-0002.jpg/:/cr=t:14.29%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:71.43%25/rs=w:365,h:365,cg:true)
A TASTE OF HEAVEN Short Fictions - Upcoming From Tailwinds Press - Radio City, NY
A TASTE OF HEAVEN Short Fictions - Upcoming From Tailwinds Press - Radio City, NY
A TASTE OF HEAVEN Short Fictions - Upcoming From Tailwinds Press - Radio City, NY
From Back Cover:
“I need to ask you something,” begins one dubious protagonist in R. Sebastian Bennett’s collection, A Taste of Heaven. “Did you mean it when you said I had a psychic connection with the cat?"
In an atmospheric, panoramic journey stretching from Louisiana’s Cajun territory and Florida’s alligator-ridden swamps to the
From Back Cover:
“I need to ask you something,” begins one dubious protagonist in R. Sebastian Bennett’s collection, A Taste of Heaven. “Did you mean it when you said I had a psychic connection with the cat?"
In an atmospheric, panoramic journey stretching from Louisiana’s Cajun territory and Florida’s alligator-ridden swamps to the subway tunnels of 1980s Tokyo, the obstinate misfit characters in these fourteen brilliantly crafted pieces are simultaneously redeemed—and one-upped—by the inspirational weirdness of the even stranger world around them. A nameless narrator who dresses up as a priest for a hobby descends into increasingly alarming adventures when he encounters an over-willing parishioner; a sufferer of an unspecified condition believes he is severely allergic to something in his apartment (probably himself); residents of a trailer park gradually become enmeshed in rival not-so-secret societies; and someone loses a foot. In its mysterious, technically perfect creations, A Taste of Heaven reveals a gloriously organic world that bursts with wonder.
_______
Review: Bennett writes elegantly, even as nearly every story turns in unexpected directions and surprises the reader at the climax. A TASTE OF HEAVEN is both skillful and surreally--even absurdly--amusing. The settings and points of view vary, but the stories are all precisely descriptive, many of them containing animals: dogs, cats, fish, horses, birds, alligators, and even crawfish. --Harold Jaffe Author of BRUT: WRITINGS ON ART & ARTISTS Editor, Fiction International
________________________
A TASTE OF HEAVEN
ISBN: 9798985312423 (Print)
9798985312430 (eBook)
________________
THE FINAL YEN : Purchase Links & Plot Summary
A TASTE OF HEAVEN Short Fictions - Upcoming From Tailwinds Press - Radio City, NY
A TASTE OF HEAVEN Short Fictions - Upcoming From Tailwinds Press - Radio City, NY
THE FINAL YEN - AMAZON Paperback : https://www.amazon.com/Final-Yen-R-Sebastian-Bennett/dp/1620068702/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+final+yen&qid=1631480736&sr=8-1
THE FINAL YEN - AMAZON Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=%22THE+FINAL+YEN%22&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
THE FINAL YEN - Paperback Direct From Publisher: htt
THE FINAL YEN - AMAZON Paperback : https://www.amazon.com/Final-Yen-R-Sebastian-Bennett/dp/1620068702/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+final+yen&qid=1631480736&sr=8-1
THE FINAL YEN - AMAZON Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=%22THE+FINAL+YEN%22&i=digital-text&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
THE FINAL YEN - Paperback Direct From Publisher: https://www.sunburypress.com/collections/r-sebastian-bennett/products/the-final-yen?variant=39379886964829
________________________
PLOT SUMMARY: It is 1989, the height of Japanese economic power, and a young American businessman in Tokyo is facing a prison sentence for a crime he did not commit--in a system where 99% of all accused are convicted. His “friends” lie about the incident, and the American Embassy won’t help him. Under surveillance, in the midst of an investigation, he must try to flee from Japan... THE FINAL YEN is a compelling story of cultural differences, business etiquette, xenophobia, and intellectual identity— based on the author’s experiences as an Advertising Representative for a Tokyo publishing company. Few, if any, other authors have the actual experience to write about this subject matter. Excerpts from the novel have been published in The Brooklyn Review, Connecticut Review, Heartland Review, Indiana Review, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, The Southwestern Review, Tulane Review, Worcester Review, The Bombay Review (India), and The Galway Review (Ireland)
REVIEWS
A TASTE OF HEAVEN Short Fictions - Upcoming From Tailwinds Press - Radio City, NY
REVIEWS
THE FINAL YEN:
“Clever, insightful and beautifully written… Mr. Bennett knows his Japanese characters as well as he knows his American hero, and THE FINAL YEN is a book both charming and moving.” --T. Coraghessan Boyle, Author of EAST IS EAST and OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
________________________
“In the context of a compelling story, R. Seba
THE FINAL YEN:
“Clever, insightful and beautifully written… Mr. Bennett knows his Japanese characters as well as he knows his American hero, and THE FINAL YEN is a book both charming and moving.” --T. Coraghessan Boyle, Author of EAST IS EAST and OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
________________________
“In the context of a compelling story, R. Sebastian Bennett demystifies much of the modern Japanese social insularity and business philosophy, while engaging readers in a serio-comical narrative of a youthful, American ‘salaryman’ in Tokyo. This is simultaneously a book about Japan, and about American ideals of independence and intellectual freedom. THE FINAL YEN is smart, witty, and informative.”
--Harold Jaffe, Author of REVOLUTIONARY BRAIN and PARIS 60; Editor of Fiction International IMAGE: "Tokyo at Night" by fakelvis is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 [re-sized]
____________________________
THE FINAL YEN reviewed in MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW: There are some professional invitations you can't say no to. And when you do say yes, there are dire consequences that embrace many different levels of threat. In Tokyo, in 1989, a young American businessman is framed for a crime he didn't commit, and is threatened with imprisonment. Nobody will help him. The witnesses to this supposed crime were his friends. The Final Yen documents his flight from Japan and his interactions with its culture; but more importantly, this is a survey of Japanese culture and business community that lends many insights into not just Japanese society, but the interactions between men and women within and outside of that world. R. Sebastian Bennett excels in injecting many insights about Eastern and Western interactions and perceptions throughout the story, from the start: "All Japanese businessmen drank Scotch, just like they all used chopsticks to eat their sticky rice. Ono leaned forward. “It is good business to drink together,” he said...“We are all Tokyo businessmen, and we need to drink.” Ono’s words were a little slurred, but I understood his real point. He was trying to minimize our differences, to group us all together in a set like dominoes. In a way, it was touching." From contrasts between Western and Eastern perceptions of beauty and propriety to the types of interactions that present challenges to Westerners doing business in Japan, Bennett creates a powerful story packed with insights and descriptions: "I clasped my hands together in front of me in an attempt to show how cooperative I intended to be, how innocent I was, and how much I ought to be released. I tried not to think about the statistic that in Japan, 99% of all accused individuals were eventually found guilty…" Social reflection and business philosophy blend in a powerful story surrounding a mystery, a challenge, and a set of seemingly casual circumstances that quickly become puzzling and dangerous to the protagonist. A subtle but notable touch of underlying humor marks many of the interactions. Bennett excels at weaving action into many of his insights about not just the culture but the sights, sounds, and experience that is Japan: "I had tried to optimize Tokyo transportation, but I had failed. Maybe I just tried too hard. Or was this my karmic punishment for being a shikan, a train pervert, if that’s what I was? I couldn't think clearly anymore. All I knew was that my head was throbbing. It hurt like hell. And I just wanted to sleep." This approach, which juxtaposes intrigue, action, and cultural inspection, brings The Final Yen to life in a gripping story that will delight a wide audience, from thriller and mystery readers to those who appreciate the added depth of intellectual inspection and cross-cultural encounters. The Final Yen is a compelling story recommended for business readers, those interested in stories set in Japan, readers who want to absorb East/West incongruities and etiquette, and suspense readers who just want a fine, vividly portrayed read that embraces a sense of place and purpose. --Reviewed by Diane Donovan, Senior Reviewer.
___________________
THE FINAL YEN reviewed in PENNSYLVANIA LITERARY JOURNAL :
The title of R. Sebastian Bennett’s debut novel may be suggestive of Matthew 5:26 and the uttermost farthing; if the young American who narrates has not a yen left to his name by the last pages, this seems a virtue, in context. At its core, The Final Yen is a novel of virtues, in a contemporary sense, often in a comedic sense: the new virtues of American individuality and ingenuity confronted by the thousand-year-old virtues of Japanese conformity and correctness. By no means does this work of fiction offer itself as an apology, which could in itself stir up some controversy when published at an unpleasant time in our history where Asians and Asian Americans are themselves unfairly confronted with some of the worst of American behaviors and idiot bigotries. The novel’s time and place are presented honestly. Set in the late 1980s, Bennett’s story may not anticipate pandemic prejudices, but it does offer us a flipside, from the other side, told from a distinctly American perspective by an adman with the Japan Publishing Company who has pursued “my Japanese dream, my justification to simply leave America and go to live in Japan.” The unnamed narrator has done this with a clear head, with suitable ambitions; he has done this with hope, with candor, and with a certain fascination that binds the disparate events and makes for singularly provocative storytelling. “Do you like Japan?” the narrator is asked during the last chapter; the young American replies in the tactful affirmative: “Yes, I have learned many things here.” His answer should not be taken as a tagline, not necessarily, but the narrator’s subsequent comment demonstrates the novel’s pure and fine complexion: “I tried to smile as best I could, to force a sincere smile, although it still felt false on my face. Michiko's expression brightened too, a countenance perhaps as orchestrated as my own.” Immersed in Tokyo’s depths from the outset, the episodic history of a year abroad begins with a misadventure and ends with its resolution. In between—with freestanding chapters that feature such titles as “Jewel Beetle,” “Symphony of Meat,” and “The Cherry Tree”—several incidents are relived and reconsidered as the narrator has sought to negotiate this unique part of the world with “grace under pressure,” an American virtue which he admires and exaggerates. As the novel unfolds, and as the young American often maintains a distance from the story of his own life (almost as if he is behind a camera), we are made familiar with a compelling cast of characters, a majority of them Japanese—businessmen, policemen, underworld bullies, train passengers, barbers, receptionists, hostesses, tenants, the many people of the city—and there is also the narrator’s British girlfriend, an Iraqi from Turkey, a twanger from Mississippi, a beer-chugging Canadian, a consulate-bureaucrat, a British dope-thief, a New Zealand juggler. But make no mistake, the red-blooded narrator dominates his own history, and he cannot always mask himself behind a casual veneer, not in the more intense and painful scenes. Even so, Japan itself may be the main character, Tokyo in particular, which is fascinating, both the place and the people. Or is Japan the antagonist? This is no contradiction or conundrum but is sustained as an essential aspect to the textured character of both place and people. We see Japan from a young American’s perspective: some of his insights are troublesome and a bit jaded, some shrewd, several quite humorous, most all of them illuminating. For instance, we learn that “Japanese didn't like contracts, hated them in fact. They much preferred oral agreements, thinking that anything which purported to force two parties to rigid conditions smacked of deceit.” We also learn that “reality seemed different for the Japanese. It wasn’t a rational organization of facts. It was more how things were supposed to be. How they fit into a comfortable framework.” We are shown that the Japanese sense of humor, taste, ritual, and art are very distinctive and sometimes inscrutable, at least to the narrator who does try to understand and to conform, as when he greets the police officers politely and “with a little bow” before he is detained by them. Of course, this is a tale told by a twenty-four-year-old, an intelligent man, yes, but quite a young man, who is as open-minded and enthusiastic as he is disillusioned. What he often does do is to recognize real comedy in the inexactness of translated words, in the cultural conditioning, in the banality of the business world, these indelible moments some of the best in the novel. Taken as a whole, the world reflected in The Final Yen has the virtue of being both cohesive and diverse. From the eloquently anticlimactic to the often outrageous and through to the suspenseful last episode, the narrative engages and entertains. The imagery is beautiful, sometimes disturbing. But certainly not to be overlooked are a few of the more tender and perceptive observations, as when the narrator describes a woman’s depth of feeling after a rejection: “Fujiwara stood perfectly still, a statue in the evening, a stone-sculpted maiden of the night … sadness was written on her face, written in her sagging cheeks and lips, and in her dulled eyes. But suddenly, the sadness went away. The sorrow was gone. The pain had left and been replaced, amazingly, by a tight-lipped smile. A resignation. Then the smile opened wider, opened up into her cheeks; and her eyes gleamed in a poignant bliss, an utter acceptance, almost an enjoyment of suffering as one enjoys life.” In such passages, we find superb writing—and honest art. --Reviewed By Z. A. Burks, Professor - American Literature