American Fuji

By Sara Backer

Book Overview

Japan itself is the comic hero of this sweet and funny, sad and inspiring novel. Gaby Stanton, an American professor living in Japan, has lost her job teaching English at Shizuyama University. (No one will tell her exactly why.) Alex Thorn, an American psychologist, is mourning his son, a Shizuyama exchange student who was killed in an accident. (No one will tell him exactly how.) Alex has come to this utterly foreign place to find the truth, and now Gaby is serving as his translator and guide. The key to mastering Japanese, she keeps telling him, is understanding what's not being said. And in this "deft and delightful" (Karen Joy Fowler) novel, the unsaid truths about everything from work and love to illness and death cast a deafening silence-and tower in the background like Mount Fuji itself.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425230090
• ISBN13: 9780425230091
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.9" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Fast-paced and Culturally Enlightening!

It's hard to believe this is Backer's first novelization. Since I have quite an interest in Japanese culture and language, I found the premise of American Fuji very attractive -- something unusual since my normal fare is that of fantasy and sci-fi. Backer has managed to weave mystery and cultural fish-out-of-water storylines together with a slight dash of romance to make an absolutely magical (and addictive) book that doesn't skimp on action. I was very impressed at how all the pieces that she set up fell into place in the last 1/3 of the book and equally impressed with how three-dimensional the characters -- all the characters -- were. The cultural differences are dealt with, the language accurate...it's simply a wonderful book for anyone of any age, background or sex. Entertaining in the highest degree.

Right on the mark

After reading this book, and the reviews that others have mentioned here, I felt I must put my own opinion down. As a gaijin who spent 5 years in Japan, I can relate with almost all of the experiences of Gaby Stanton.This book hit it all right on the mark. Men experience a different Japan than women do. I understand completely how Gaby felt that her "outsider" status with the rest of her life made living with her disease somehow easier.The one thing the author didn't portray very well was the truely second class status women have in Japan. Perhaps because it would then seem over the top to those that haven't experienced it.This book is Japan - as it is now, in the eyes of a long time female outsider looking at it. It really tells it like it is - and manages to tell a good story while doing it.

The Real Unreal Japan

I thoroughly enjoyed American Fuji. I have lived in Japan, and found the book to be a "virtual reality" experience, recreating most accurately the Japan I knew. I believe Backer's writing will be vivid for those who've never been there, as well. The book worked for me as both a mystery and a romance. I liked the ambiguity and complexity of Gaby and Alex, culminating in the suspension of the ending: some things are resolved, but others are irresolvable. They (and Eguchi, too, who starts out as a clown but is revealed to be a lot more) felt very real. The ending was satisfying without being too satisfying, just as the book as a whole has much of the appeal of genre fiction, but with the depth of 'literature'. American Fuji is a mature and complex novel you'll read cover-to-cover non-stop and then go back and read again.

A fresh view of Japan and a fun read too.

Although I've never been to Japan, this book took me there. It made me feel what it would be like to live in a culture that is truly "inscrutable" to the average American. The characters are likable, interesting and well-developed. The plot moves along swiftly with surprises at just the right places. It reminds me a little of some of Barbara Kingsolver's books. Both authors write in a fresh way about believable people whose lives manage to work out okay...not happily ever after, just okay. This was a very satisfying read. I was short on sleep several nights because I couldn't put it down. I can't wait to see what Ms Backer writes next!

Backer Ascends Mt. Fuji

Sara Backer's American Fuji is a book that you will not be able to put down from the first word to the last word. The adventures of Gaby and Alex are not only absorbing and exotic, they are a unique glimpse into the Japan that IS Japan. Having lived in Japan for eight years, I am pleased to say that Backer's ability not only to choose the right detail but to choose the most interesting, astonishing, revealing, and accurate detail is unparalleled. From Gaby's unusual occupation to the odd tension of dining in a foreign country as everyone watches your every move, every scene presents the atmosphere of Japan as I remember it, but whether you've been to Japan or not, you will have been there once you read this book. The story is compelling, the characters are fascinating, and the imagination that produced this work is engaging, remarkable, and wild--in the finest sense of the word. After a debut like this, I will buy every book Backer ever publishes. Buy it for yourself and for your friend who teaches English in Japan.