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Eric Madeen

Goodreads Author

Born

in Chicago, The United States

Website

http://www.ericmadeen.com

Twitter

MadeenEric

Genre

Fiction, Travel, Romance

Influences

Paul Theroux; John Updike; Philip Roth; Norman Mailer; William S. Burr ...more

Member Since

October 2018

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Bestselling literary author Eric Madeen recently and formally retired after a nearly 30 year career as an Associate Professor of American Literature at Tokyo City University and Adjunct Professor at Keio University. His work has appeared in TIME Magazine, Asia Week, The East, The Daily Yomiuri, Tokyo Journal, Kyoto Journal, Metropolis, Mississippi Review, ANA's Wingspan, East of the Web, Japanophile, The Pretentious Idea, Yomimono, Peace Corps Worldwide, The Imperial, Tombstone Epitaph, numerous anthologies and academic journals and so on.

Three of his books gained Amazon bestseller status including his most recently released sixth book Tokyo-ing! Three Novellas, jazzing up Asia's most dynamic metropolis. In the triptych Madeen makes good o Bestselling literary author Eric Madeen recently and formally retired after a nearly 30 year career as an Associate Professor of American Literature at Tokyo City University and Adjunct Professor at Keio University. His work has appeared in TIME Magazine, Asia Week, The East, The Daily Yomiuri, Tokyo Journal, Kyoto Journal, Metropolis, Mississippi Review, ANA's Wingspan, East of the Web, Japanophile, The Pretentious Idea, Yomimono, Peace Corps Worldwide, The Imperial, Tombstone Epitaph, numerous anthologies and academic journals and so on.

Three of his books gained Amazon bestseller status including his most recently released sixth book Tokyo-ing! Three Novellas, jazzing up Asia's most dynamic metropolis. In the triptych Madeen makes good on Nabokov's brilliance: "The best art is not simple and sincere but deceitful and complex." And here Madeen adds, Think The Mona Lisa's Smile.

Following such smile fittingly in its complexities are sly and thus fascinating shenanigans going down in Tokyo-ing! -- in both long and near shots and between spiced with a rocking-it cross-cultural depth, it cracks open what the bestselling wunderkind Paul Theroux summed up to the author as "... a nesting box of secrets strenuously kept. I challenge you to write of the inner life of the Japanese." Done!

And coming out just prior to that and set in historically rich Yokohama, is his pomo immigrant novel Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed, part trip wire, trap doors and and brick walls set up by an ancient culture's barriers to the "gaijin" or outsider. Before the hilarious antics in classrooms, the novel opens with the protagonist's approach shot to a fictionalized tennis club that ends up with the familiar wicked shiver of the tennis club snub. In the frustration and through it the author literarily jackknifes into the deep end of comparative culture until he, to quote The Doors, breaks on through to the other side. Notable is his M.D. wife and her riding a 1200cc rice-rocket Yamaha with his riding shotgun and doing all the cooking. Good stuff ... All of it. He means the cooking!

For 2.3 years Madeen served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Francophone Gabon, Africa where he built a primary school complex in a remote equatorial village surrounded by rainforest, an experience which inspired his first book Water Drumming in the Soul: A Novel of Racy Love in the Heart of Africa.

Over the years he has been interviewed on several radio programs, YouTube videos and blogs (16 American and 1 Japanese) and for various print media.

Having lived in four countries and visited 20 more, he has travelled extensively as witnessed in his recently released travelogue Asian Trail Mix: True Tales from Borneo to Japan, which scales down the sprawl of Asia by focusing on the unique and revelatory - from the razzmatazz of novice monks at play in northern Laos to bonding with hustling pedicab drivers in Ho Chi Minh City to novel things Japanese.

Finally, you can get down with the full body with his high-octane second novel, the crime thriller eponymously entitled Massage World. By turns erotic and exotic and set in SoCal, Japan and back, it's does justice to the sliding signifier of the word massage itself, by turns crystally and sleazy so much so that the two sides realized in MW throw off jumper cable sparks in what the police chief summarizes as, "... an all and out massage war!" started by a wild parlor lord and his Dionysian rogues' gallery insinuating themselves both stealthily and profoundly in MW. The cavalry in the form of a lesbian biker gang on their rice rockets blast open the doors of the massage industry where it can be seen how the body is in such pain it's making a tent out of the drape. Madeen not only gives readers a peek under the drape but throws the damned thing off!

Experience this mind f*** of a novel!
...more

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Eric Madeen’s books

Average rating: 4.17 · 92 ratings · 31 reviews · 12 distinct works • Similar authors

	Water Drumming in the Soul : A Novel of Racy Love in the Heart of Africa 4.23 avg rating — 26 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tokyo-ing!: Three Novellas 3.99 avg rating — 25 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Asian Trail Mix: True Tales from Borneo to Japan 4.30 avg rating — 20 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Massage World 3.92 avg rating — 12 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	TANGA 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	ANYONE FOR TENNIS?: Lobbing It Up in the Land of the Rising Sun. it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Water Drumming in the Soul: A Novel of Racy Love in the Heart of Africa by Eric Madeen (Goodreads Author), Virtual Voice (Narrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tokyoing: Asia -- Fascinating for What Goes by Eric Madeen (Goodreads Author), Shinomiya Miki (Translator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tokyo-ing!: アジアで最も躍動する大都市を、心から見つめて by Eric Madeen (Goodreads Author), 四宮美紀 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Eric Madeen…

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Eric Madeen's Blog

I Am Sheffrou: An Alien Love Story

Eros Thrives on the Novel
In "I Am Sheffrou: An Alien Love Story" the narrator falls into a wormhole and experiences a whole new world of alien life which gives her a unique perspective on things back home and how back there the novelty has gone out of her earthbound marriage. Like much sci-fi, this is about now but dressed up in exotica and erotica and here with an incredible range of imaginative Read more of this blog post »

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Published on August 21, 2021 04:36 • Tags: eros-thrives-on-the-novel

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Eric is Currently Reading

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The Sheltering Sky

by Paul Bowles

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Mar 21, 2022 08:17AM

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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads

by Paul Theroux

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Mar 21, 2022 08:16AM

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The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

by Michael A. Singer (Goodreads Author)

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Mar 21, 2022 08:15AM

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Eric’s Recent Updates

Eric Madeen made a comment on Suzanne’s review of Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed " Hiya Suzanne, Just read your bio as a writer in Japan and quite enjoyed it. I tried to drop a comment at Women's Writing ? but got an alert and bailed ...more "
Sep 16, 2026 07:30AM · see review
Eric Madeen and 1 other person liked Suzanne's review of Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed: "Madeen’s exuberant prose whisks the reader through the trials and tribulations of tennis enthusiast David Adams, a big, blustery American university instructor on a limited contract, struggling to make his way and maintain his dignity within the cons" Read more of this review »
Sep 16, 2026 07:25AM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed by Eric Madeen. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Tennis Clubbed, Snubbed and Rubbity-Dub Dubbed by Eric Madeen <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Eric Madeen is now following Mark Walker's reviews
Aug 09, 2026 02:27PM · like
Eric Madeen liked Debra's review of Water Drumming in the Soul : A Novel of Racy Love in the Heart of Africa: "Fantastic storytelling letting me visit the African interior without leaving my home. I laughed, I cried, I worried about the characters. Loved the descriptions of the water drumming and so much more!"
Aug 09, 2026 02:11PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Water Drumming in the Soul by Eric Madeen. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Water Drumming in the Soul by Eric Madeen <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">