"My Decadently Destructive Days and Nights as a Tokyo Nightclub Hostess"

[Mulboyne]

Amazon: Bar Flower - My Decadently Destructive Days and Nights as a Tokyo Nightclub Hostess
From Publishers Weekly: What saves this youthful memoir from being a dreary litany of boozy nights spent entertaining drunken big-spenders at Tokyo clubs is American translator Jacobson's knowledge of Japanese culture and language. Having originally landed in Japan in 2003 after college at McGill to work as a kindergarten teacher, Jacobson was fired from her job at the Happy Learning English School in Yokosuka city because the psychiatrist she saw for anxiety revealed her condition in a letter to her employer. Outspoken about discrimination against women in Japanese society, fond of drinking and prone to eating disorders and self-cutting, Jacobson drifted among teaching jobs before settling into the more lucrative but taxing employment as a hostess at the Palace, on Tokyo's Ginza strip, where the reigning mama-san taught her the fine art of being a decorative bar flower who serves men drinks and light conversation without being touched. Jacobson soon found her job leaching into all aspects of her life, and the paid dates, drinking and partying prompted a destructive spiral of cutting and blacking out. Truly fascinated by Japanese mores, Jacobson nonetheless elevates her story with compelling digressions into ukiyo (the floating world), geisha tradition and the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, among other topics, for a candid version of cultural immersion.

A quick browse of this book in a shop suggested that it didn't really have any new angle on foreign hostessing. This hostess blogger liked it when she wrote about it here but she also says in her Amazon review that the book "reveals a side of Japan that hardly gets any attention" which seems at odds with the fact that such narratives have become a staple of foreign writing on Japan. The author, Lea Jacobson, gives a short radio interview here (it's the second feature, about halfway through). She is now married, is still in Japan, and works as a translator.

[Socratesabroad]

Originally Posted by Publishers Weekly

Jacobson was fired from her job...because the psychiatrist she saw for anxiety revealed her condition in a letter to her employer. Outspoken about discrimination against women in Japanese society, fond of drinking and prone to eating disorders and self-cutting, Jacobson drifted among teaching jobs ...

Jacobson is hardly a poster child for mental stability, which surely calls into question the veracity of her writing and observations.
If she admits she's mad as a hatter aren't we supposed to dismiss her "literary" output as the mere ramblings of a mad man (or woman, to be precise)?

Originally Posted by Mulby

She is now married, is still in Japan, and works as a translator.

That's not entirely true, since Jacobson admits i am an engrish teacher on her own blog. In reality, she's still an eikaiwa teacher with translating as a sideline/hobby.

Originally Posted by Publishers Weekly

there have been some developments lately regarding my part-time teaching job. Yes, aside from translating cartoons, I also teach English to kids.
With that office work on top of my regular part time lesson teaching schedule, the company was essentially offering me a full-time, salaried position.

[kurohinge1]

Originally Posted by Mulboyne

"My Decadently Destructive Days and Nights as a Tokyo Nightclub Hostess" . . .

After only skimming this thread's title quickly, I was half expecting to see a confessional from Mulboyne.

I was somewhat disappointed that it was just a book review.

[Kuang_Grade]

Originally Posted by Socratesabroad

Jacobson is hardly a poster child for mental stability, which surely calls into question the veracity of her writing and observations.
If she admits she's mad as a hatter aren't we supposed to dismiss her "literary" output as the mere ramblings of a mad man (or woman, to be precise)?

Ah, but that adds to the sizzle, doesn't it?...US publishing seems obsessed with finding people (or people willing to fake it) to write about their terribly traumatic and fucked up lives but how they somehow preserved and if not triumphed, at least survived...I suspect your average incarated gang leader could get a book contract much easier than a non-literature Nobel Laureate.


http://www.latimes.com/features/book...3562097.column

One reason has to do with public taste. In the United States and, increasingly, in parts of Western Europe, the only unchallenged moral authority has become that of victims. This should not be read as an expression of sympathy toward the injured; instead, it's really an extension of the culture of narcissism's influence into the world of letters. It's a view that asserts that only those who have experienced pain or torment have a right speak of it, though others may participate vicariously through their eyes. Hence our insatiable desire for tell-all memoirs of every savage and degrading form of abuse -- as long as the account comes directly from those who suffered it.

[kalvyn]

In the event that anyone would like some info about this book that`s written by people who`ve actually read it... here are some links to the reviews:

Entertainment Weekly

Time Out Hong Kong

Playboy

There are more reviews copied on the author`s blog.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by kalvyn

In the event that anyone would like some info about this book that`s written by people who`ve actually read it... here are some links to the reviews:

Entertainment Weekly

Time Out Hong Kong

Playboy

There are more reviews copied on the author`s blog.

The reviews of "Bar Flower" remind me of my favorite movie review of all time. In an LA Weekly review of the movie "Barfly" they printed a mere four words, "Is that an adjective?"

[Greji]

Originally Posted by Charles

The reviews of "Bar Flower" remind me of my favorite movie review of all time. In an LA Weekly review of the movie "Barfly" they printed a mere four words, "Is that an adjective?"

She tells a little about what to look for in the book when asked during the interview if hostesses ever have sex with customers:

"...... Sex is technically against the rules, so no one really talks about it. I suspect that some of the more ambitious hostesses may have gone beyond the call of duty ....."

That tells me all about the book I want to know.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Greji

She tells a little about what to look for in the book when asked during the interview if hostesses ever have sex with customers:

"...... Sex is technically against the rules, so no one really talks about it. I suspect that some of the more ambitious hostesses may have gone beyond the call of duty ....."

That tells me all about the book I want to know.

Yeah, maybe this book belongs in the "Another newbie reporter 'discovers' Japan" thread.

[Mulboyne]

My default setting is to read just about any book written by a foreigner about living in Japan. There was a time some years ago when I'd buy them on spec but, more recently, there have just been too many where it seems like half the content has come from a few google searches rather than any genuine in-country experience so it now pays to give them a once-over. I didn't get that impression when reading Lea Jacobson's book but I saw enough to know that it would be better to pick it up as a cheap paperback rather than a full-priced hardback.

People who have lived in Japan a while or read a lot about the country are always going to be a tough audience to impress with a book about being a foreign hostess in Japan. Most foreigners who live in the big cities will probably know one or two personally and their stories about working in the clubs were fairly common currency even when Lisa Louis wrote "Butterflies of the Night" back in 1992. Since then, the foreign hostess has become a popular character in fiction. When I saw this book's title, I was immediately reminded of Catherine Hanrahan's "Lost Girls and Love Hotels" where the hostess character lost herself "in a sex- and drug-addled oblivion by night". Mo Hayder also had her main character in "Tokyo" work in a hostess club as did Susan Barker in "Sayonara Bar".

If you see that a foreign hostess appears as a character in a book, you can usually rely on a few of the following appearing: the yakuza customer; drugs; booze; a mama-san who either acts as a surrogate mother or engages in psychological warfare to break the main character's will - sometimes both; an explanation of the douhan system; a hostess rival; a hostess who uses sex to get her customers; a priest customer; a hostess who says she is "getting out" and then blows all her savings etc.

I wish this author well with her book. It's not easy finding a publisher so she deserves credit for getting over that obstacle.

[Greji]

Originally Posted by Charles

Yeah, maybe this book belongs in the "Another newbie reporter 'discovers' Japan" thread.

I know Mulboyne is soft, if not weak on any cute (or even not-so cute) girl who writes about her experiences in the cold night of the big mikan, but come on.

She writes she suspects some of the girls might be doing it? I got more time on hostesses than I do on AOL and absolutely none of them have ever been concerned about "beyond the rules", even if they were aware of any rules. It just cuts out any incentive to buy the book. As Muly says more power to her for getting it published, but at least in my case it was published for someone else to read.