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Audrey Hepburn's Neck
Offering a unique perspective and unusual insight into modern Japan and its wartime past, Audrey Hepburn's Neck is also a shrewd study of cross-cultural obsessions, and of erotic, romantic, and familial love.
The American author Alan Brown crosses both racial and cultural lines to tell his story through the eyes of a young, handsome Japanese cartoonist, Toshiyuki ("Toshi") Okamoto, who traces his strong attraction to Western women back to his ninth birthday, when his mother took him to see Audrey Hepburn in the movie Roman Holiday .
Leaving behind a sad, silent childhood—which was spent living in two rooms above the family noodle shop on an isolated peninsula in the far north of Japan—Toshi moves to Tokyo to pursue his career. There he falls under the spell of three his best friend and confidante, the generous and extroverted Paul, a gay advertising copywriter who has plenty of his romantic mishaps with Japanese men; Jane, his glamorous but emotionally unstable teacher at the Very Romantic English Academy, with whom Toshi has a hazardous sexual affair; and, finally, the lovely and talented composer, Lucy, with whom Toshi falls in love.
The novel deftly moves back and forth between present and past, as Toshi explores his unhappy childhood, the reasons behind his mother's unexplained abandonment when he was eight years old, and her move to a seaside inn across the peninsula. As the novel draws to a close, tragic events, both public and personal, bring past and present together, revealing the painful truth of Toshi's parents' lives during World War II, and a secret in Toshi's own past that, in the end, gives him the strength and knowledge to confront the future.
The American author Alan Brown crosses both racial and cultural lines to tell his story through the eyes of a young, handsome Japanese cartoonist, Toshiyuki ("Toshi") Okamoto, who traces his strong attraction to Western women back to his ninth birthday, when his mother took him to see Audrey Hepburn in the movie Roman Holiday .
Leaving behind a sad, silent childhood—which was spent living in two rooms above the family noodle shop on an isolated peninsula in the far north of Japan—Toshi moves to Tokyo to pursue his career. There he falls under the spell of three his best friend and confidante, the generous and extroverted Paul, a gay advertising copywriter who has plenty of his romantic mishaps with Japanese men; Jane, his glamorous but emotionally unstable teacher at the Very Romantic English Academy, with whom Toshi has a hazardous sexual affair; and, finally, the lovely and talented composer, Lucy, with whom Toshi falls in love.
The novel deftly moves back and forth between present and past, as Toshi explores his unhappy childhood, the reasons behind his mother's unexplained abandonment when he was eight years old, and her move to a seaside inn across the peninsula. As the novel draws to a close, tragic events, both public and personal, bring past and present together, revealing the painful truth of Toshi's parents' lives during World War II, and a secret in Toshi's own past that, in the end, gives him the strength and knowledge to confront the future.
304 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
April 23, 2009
I started off liking this book, and then wasn't too crazy about it by the end. The idea is interesting - this Japanese man, infatuated with Audrey Hepburn (representing America, I guess), only goes out with American women, many of whom are crazy. There is a second story about his parents that unfolds, and I think is a little unbelievable, and I'm not sure how it really relates to the Audrey Hepburn theme. There are some cross-cultural misunderstandings, but I don't know - this book is written by a white guy (I am not sure if he is American or British), so it's a stretch for me to believe that he can completely get into the mind of a Japanese man. I had this same problem with Memories of a Geisha.
July 19, 2012
When I first read this book, in 1998, I had never been to Japan and knew next to nothing about the language, the culture, or the people. I had only recently discovered that one could move to Japan and teach English without needing to have studied Japanese or, really, much of anything. In what was a nice coincidence, I picked this book up off the bargain shelf at a bookstore and started reading.
The words were so clear, so evocative, so exotic and yet so familiar. I knew these people. I could see their lives unfolding not so different from my own and simultaneously vastly, incomprehensibly different. The fascination with Audrey Hepburn, the small, quiet life, the grand allure of life in the big city, the desire to know who you are and where you come from, these things I knew. The place names, the otherness, the cascade of imagery tied to a Japanese sensibility, these things I did not and could not know.
Re-reading the book fourteen years later, after a decade of living in Japan, after a decade of studying and learning the language and the culture, it seems as though what I knew and did not know have been reversed: The images of cherry blossoms falling across a park crowded with people laughing and drinking is as familiar as my own skin. The idea of a quiet, reverential, and reserved Japanese sensibility put hard against a brash, boisterous, larger than life American personality, less so.
And yet the story reads as beautifully as it did that first time, when I was so taken with Toshi's profound inability to understand that which fascinated him. When I was so moved by the quiet, mournful, love story that anchors Toshi to his parents and that he is so late in learning. When I was entranced by the clear, simple language of the author, moving words through bright, descriptive sentences like a painter leaving wisps of paint across a canvas.
Maybe I'll read the book again in another fourteen years. Maybe I'll read it again and learn what I do know and what I can not comprehend and about how we can't really understand ourselves until we understand from whence we've come.
The words were so clear, so evocative, so exotic and yet so familiar. I knew these people. I could see their lives unfolding not so different from my own and simultaneously vastly, incomprehensibly different. The fascination with Audrey Hepburn, the small, quiet life, the grand allure of life in the big city, the desire to know who you are and where you come from, these things I knew. The place names, the otherness, the cascade of imagery tied to a Japanese sensibility, these things I did not and could not know.
Re-reading the book fourteen years later, after a decade of living in Japan, after a decade of studying and learning the language and the culture, it seems as though what I knew and did not know have been reversed: The images of cherry blossoms falling across a park crowded with people laughing and drinking is as familiar as my own skin. The idea of a quiet, reverential, and reserved Japanese sensibility put hard against a brash, boisterous, larger than life American personality, less so.
And yet the story reads as beautifully as it did that first time, when I was so taken with Toshi's profound inability to understand that which fascinated him. When I was so moved by the quiet, mournful, love story that anchors Toshi to his parents and that he is so late in learning. When I was entranced by the clear, simple language of the author, moving words through bright, descriptive sentences like a painter leaving wisps of paint across a canvas.
Maybe I'll read the book again in another fourteen years. Maybe I'll read it again and learn what I do know and what I can not comprehend and about how we can't really understand ourselves until we understand from whence we've come.
April 5, 2012
I would actually give this a 3.5. The light hearted story of a young Japanese man, who at 9 falls in love with Audrey Hepburn (and her swan like neck) and subsequently is unable to be attracted to anyone but American women, takes an abrupt change halfway thru and becomes deadly serious. Secrets from WWII which haunt his parents and change his life, are revealed and the tone of the book is never light again. A very interesting story, but the humor and the pathos should have been spread out more evenly.
October 17, 2019
3.5 stars. Interesting quick read. There are unsustained flashes of really great writing, for example, in some of Jane's letters and in a lovely narrative shift to the past where a pen rolls off the nodding artist's desk and lands on the floor in the past that he is dreaming about. There is an important story regarding the protagonist's mother's past that deserves an audience, and a gentle care for his characters that lift the writing above the average.
There are however some problems that a good editor should have sorted out. The first, most serious fault is the inescapable feeling that the author had two ideas for a novel and somehow both of them ended up in the same book. Toshi's relationship with Jane takes up a substantial part of the early novel, then is dropped for his family history arc. The former, while titillating, seems incongruous and unnecessary and doesn't contribute enough to Toshi's character development to justify its inclusion.
The second, less egregious, yet annoying fault is the tendency of the author to try to include every single idiosyncrasy of querky modern Japan to entertain his reader. Judiciously used, it would have been interesting, but ultimately appears like the author emptying his notebooks of daily observations from his time in Japan, ALT-style.
The fact that all his unnamed Japanese characters seem to hate foreigners is another beef I have with the novel, but still with all these problems, it is difficult to write off. There is a build to the final reveals, an attention to natural dialogue, and some genuinely astute observations about a Japan that the writer clearly loves.
There are however some problems that a good editor should have sorted out. The first, most serious fault is the inescapable feeling that the author had two ideas for a novel and somehow both of them ended up in the same book. Toshi's relationship with Jane takes up a substantial part of the early novel, then is dropped for his family history arc. The former, while titillating, seems incongruous and unnecessary and doesn't contribute enough to Toshi's character development to justify its inclusion.
The second, less egregious, yet annoying fault is the tendency of the author to try to include every single idiosyncrasy of querky modern Japan to entertain his reader. Judiciously used, it would have been interesting, but ultimately appears like the author emptying his notebooks of daily observations from his time in Japan, ALT-style.
The fact that all his unnamed Japanese characters seem to hate foreigners is another beef I have with the novel, but still with all these problems, it is difficult to write off. There is a build to the final reveals, an attention to natural dialogue, and some genuinely astute observations about a Japan that the writer clearly loves.
December 29, 2015
Weird, strange, ethereal...All words I'd use to describe this book. I can't place my finger on it. There was loneliness, hope, love, hurt, broken family issues. This story took a wandering path. I read it in bursts and then raced to finish it because I wanted to be done with it.
I can't say I didn't like it, because there were parts that were very beautiful, but it was cold and static in places and I disliked having to push through those parts. It was also very choppy - past, present, past, present, but sometimes I couldn't tell right away at what point in Toshi's life I was in. And the breaks were very strange, no chapter heads, but large breaks, sometimes there was a bird heading and sometimes it was just a change of font. Very abstract-poetic stuff happening that didn't seem to have any point.
Do I like Toshi, the main character? Yes. Do I like the other people in his life? Lucy, yes. Paul, yes. But there were so many strange characters that didn't seem real - Jane. And the back and forth obsessions between Japanese/American (somewhat fetish-ized) were just really strange. I just think there was too much happening and it took too long to bring any sort of cohesion to this novel. I'm not going to recommend it to anyone unless I know they like Japanese culture or have an affinity for strange, slow narrative.
I can't say I didn't like it, because there were parts that were very beautiful, but it was cold and static in places and I disliked having to push through those parts. It was also very choppy - past, present, past, present, but sometimes I couldn't tell right away at what point in Toshi's life I was in. And the breaks were very strange, no chapter heads, but large breaks, sometimes there was a bird heading and sometimes it was just a change of font. Very abstract-poetic stuff happening that didn't seem to have any point.
Do I like Toshi, the main character? Yes. Do I like the other people in his life? Lucy, yes. Paul, yes. But there were so many strange characters that didn't seem real - Jane. And the back and forth obsessions between Japanese/American (somewhat fetish-ized) were just really strange. I just think there was too much happening and it took too long to bring any sort of cohesion to this novel. I'm not going to recommend it to anyone unless I know they like Japanese culture or have an affinity for strange, slow narrative.
May 16, 2013
Toshi Okamoto was born on a little island in Japan. He always had a fascination with American things such as the actress Audrey Hepburn and her neck.
As he was taking a course in the spoken English as a teenager, he was seduced by his American teacher. Since he was so young, he didn't really know what to make of this.
Later he went to a city where he met Paul Swift, an American living in Japan. Paul is a homosexual who recently lost his partner to AIDS.
The author writes in a lyrical manner and tells the story of the relationships between the culture of Japan and the United States. In one entertaining episode, a cab driver is amazed with the foreigners. Even though this was three people from Australia, it was enough to cause a stir.
This is a carefully crafted story that is a pleasure to read and to learn how one culture can live with another.
The conclusion is somewhat in the Arthur Hitchcock mode in that something changes and it gives the reader a new perspective on preceding events.
As he was taking a course in the spoken English as a teenager, he was seduced by his American teacher. Since he was so young, he didn't really know what to make of this.
Later he went to a city where he met Paul Swift, an American living in Japan. Paul is a homosexual who recently lost his partner to AIDS.
The author writes in a lyrical manner and tells the story of the relationships between the culture of Japan and the United States. In one entertaining episode, a cab driver is amazed with the foreigners. Even though this was three people from Australia, it was enough to cause a stir.
This is a carefully crafted story that is a pleasure to read and to learn how one culture can live with another.
The conclusion is somewhat in the Arthur Hitchcock mode in that something changes and it gives the reader a new perspective on preceding events.
March 21, 2008
I was blown away by the story. I loved the emotional changes that the main charecter goes through as he finds himself, and where he belongs in the world.
I didn't expect to zoom through this as fast as I did during my daily commute.
See where this book will travel next, at: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/3...
I didn't expect to zoom through this as fast as I did during my daily commute.
See where this book will travel next, at: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/3...
December 24, 2025
3.5 rounded down. This book fulfilled my challenge of "read a book based on the title" and so this slice of early-mid 90s Japanese life and meditation on Americans from the Japanese perspective is really outside what I would typically pick up. Despite its eccentricities, this is a decently written book and made me think about new perspectives. I do worry about the Japanese perspective written by an American author, but this is a problem of 2025, not 30 years ago when the book was written
March 3, 2022
Hmm. What an odd book. The writing was beautiful but the story was so very strange. I had trouble relating to Toshi because he kept everything bottled up inside.
I have a different insight into Japanese culture now. I also want to check myself that I don't talk all over someone like the Americans do in the book.
I have a different insight into Japanese culture now. I also want to check myself that I don't talk all over someone like the Americans do in the book.
February 22, 2012
It is one thing for a Westerner to write about how it is to be a foreigner in Japan. Such accounts, usually fictionalized, are often funny and revealing. But it is even more of an accomplishment for a Westerner to write about foreigners in Japan from the Japanese point of view. This is what Alan Brown so admirably does.
Not being Japanese, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the Japanese viewpoint in this novel, but it certainly has the ring of authenticity. The story involves a young man, raised in Hokkaido, who, now in his 20s, lives in Tokyo. It switches back and forth between the lonely childhood of Toshi, the protagonist, and his life as a young working man. Toshi has been fascinated by Western women all of his life, ever since he saw Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday with his mother as a child, and has never had a Japanese girlfriend. But he finds himself in over his head with the American English teacher, Jane, who soon reveals herself to be less than sane.
Brown is clearly a gifted novelist. His control of his material is evident from the first page. I highly recommend this unusual look a Japanese struggling to come to grips with the secrets of his childhood at the same time as he comes to grips with his obsession with foreignness – and finds common ground in the two obsessions.
Not being Japanese, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the Japanese viewpoint in this novel, but it certainly has the ring of authenticity. The story involves a young man, raised in Hokkaido, who, now in his 20s, lives in Tokyo. It switches back and forth between the lonely childhood of Toshi, the protagonist, and his life as a young working man. Toshi has been fascinated by Western women all of his life, ever since he saw Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday with his mother as a child, and has never had a Japanese girlfriend. But he finds himself in over his head with the American English teacher, Jane, who soon reveals herself to be less than sane.
Brown is clearly a gifted novelist. His control of his material is evident from the first page. I highly recommend this unusual look a Japanese struggling to come to grips with the secrets of his childhood at the same time as he comes to grips with his obsession with foreignness – and finds common ground in the two obsessions.
June 25, 2009
Nineties nostalgia here we come. Brown's nods to ni-chome, the Kinsmen, and a certain orange formica ramen shop across the way were wonderful. Last time I passed the Kinsmen in 2006, the windows were dark. Have heard that Wayne Wang optioned this for a film, but that was years ago.
March 9, 2016
japanese country boy goes to big city, gets to indulge his fascination with usa/western culture and discovers it's as weird as his own. for readers of japanese contemporary life and culture, and what that might mean with its long traditions of isolation
August 24, 2013
Perhaps only 3.5 but it was a nice read. What one hopes the average novel would be--not life changing but thoughtful and well executed. The title is a poor fit though. It makes it sound like chick lit.
September 21, 2007
Really enjoyed this book. Most of the time, quite hard to put down (there were a few slow parts). Interesting to look at the American culture through Japanese eyes.
February 4, 2018
At its heart, Audrey Hepburn's Neck is about difference--yearning for difference, fearing difference, and the same time hoping that there is no such thing. Between cultures, between individuals, and between futures.
Brown has drawn here a man who believes he knows his history, and his future, as well. Toshi thinks he knows who he is, and who his (simple) parents are, and what he wants. If not the reasons, he believes he knows who he is, and so he wanders forward. And as difference confronts him and he finds that his history and his future are hopelessly comingled, to the point of determining his passions, he is both completed and undone.
This sounds vague, and messy, and it is, but the book is anything but. Brown has drawn a masterfully detailed protagonist who any reader can both relate to and fear, and he's done a magnificent job. This book is not what I thought I was picking it up, and it is not flighty or simple, however easy and fast a read it may be. Instead, it is compelling and incredibly difficult, and a bit heartbreaking for how truly true it feels.
Yes, it's recommended.
Brown has drawn here a man who believes he knows his history, and his future, as well. Toshi thinks he knows who he is, and who his (simple) parents are, and what he wants. If not the reasons, he believes he knows who he is, and so he wanders forward. And as difference confronts him and he finds that his history and his future are hopelessly comingled, to the point of determining his passions, he is both completed and undone.
This sounds vague, and messy, and it is, but the book is anything but. Brown has drawn a masterfully detailed protagonist who any reader can both relate to and fear, and he's done a magnificent job. This book is not what I thought I was picking it up, and it is not flighty or simple, however easy and fast a read it may be. Instead, it is compelling and incredibly difficult, and a bit heartbreaking for how truly true it feels.
Yes, it's recommended.
December 6, 2019
It's Japan of a little while ago. A sleek young man is discovering himself, colored by aspects of his lustful attraction for western women, with their long necks, like Audrey, from a movie he had seen with his mother as a little boy, and will never forget.
Tokyo, Japan is a fascinating culture, with rooms measured in the number of tatami mats it takes to cover the floor, clogged subbasements with theme restaurants that come and go, and three Western friends that are confidant, teacher, and maybe true love. Toshi's coworkers are trendily trivial, and the pressure of WWII travesties hover over what to do about the family noodle shop, now empty, back in the hills.
I read this book years ago and have always remembered it, as the shadow of a cloud stills the landscape with its light, and I read it again recently. Now, as I write this I want to read it again. It has an alien purity, a depth of comfort. I will have udon noodles with arame and shoyu for my meal tonight, and use the bamboo chopsticks I have had for years.
Tokyo, Japan is a fascinating culture, with rooms measured in the number of tatami mats it takes to cover the floor, clogged subbasements with theme restaurants that come and go, and three Western friends that are confidant, teacher, and maybe true love. Toshi's coworkers are trendily trivial, and the pressure of WWII travesties hover over what to do about the family noodle shop, now empty, back in the hills.
I read this book years ago and have always remembered it, as the shadow of a cloud stills the landscape with its light, and I read it again recently. Now, as I write this I want to read it again. It has an alien purity, a depth of comfort. I will have udon noodles with arame and shoyu for my meal tonight, and use the bamboo chopsticks I have had for years.
December 20, 2022
Beautiful, sensitive and interesting read. I think I bought this book when living in Seoul as it has W4000 stick on the back so it's a second read through (at least) for me. The story of Toshi, a young man living in Japan, moving away from his home above the noodle shop of a small northern fishing village, finding his independence as a Manga artist and finding himself. Toshi is fascintated by American woman and has been since his mother took him to see Roman Holiday and he fell in love with Audrey Hepburn's neck. When he moves to Tokyo from his silent father's house he begins meeting Americans in the flesh and meets his best friend Paul, a somewhat unhinged English language teacher, Jane, and a young musician Lucy. He marvels at the openess of his Americal friends, a mystifying contrast to the reserved and silent world of his parents, their pasts a closed book to him. When his father dies, Toshi's mother opens up and reveals their history, enabling Toshi to continue his journey of identity and understanding.
January 27, 2020
Jeg var litt skeptisk til boka i byrjan, men fra starten ble jeg forført og forfjamset av den mystiske tonen, den pinlig skarpe innsikten til forfatteren i utlensingenes merkelige plass i Japan, og de små mysteriene forfatteren introduserer underveis. Den er både veldig morsom og veldig trist, men på en måte som skjærer i hjertet uten å etterlate noen smerte.
December 29, 2020
I didn’t know what to expect when a friend “gifted” me his copy of this book to read. Wow: I loved it! The protagonist, a cartoonist named Toshi, slowly reveals his life and that of his parents to us. I found the book to be a powerful reminder that our lives are built one memory at a time, and we each must deal with our lived experiences in our own way, while allowing others to do so as well.
September 17, 2019
I picked this book up based on the title. It had sat waiting to be read on a shelf for many years. I finally read and enjoyed every page. It is not my usual genre of book but I glad I took the time to read it.
October 22, 2024
This novel's story was moving and unpredictable. It also taught me quite a bit more about Japan's history and culture than I already knew. Furthermore, the book made me reflect on the cultural differences between Japan and the West.
March 10, 2022
I really really enjoyed this book.
July 13, 2024
Absolutely delightful, “like origami, put together with grace and dignity” as one reviewer aptly stated. One of my favorite books of the year so far
January 16, 2025
it was so just fine. interesting but not that interesting, relatable and well characterized but not THAT relatable or well characterized. a book
March 11, 2025
Every now and again you encounter a book that makes you stop and think: what was the point of all of this?
September 24, 2025
Really enjoyed this book set in contemporary Japan. Interesting look into a truly bizarre society, nicely counter-balanced by the protagonist's bucolic childhood.
June 1, 2012
We recently read this for my book club. My mom read this forever ago and remembered loving it. She had been going through a "read all about Japanese culture to try to understand the man she was dating better" phase. Have you ever been through something like that?
Well anyway, it was a very easy read and we all read it quite quickly. Toshi is a Japanese man living in Tokyo who is obsessed with Americans. He has a gay best friend and dates American women. The differences entrance him, their ability to express emotions, their clutter, their long necks...
I rather enjoyed it, though one lady didn't even finish it though she never said why exactly. Maybe because of Jane. She was a bit emotionally unstable, which I thought was interesting, embarrassing too because her emotions were out of control (not all American's are that nuts! sheesh).
Nothing goes too deep, but it makes you think. There are crazy parts, funny parts and very sad parts all tied up in a neat, happy bow at the end, probably a bit too neatly, but whatever, I am American and like that type of thing sometimes. :)
Well anyway, it was a very easy read and we all read it quite quickly. Toshi is a Japanese man living in Tokyo who is obsessed with Americans. He has a gay best friend and dates American women. The differences entrance him, their ability to express emotions, their clutter, their long necks...
I rather enjoyed it, though one lady didn't even finish it though she never said why exactly. Maybe because of Jane. She was a bit emotionally unstable, which I thought was interesting, embarrassing too because her emotions were out of control (not all American's are that nuts! sheesh).
Nothing goes too deep, but it makes you think. There are crazy parts, funny parts and very sad parts all tied up in a neat, happy bow at the end, probably a bit too neatly, but whatever, I am American and like that type of thing sometimes. :)
February 21, 2010
I seem to be drawn to books which juxtapose Japanese and American culture. I love that aspect of this book. It takes place in Hokkaido province, where While Sheep Chase, a book I read for book club, takes place. This is funnier, more impressionistic. There is a strange relationship between Toshi, the main character, and an American woman. Actually, Americans come off fairly bad...but Toshi is fascinated by them...ever since seeing Audrey Hepburn on the screen. I laughed out loud in the beginning of this book. Rarely do this. We'll see if the sex gets too weird, or the culture clash gets even funnier.
Well, the tone of the book changed drastically. Now it is heartbreaking. The same beautiful sentences, a good deal of focus on the weather and natural landscape juxtaposed against the man-made world, but while the sadness was foreshadowed, I wasn't ready for such a tonal shift. I still recommend it. Almost finished.
Well, the tone of the book changed drastically. Now it is heartbreaking. The same beautiful sentences, a good deal of focus on the weather and natural landscape juxtaposed against the man-made world, but while the sadness was foreshadowed, I wasn't ready for such a tonal shift. I still recommend it. Almost finished.
April 16, 2016
I loved this book. I loved the characters even though they were sad-somehow you still cared about them. Perhaps I wanted to know what could make them so sad. (and eventually you find out)One of the most disturbing things in the book was Toshi's affair with Jane. That bothered me and I'm still searching for the reason it had to be there, perhaps to show how naive Toshi actually was. I was really glad that Toshi fell in love with Lucy but her character wasn't very well developed. The glimpse into Japanese culture was fun. It was like peering into a glass and seeing someplace else. I wonder if I would try some of those foods? He also talks a lot about foreigners. I think, for an American, he did an excellent job of showing the stark differences in our cultures. You would have thought that this story was written by a Japanese person. I would love to hear or read some discussion about this book to see if there is anything that I missed.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews