A review by lexxorfern
Bedtime Eyes by Marc Jardine, Amy Yamada, Yumi Gunji
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.