The Method Actors

By Carl Shuker

The Method Actors is set in Japan, New York, and New Zealand. When a young military historian named Michael Edwards disappears in Tokyo, his sister Meredith comes to the city to search for him. There she meets up with old friends and acquaintances from all over the world- ex-JET exchange teachers from Canada, ex-drug addicts from Australia, drug dealers from the Netherlands, young American women with Japanese husbands hostessing for money, French kitchenhands, young Japanese mushroom growers, and wealthy young Chinese-Americans living the high life. Meredith begins to encounter increasing evidence that Michael was involved in something deeper and darker than she could have suspected- a secret history going back through Japanese war crimes in China in World War II to the quarantining of Dutch merchants on manmade islands during Japan's period of isolationism in the seventeenth century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593760655
• ISBN13: 9781593760656
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant

This is the best book I've read in years. It takes the best of David Foster Wallace and the best of Bret Easton Ellis and then wefts both of them into something entirely singular. It may not be the book for you if you're really concerned about plot, but if you love language, breathtaking prose, and intensely cerebral writing--it's for you.

intricate

Japan's relationship with the 'outside' has historically been complex at all levels: political, military, social, individual. This is no less true when the outsiders are inside, living and experiencing the culture and the distorted sense of reality that develops as a consequence. The knotty complexities are experienced intensely at an individual level by foreigners in Japan. 'The Method Actors', in depth and beautiful detail,...

Great read!

I was once a "gaijin" in the Japanese community not so long ago, and this book has brought back a flood of memories. The book itself was written with a verbose style that I wholly enjoyed. It will forever sit on my shelf, and whenever I feel like bringing back some fond or detestable memories of Japan I shall refer to this book. Thank you Mr. Shuker.

Method and Madness

Forget "Lost in Translation" and it's apathetic prettiness, forget the endless NYTimes "Japan-is-so-hip-right-now" lifestyle spreads, forget the tired "mystery of the east" tripe that is still getting trotted out in personal travelogues. "The Method Actors" is the first writing I have read that deals with modern Japan in a way that is compelling, brave and aesthetically challenging. Family, sex, hallucinogenic drugs, war...