Japan, in a strange combination of cultural arrogance and shyness, has historically hid its face from foreigners, making it a country difficult to know beyond the surface. In the 14 loosely linked short stories of Flight Paths of the Emperor, set mostly in Japan, Steven Heighton reveals some of the complexities of a people whose inner lives have often been a mystery to Westerners. Alongside the unique pressures of ancient social norms and the shadow of Hiroshima, global modernity, too, is having its effect, with the ubiquitous arrival of McDonald's and with young Japanese like the waiter Nori, who states flatly, "Sumo is for old folk." The delightful "Five Paintings of the New Japan" illuminates how it feels to be the only foreigner working in a venerable Osaka restaurant, as well as the conflict in Japan between tradition and modernity. "An Apparition Play," a bleak and powerful story, carries the heightened emotion of a No drama. In it, the ghost of a dead Japanese mother hovers over the lives of the father, a Westerner, and their half-caste daughter as they visit Japan. Heighton writes with delicacy and insight, whether describing a shy young waitress, "bowed awkwardly and studying her plump brown hands," or subtly suggesting that the slow dying of the emperor himself symbolizes the fading of the world he embodied. In stories delicate and subtle as the legendary haiku of Basho, some humorous and others exhibiting great emotional depth, Heighton has come to grips with what it means to be Japanese.

Discription
 Paperback, clean, tight, unmarked, no spine or cover creases, some rubbing to the edgs and the corner.

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