prose that is reminiscent of contemporary Japanese writers like Ryu Murakami.
In Bedtime Eyes, erotic dancer and occasional prostitute, Kim falls in love with a black American navy deserter, Spoon, who constantly abuses her. Their love affair is as real as it is cocaine fueled.
Now famous jazz musician Leroy returns to Japan to give Ruiko a test of her own medicine in the sadomasochistic story of The Piano Player’s Fingers. Ruiko was the dominatrix before stardom hits Leroy. After years of not seeing each other, he wants the tables turned. It is now Ruiko who comes to him and submits to his whims. His revenge proves to have fatal consequences.
Jesse is a tale of a young woman and an eleven-year old boy competing for the love of a middle-aged man. Coco is having a hard time pleasing her lover’s son, Jesse, who often ignores her. When her husband has to visit his dying father in San Francisco, Coco and Jesse are forced to settle their differences once and for all.
All three stories relate the confusion between love and hate and the irony of love being simultaneously simple and complex.
Bedtime Eyes is extremely provocative and shocking yet heartwarming. Amy Yamada’s stark and vivid depiction of consensual sex liberates her readers of social taboo. It is not all sex, it is an overpowering prose that is reminiscent of contemporary Japanese writers like Ryu Murakami.
vcbsantos's review
3.0
Things were different now. But he would still keep playing the piano. That's all he ever did. Even when there was no piano in front of him.
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