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Massage World
Peek under the drape …
The body is in pain. So around the world the massage industry is booming, from airport massage bars and upscale spas to risque outcall and down-market parlors. By turns holistic and erotic but always zesty, Massage World is a multicultural thriller and concerns one driven massage therapist, Ingrid Swanson, opening a straight, grandiose health spa -- Massage World -- against the wishes of a wild parlor lord.
Jack Cobb endeavors to take her business over through massage wars where a corrupt undercover vice dick solicits unlawful “extras.” Zany media coverage of a raid incites a neighborhood organization to picket and protest and so much more. Until the cavalry comes in the form of a lesbian biker gang ... making for a mind-blowing world of massage peopled with a rogues gallery found in the nether reaches of a Dionysian dream.
The body is in pain. So around the world the massage industry is booming, from airport massage bars and upscale spas to risque outcall and down-market parlors. By turns holistic and erotic but always zesty, Massage World is a multicultural thriller and concerns one driven massage therapist, Ingrid Swanson, opening a straight, grandiose health spa -- Massage World -- against the wishes of a wild parlor lord.
Jack Cobb endeavors to take her business over through massage wars where a corrupt undercover vice dick solicits unlawful “extras.” Zany media coverage of a raid incites a neighborhood organization to picket and protest and so much more. Until the cavalry comes in the form of a lesbian biker gang ... making for a mind-blowing world of massage peopled with a rogues gallery found in the nether reaches of a Dionysian dream.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 20, 2021
About the author
Eric Madeen
12 books15 followersBestselling 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!
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!
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 13, 2023
Fabulous writing with an amusing plotline
It is a book filled with comedic flair. The story was entertaining enough to keep me off the usual editing issues one can hope to see with indie authors.
The alternate world detailing by the author is quite creative and has a vivid description of the scenes that helps imagining them and makes reading that much fun. The MC of the story is INGRID SWANSON, who is a massage therapist, there is another shady character, Jackson Cobb or Jack Cobb. He is trying all kinds of quick get rich schemes by smuggling and dealing in drugs. Ingrid's massage world is in SoCal and Jackson's story debuts in Japan, who wants to take Ingrid's still establishing massage business over in SoCal.
There is a good amount of research done around Japan, the country's languages and culture. The author's imagination reflects in the writing as it has a great plotline and well-constructed characters.
Pick it up for a fun read and see who wins the war of the massage world!
It is a book filled with comedic flair. The story was entertaining enough to keep me off the usual editing issues one can hope to see with indie authors.
The alternate world detailing by the author is quite creative and has a vivid description of the scenes that helps imagining them and makes reading that much fun. The MC of the story is INGRID SWANSON, who is a massage therapist, there is another shady character, Jackson Cobb or Jack Cobb. He is trying all kinds of quick get rich schemes by smuggling and dealing in drugs. Ingrid's massage world is in SoCal and Jackson's story debuts in Japan, who wants to take Ingrid's still establishing massage business over in SoCal.
There is a good amount of research done around Japan, the country's languages and culture. The author's imagination reflects in the writing as it has a great plotline and well-constructed characters.
Pick it up for a fun read and see who wins the war of the massage world!
August 6, 2021
A little uneven massage story
The book has a good premise. It is an interesting self contained little world that is unique and fresh. The story is a bit uneven throughout. The book would benefit from a good edit. Chapters are inconsistent in length. Something to address. As it is about massage and the world of that seedier side of massage there is not a bunch of sex here. It seems a big whiff there. The character development was good but the story seems a little longer than necessary and the chapters drag a bit. It’s a good book about massage but not the greatest one.
The book has a good premise. It is an interesting self contained little world that is unique and fresh. The story is a bit uneven throughout. The book would benefit from a good edit. Chapters are inconsistent in length. Something to address. As it is about massage and the world of that seedier side of massage there is not a bunch of sex here. It seems a big whiff there. The character development was good but the story seems a little longer than necessary and the chapters drag a bit. It’s a good book about massage but not the greatest one.
October 13, 2021
Oh Ingrid!!
First off, I really enjoyed this story and the dialogue which is equally important. I do wish there was a bit more sex appeals involved.
To me Ingrid was too much in her own head, but I love how that drove her decision making.
First off, I really enjoyed this story and the dialogue which is equally important. I do wish there was a bit more sex appeals involved.
To me Ingrid was too much in her own head, but I love how that drove her decision making.
December 13, 2021
Liked this Story
Very interesting story. Different than other books I have read. I also enjoyed the art on the front. Would recommend to others.
Very interesting story. Different than other books I have read. I also enjoyed the art on the front. Would recommend to others.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews