About the Book
Tokyo Junkie is a memoir that plays out over the dramatic sixty-year growth of the megacity Tokyo, once a dark, fetid backwater and now the most populous, sophisticated, and safe urban capital in the world.
Follow author Robert Whiting (The Chrysanthemum and the Bat, You Gotta Have Wa, Tokyo Underworld) as he watches Tokyo transform during the 1964 Olympics, rubs shoulders with the Yakuza and comes face to face with the city's dark underbelly, interviews Japan's baseball elite after publishing his first bestselling book on the subject, and learns how politics and sports collide to produce a cultural landscape unlike any other, even as a new Olympics is postponed and the COVID virus ravages the nation.
A colorful social history of what Anthony Bourdain dubbed, the greatest city in the world, Tokyo Junkie is a revealing account by an accomplished journalist who witnessed it all firsthand and, in the process, had his own dramatic personal transformation.
About the Author :
Robert Whiting is a journalist who has lived in Tokyo for more than half a century. His other works include You Gotta Have Wa and Tokyo Underworld.
Claire Bloom gained international fame in 1951 with her screen debut in Charles Chaplin's motion picture Limelight. Among her many memorable films are Richard III, The Haunting, Look Back in Anger, and A Doll's House.
Stefan Rudnicki is an award winning audiobook narrator, director and producer. He was born in Poland and now resides in Studio City, California. He has narrated more than three hundred audiobooks and has participated in over a thousand as a writer, producer, or director. He is a recipient of multiple Audie Awards and AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as a Grammy Award, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Ray Bradbury Award. He received AudioFile's award for 2008 Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Along with a cast of other narrators, Rudnicki has read a number of Orson Scott Card's best-selling science fiction novels. He worked extensively with many other science fiction authors, including David Weber and Ben Bova. In reviewing the twentieth anniversary edition audiobook of Card's Ender's Game, Publishers Weekly stated, Rudnicki, with his lulling, sonorous voice, does a fine job articulating Ender's inner struggle between the kind, peaceful boy he wants to be and the savage, violent actions he is frequently forced to take. Rudnicki is also a stage actor and director.
Review :
A delightful memoir of the author's five-decade love affair with a city that 'hypnotized' him and never let go.
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
A raucous, funny, and always fascinating love letter to one of the most dynamic cities in the world. A pleasure to read from start to finish.
-- "Terence Winter, creator and executive producer, Boardwalk Empire"
A wonderful tapestry of friendships, interviews, and chance encounters with corporate barons, barmaids, ball players, and the occasional mob boss. Through it all, Whiting's unassuming demeanor, natural curiosity, and droll sense of humor leave the reader wondering who else he's met.
-- "New York Times"
Few writers could deliver firsthand insights into six decades of wild, wonderful, bizarre, and sinister aspects of Japanese culture--let alone with Robert Whiting's level of style and knowledge. From professional baseball to politics and the underworld, Whiting takes the reader on his life journey through a remarkable world.
-- "Financial Times"
Robert Whiting is a marvel. His rich experience, his nose for great stories, his wit, and good sense make Tokyo, past and present, sparkle with life.
-- "Ian Buruma, author of A Tokyo Romance"
This is a delightful book, a wry, vivid, and illuminating account of a country, a culture, and a keenly observant character through five dramatic decades.
-- "Atlantic"
With a patter that lands like readers have pulled up a barstool to hear a traveler's yarns...Whiting's love for his adopted city remains constant and contagious in this collage-style survey.
-- "Publishers Weekly"
You will not find a more entertaining memoir and guidebook to the darker side of the rising sun, and to a life well-lived, than Tokyo Junkie. It's as addictive as life in the city (citadel) itself.
-- "Jake Adelstein, investigative journalist and author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan"
