Once, when I picked up a book from the local library, the librarian asked to tell her what I thought about the book when I would bring it back. Well, why not write a few lines about all the books I read so everybody could see what I thought about it? I'm often also happy to have friends recommend a certain book or tell me this and that is not really worth reading. I won't comment about the tons of books I have read so far, but about books I read from now on.
| highly recommended | sehr empfohlen | |
| good reading | gutes lesematerial | |
| average | durchschnittlich | |
| not too interesting | nicht allzu interessant | |
| recommended not to read it | empfehlung das buch nicht zu lesen |
 |
|
|---|---|
| title | Girl in a Box |
| author | Sujiata Massey |
| ISBN-10 | 0-060-76515-1 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-060-76515-6 |
| ASIN | |
| rating | |
| date | 2021-Jul-29 |
This is a book in a whole series. There are some back-references to earlier adventures of the protagonist Rei Shimura, but the book can be read by itself, without real knowledge of the other books. (So far I have not read any of Rei's earlier adventures.)
Rei Shimura, an American-Japanese girl of 30 years, is working for some kind of US-spy organization. In this capacity, she is sent to Tokyo to apply for a job at a prestigious department store in order to get inside information about the said store. The authorities have been alerted that something with the department store's declared profits does not match up. Even though Rei is of Japanese origin, fitting in as a native is not always easy.
The story itself is OK. It is not boring, but neither is it the kind of book which keeps you glued to the pages till the wee hours of the morning. There is a lot of talk about fashion and expensive clothing. I have no idea at all about designer clothes, however, based on the high accuracy of the Japanese ways described (of which I do know), it is well researched and accurate too. However, in the real world, Rei would likely face more problems and pitfalls trying to blend in as a department store salesgirl. Also, the timing of events sometimes seems a little bit strange; things happen within days which definitely would take considerably longer.
All in all, an average book but good descriptions of how things are in Japan.
