Ghost of a Smile

by Deborah Boliver Boehm

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 4770025319
• ISBN13: 9784770025319
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Kodansha
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Delicious!

DeliciousThis book's filled with spirit as well as spirits. Westerners stream through Japanese landscapes as though on delicate rafts, bumping up against ghouls and demons who ride their passions through the afterlife. The encounters are enough to blow life away ... yet somehow at the end of each story the characters seem ready to come back for more. As was I. The settings are so swiftly established, the narrative so compelling, I was eager for each story to become a fullblown novel. Japan is presented through delicate touches, a pointillism of detail, so that what is foreign becomes intimate in a very easy way. As in the best ghost stories, the humans in this book are driven by passions as strong as any ghoul. The book dances with death, yet somehow shows such a love of life that each story cheered me up enormously! It's all highly romantic, splendidly written, and great fun.

Imaginative!

In this collection of eight short stories, the author uses Japanese folklore, exotic settings, Americans abroad, love, and supernatural beings to create interesting, exciting, and fun reading. The characters are playful rather than serious, enabling the reader to quickly feel attached to them. On the way through each superbly crafted plot, are unexpected and rather unusual surprises. What great entertainment! Ghost of a Smile makes exploring short stories a pleasure.Some of the best stories include one in which a coffee shop owner suspects something amiss with the patrons of a new restaurant ("The Undead of Uguisudani"), one in which a woman loses her lover and becomes enamored of a monk ("Hungry Ghosts in Love"), and one in which a shy librarian is affected by the aphrodisiac qualities imparted to her by a white snake ("The Snake Spell").

Succulent

Ghost of a Smile is a delightful and spooky read. Each story paints a vivid new picture that revels in the country of Japan, its people and the transplants from the West who find themselves there. The main characters of each story have remained with me as distinct people (and ghosts), which is unique in the genre of short fiction. Deborah Boliver Boehme is a witty and incisive author who treats us to sensory delights and surprises in this entertaining tour across cultures and settings.

Not what you'd expect

Debra Boliver Boehm's collection of supernatural tales, based mostly on Japanese folklore, are a welcome surprise. I do not like and do not read ghost stories and vampire stories. But these stories were so well written, so unique in their setting, so witty and satirical in their execution, that I read them one right after the other. They are connected by a common thread, the quest for true love or true identity within the main character of each story, and this lends power to the collection as a whole. This is a collection I hope people won't overlook.