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San Francisco Chronicle -- Tuesday, October 30,
2007 -- Review: Sweets assuage her suffering -- Eve Kushner --
At first blush, this terrific first novel seems to pit East against
West, raising questions about which is better. American characters
idealize Japan, whereas Japanese characters immigrate to San
Francisco with great relief, vowing never to move back to Japan.
However, a closer look reveals that this comic novel isn't about
Japan versus the United States at all. Improbably enough, it's about
Japan versus dessert. Half Moon Bay writer Wendy Nelson Tokunaga
paints a grim portrait of Japan. When educational pressures prompt
youngsters to commit suicide on train tracks, railway officials pay
visits to surviving relatives, demanding reimbursement for resultant
delays. (Rush-hour suicides cost more.) The rigidities of marriage
and work threaten to strangle anyone who comes of age...
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Charleston Gazette – September 30, 2007 -- Easy
read ‘Midori’ is entertaining -- By Phil Perry -- “Midori by
Moonlight” by Wendy Nelson Tokunaga, St. Martin’s Griffin Publishing
(246 pages, $13.95) -- Japanese author Wendy Nelson Tokunaga’s short
novel not only blends Japanese and American cultures successfully,
it sheds light on the dating scene for 30-something singles. I was
expecting a cheesy “Sex and the City” vibe before diving in, but was
pleasantly surprised to find something a bit deeper. The story
brings young Midori from Japan to San Francisco on a fiancée visa to
marry Kevin Newbury, a language teacher whom she met while he was
working in Japan. After she arrives in the States, he dumps her for
his ex-fiancée, whom she knew nothing about...
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Publishers Weekly – September 03, 2007 --
Midori by Moonlight, Tokunaga, Wendy Nelson (Author) ISBN:
0312372612 St. Martin's Griffin Paperback, $13.95 (256p) -- Aspiring
Cinderella Midori Saito does not heed her mother's warning-"Running
off with a foreigner will bring you nothing but trouble"-in
Tokunaga's delectably frothy debut. Trouble is exactly what Midori
finds after following English teacher Kevin Newbury from her native
Japan to San Francisco, where Prince Charming quickly becomes Prince
Alarming after a nightmarish engagement party. After Kevin dumps her
to return to his ex-girlfriend, Midori doesn't want to tell her
parents or return to Japan, although with little savings, no green
card and only a temporary visa, she may have...
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