Karin Muller (1) (1965–)
Författare till Japanland: A Year in Search of Wa
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Foto taget av: japanlandonline.com
Verk av Karin Muller
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Födelsedag
- 1965-06-08
- Kön
- female
- Nationalitet
- Switzerland
- Födelseort
- Switzerland
- Bostadsorter
- Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Australia - Yrken
- Reiseschriftstellerin
Medlemmar
Recensioner
Japanland : a year in search of wa av Karin Mler
My favorite kind of memoir that shares personal feelings and motivations but also teaches me new things. I loved her escape to the ceramics village with her mom and again when she went to film the mountain sect monk initiation. Many of her goals were obscure to me and I got a little tired of her list of weird cultural events. Still the insider/outsider insights were good: those who dedicate their lives personal and professional to heritage arts, brushes with gay culture, expat English teachers.
I haven't read many travel memoirs, but I find myself hoping that all of them are as engaging as this one.
Of course, it helps to have an interest in the places the author writes about. My best friend first got me interested in Japan, and there's something about its cultural differences from the West, its contradictory values, and its unique way of blending the past and the present so seamlessly that fascinates me. Karin Muller's journey into this country only deepened my knowledge and wonder.
In easy, conversational language, Muller jumps among the people and places she meets, from her up-and-down relations with her host family to various strangers, professionals, roommates, homeless, monks, and pilgrims she interacts with. Sometimes she is met with incredible acts of kindness and understanding, other times with coldness and even cruelty. It serves to underscore the kind of experience a foreigner can have in Japan; either welcomed or shunned, or sometimes both.
Muller's style makes it easy to get to know not only Japan, but also her as a person. I found myself admiring and sympathizing with her; she is honest about her fear, anger, and hopelessness in some situations, and yet she never grows self-pitying or gives up, although I might have many times. She tries her best to understand Japan and its culture, going to sometimes unimaginable lengths to fit in and accept its laws and values. She never judges the culture as right or wrong, instead musing over it, a fact I found very refreshing. She is honest about the good and the bad facets.
All in all, I want to read more of Karin's adventures, if she handles them all with such engaging and unwavering curiosity and aplomb.… (mer)
Of course, it helps to have an interest in the places the author writes about. My best friend first got me interested in Japan, and there's something about its cultural differences from the West, its contradictory values, and its unique way of blending the past and the present so seamlessly that fascinates me. Karin Muller's journey into this country only deepened my knowledge and wonder.
In easy, conversational language, Muller jumps among the people and places she meets, from her up-and-down relations with her host family to various strangers, professionals, roommates, homeless, monks, and pilgrims she interacts with. Sometimes she is met with incredible acts of kindness and understanding, other times with coldness and even cruelty. It serves to underscore the kind of experience a foreigner can have in Japan; either welcomed or shunned, or sometimes both.
Muller's style makes it easy to get to know not only Japan, but also her as a person. I found myself admiring and sympathizing with her; she is honest about her fear, anger, and hopelessness in some situations, and yet she never grows self-pitying or gives up, although I might have many times. She tries her best to understand Japan and its culture, going to sometimes unimaginable lengths to fit in and accept its laws and values. She never judges the culture as right or wrong, instead musing over it, a fact I found very refreshing. She is honest about the good and the bad facets.
All in all, I want to read more of Karin's adventures, if she handles them all with such engaging and unwavering curiosity and aplomb.… (mer)
In 'Japanland', filmmaker Karen Muller travels to Japan for a year to immerse herself in the culture, and to make a documentary. She is honest and funny, relating her experiences and relationships, her hardships and triumphs. The reader gets a personal insight and access unlikely to be available to the casual visitor, and in these experiences finds connections and obligations have both a price and a reward.
Fascinating. really caught me up. I went in search of the documentary that she was making. It too was interesting.
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Statistik
- Verk
- 3
- Medlemmar
- 422
- Popularitet
- #57,804
- Betyg
- 3.5
- Recensioner
- 15
- ISBN
- 63
- Språk
- 4