Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman

"Sumie Kawakami is an experienced and intelligent reporter who manages to get her subjects to bare their souls and share their anxieties in a book I found hard to put down. " -- Jeff Kingston, The Japan Times"Kawakami presents a frank portrait of Japanese women today, via these compulsively readable, expertly crafted essays. Further kudos should go to Yuko Enomoto for her seamless translation." -- Suzanne Kamata, author of "Losing Kei""A tartly written, stereotype-blasting and beautifully made book." -- Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica "Refreshingly intense" -- Colleen Mondor Bookslut

"Smart and lively and thoughtful and moving, like a good Studs Terkel without encyclopedic pretensions." -- Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, author of the best-selling "A Series of Unfortunate Events"

"Full of rich details of contemporary Japan ... in the end readers should understand why Madame Butterfly no longer exists. Or perhaps never existed at all." -- Todd Shimoda author of "The Fourth Treasure" and "365 Views of Mt. Fuji"