{ "item_title" : "Speed of Lightness", "item_author" : [" Barrie Sherwood "], "item_description" : "A window on modern Japan, this off-kilter, anti-sentimental literary thriller is an eye-opening journey into the hinterlands of a postmodern nation. Kyoto University student Aozora Fujiwara has been playing too much mah-jong and now he's deep in debt. When Aunt Okane ('money') dies and leaves a collection of priceless art to him and his sister, Mai, he thinks his problems are solved. But they're only just beginning: Mai's disappeared and he can't liquidate the estate without her. The quest that ensues takes Aozora to the deep south of Japan and the unlikely setting of a Dutch theme park called, Amsterland... The joy in Sherwood's tale is in Aozora's madcap journey, during which he meets a slew of silly--and often sinister--souls. Among them: an oyster-loving businessman who sells lifelike inflatable dolls, and a corpulent crime boss who looks like a cross between Liberace and Kim Jong-Il. In his carefully woven descriptions, Sherwood shows unusual insight into a fastchanging society of disaffected youth and sleazy governance. This picaresque on steroids offers a refreshingly irreverent look at contemporary life in a not entirely implausible Japan.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/9/81/491/408/9814914088_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "15.95", "online_price" : "15.95", "our_price" : "15.95", "club_price" : "15.95", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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