An unhinged British backpacker meets 'Michi': a desperate, underemployed Japanese 'Freeter', on the communal couch of a dilapidated Osaka hostel. The pair form a close bond while exploring the regular haunts of Japan's 'lost generation,' but while drifting through the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, the Englishman is drugged by a sinister betel nut peddler on the banks of the putrid Thi Nghe canal. Finding himself stranded in an unidentifiable Megacity saturated with multinational brands, ice-white tablet computers and über-trendy Asian design students, he must fight his way through the city's vast Junkspace shopping mall as chaos descends.
What the blurb doesn't tell you is what a ride you're in for, and what the prose is like. It may also a thoughtful look at the consumer economy, though that's very subtly conveyed; it's not in-your-face. Not for the fainthearted (many drugs, much boozing, ladyboys etc. - if easily offended, please stay away). But I really, really recommend this.
Astbury's also the author of War Blanket - more conventionally dystopian fiction, but still original and also worth a read. My reviews of both books are here:
An unhinged British backpacker meets
'Michi': a desperate, underemployed
Japanese 'Freeter', on the communal
couch of a dilapidated Osaka hostel. The pair
form a close bond while exploring the regular
haunts of Japan's 'lost generation,' but while
drifting through the slums of
Ho Chi Minh City, the Englishman is drugged
by a sinister betel nut peddler on the banks of
the putrid Thi Nghe canal. Finding himself
stranded in an unidentifiable Megacity saturated
with multinational brands, ice-white tablet
computers and über-trendy Asian design
students, he must fight his way through the
city's vast Junkspace shopping mall as chaos
descends.
What the blurb doesn't tell you is what a ride you're in for, and what the prose is like. It may also a thoughtful look at the consumer economy, though that's very subtly conveyed; it's not in-your-face. Not for the fainthearted (many drugs, much boozing, ladyboys etc. - if easily offended, please stay away). But I really, really recommend this.
Astbury's also the author of War Blanket - more conventionally dystopian fiction, but still original and also worth a read. My reviews of both books are here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...