This is a weird story. I liked it - sort of - but it is strange. The characters are made very naive, as if they had the minds of children. Nothing is serious; no matter what is happening they react to it as if it is kind of every day business. And believe me, some strange things are happening here! In one scene the main character are being raped, and it is something like this: "Oh, you are raping me! Hmmm, i don't want this and i don't like it at all. But maybe if i go along with it anyway we can just call i sex and everything will be fine. Yes, i thing so. Hm, i'm starting to like this." Geeeez!!!!!!

Still there are some good moments as well. " His staggering lurch was a dance of death in full technicolour." Poetic!

Sounds like an interesting read.

This book will be released at the bookcrossing convention in Gothenburg. Happy reading!

Picked this up from the book table at the convention on Saturday. It will go home with me to the uk.

Wow. This was brilliant. I love reading books by Japanese writers, and I'd not read anything by Yasutaka Tsutsui before, but I must look up more of his work. It is such a work of imagination, and a great read; the world he's created of Tokyo with these strange developed machines that allow therapists to record, watch, and even take part in patient's dreams in order to help them with therapy was fantastic. The way this then developed in a way the therapists hadn't expected, with the boundaries between dreams and reality becoming more and more blurred kept it up to an exciting, and slightly ambiguous ending. Great stuff.

Paprika is the alter-ego of Atsuko Chiba, a beautiful and talented therapist. Whilst Atsuko works at the therapy centre where the PT devices are used; Paprika has been helping high officials secretly in their own homes and her appartment, with therapy - something which is illegal technically, outside of the therapy centre's remit. The technical genuis who has developed the PT devices, creates a mini device that is like a small disk that can just be placed on the scalp. These prototypes go missing, and then technicans start to go mad, infected by the dreams and nightmares of severely disturbed patients...something is afoot. This is all tied in with office politics and backstabbing... and at whatever level, we've all been there at some point.

It does feel like a very Japanese novel, not just for the fact that it's set in Tokyo and the characters have Japanese names. But also for the politics, the manovering and the way they interact. Also I think the attitudes towards sex and rape and relationships between men and women, which don't always have the same standing as the west. For instance, I remember reading in guidebooks for when I went to Japan that the main thing to watch for as a female travelling alone was that rape isn't taken as seriously over there as it would be in Europe for instance. So perhaps the seemingly casual attitude Atsuko takes during the attempted rape may be something to do with this. Same thing with marriages, in that as I've been told by people, if a marriage breaks up, it's seen as a failure on the woman's part, regardless of circumstances or what actually went on; and that it is very diffecult for that woman to then start new relationships/marry for a second time. Not that I'm particularly trying to be down on Japan, I love the country and am fascinated by it; I just also find it interesting how these different attitudes are portrayed and come out in things such as literature.

I am taking this to the York bookcrossers' meet up this coming Tuesday.

OpheliaPhillips; since you liked the novel so much maybe the film based on the book may be of interrrest as wel? The movie do not hold the same level of details as the novel ... by far! But i think it still is interresting and well made.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0851578/

Hi Wildwolverine, thank you for the tip - I'm definately going to hunt down this film. I love Japanese craziness, especially in animated form!

Picked up at the August York Bookcrossing Meetup earlier this week.

Stuck to the shelf for too long, so I'm letting it go.

Finally finished it - tiny print writing. Quirky and perhaps drags on in places. An interesting concept.

I picked this up at the York BookCrossing meetup because I thought it sounded fascinating - like a Japanese Inception. Sadly, I only made it about 100 pages in because I couldn't deal with the crappy characterisation of the (only significant) woman in it. Basically, she's this stunningly beautiful 20-something (we know this because the author keeps telling us) with whom every single man she meets is infatuated. She is aware of this and uses it to manipulate men into doing what she wants, i.e. gazing into their eyes, touching their legs, parading about in front of them in a negligee etc. She's apparently in the running for a Nobel Prize, even though we hardly ever see her doing any research. She just flirts with the male genius who actually does the product development and gets him to give her all his stuff. It's such a male idea of how women behave and it's really quite insulting, to men as well as women since it implies that they're all stupid enough to lose their minds when an attractive young woman looks at them (some of them are, I'm sure, but every single one?).

Anyway, I have a policy that, if a book is pissing me off, I don't have to finish it. I have applied this policy here, and I am very happy with my decision!

To be released at the February York Bookcrossing meetup.

I agree with most of the previous criticisms, but still worth a read. Quite far fetched at times

Into the wild

Too many books, too little time! I came to this pub because it's where BookCrossers meet. It's very rare to get a catch. Suddenly I find I've gone from famine to feast, but with my family waiting outside in the rain, it's a rather rushed experience.

Picked up at the Eagle & Child Bookcrossing Meeting.