176 pages, Vintage, ISBN-13: 978-1400078363
Peter Carey, the Australian novelist who wrote Oscar and Lucinda and True History of the Kelly Gang (along with a bunch of other books I haven’t read) wrote Wrong About Japan in 2005; subtitled A Father’s Journey with his Son, it purports to be an account of Carey’s cultural investigation of Japan alongside his son, Charley (I say “purports”, for a number of issues arose with this book after I read it that casts doubt as to its authenticity). In the meantime, Wrong About Japan relates Carey’s experience in Japan with his twelve-year-old son, a fan of manga and anime, during which they experience the cultural disassociation typical of tourists to foreign nations. But there is more going on here, as the major theme that emerges is the contrast between Peter the father and his interest in Japanese history and traditional culture, and Charley the son and his interest in manga, anime and technology.
All well and good and nothing earth-shattering – even typical for a travelogue – but there is one glaring issue in the book, and that is Charley Carey’s friend, Takashi, the most convenient friend there ever was, as he arrives whenever needed to answer questions, provide commentary and generally just make himself useful…too convenient, as it turns out, for Carey later admitted that he invented Takashi out of whole cloth, which in my estimation makes the whole of Wrong About Japan suspect, for how much else am I supposed to believe about this…account? If Takashi was an invention, then it follows that his grandmother, who was so kind to the Careys, was as well. What about the traditional geisha girls the Carey’s encounter; were they real or an invention of the author, too? Or how about the yakuza crime boss with the yellow shoes and matching suspenders? Can one call this a real-to-life articulation of Japan if so much is invented?
Unlike other reviewers, I liked the book as a meditation on culture shock and generational disconnect and didn’t think it was at all “an odd, unnecessary little book” or a “disengaged feat of thumb-twiddling” (Peter Conrad of The Observer – unnecessary?); and while it may be true that “anyone who wants to find out about Japan or manga will be better served elsewhere” (Marcel Theroux of The New York Times), that was not the point of the book, anyway. That is until, in research for this review, I uncovered all of the chicanery Carey indulged in to make his book more…what. Interesting? Exciting? Enthralling? Perhaps sometime after he began writing, Carey discovered that neither he nor his son were that compelling and so cooked up some imaginary friends to flesh out his tale. Or perhaps he decided he needed filler, for even with all of the fiction he added to his travelogue, this work is still only a slim 176 pages.
So, just what to make of Wrong About Japan? Overall I liked the book as a personal tale of cultural enrichment and generational enlightenment, for that is, ultimately, what Carey wrote about. All of the stuff about Modern Japan vs. Traditional Japan, the merits (or not) of Manga, Anime and all the rest, the Good and the Bad in modern technology and gazillions of gadgets, was really just a backdrop for Carey to investigate, dissect and ruminate on his relationship with his son, and in that regard the book is admirable (although I’d love to see Charley’s take on all of this, for he doesn’t come across at all well here). As for the rest, there are other, better books about modern Japan that I will have to investigate (books that do not involve invented characters, one hopes). For I have a hard time forgiving this author and his mostly fictional account of his supposed trip to Japan.
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