{"product_id":"cherry-whip-9781069096579","title":"Cherry Whip","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe poignant and hilarious tale of a Japanese musician's struggles with genius and illness in a vividly realized New York City.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the moment the deeply eccentric Hiroshi, a budding Japanese jazz genius, hits American ground, the ground starts hitting back with everything it's got -- just as he is to begin a high-profile gig that promises to make his career.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHiroshi's experiences in New York are exhilarating and humiliating, thrilling and traumatic in equal measure. As the quirky, disaster-prone, and language- and music-obsessed artist struggles to recover both emotionally and physically from a paralyzing illness that may render him unable to ever again play his clarinet, he must also cope with the long-distance betrayal of his beautiful girlfriend and with his sublimated guilt over his role in the death of his sister many years ago, at the dusty end of a mysterious route she called \"The Forbidden Pathway\" in the tiny country town in Japan where they grew up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis seriocomic novel, densely populated with quirky characters, is a love letter to New York City and to the English language. It also shines a spotlight on one fairly peculiar corner of the Japanese sensibility embodied in its hyperconscious but absentminded, sensual but abstracted, intelligent but terribly innocent hero, a Japanese Lucky Jim, who comes to terms with becoming an adult and respecting his gifts against the dual backgrounds of a mysterious pathway in Japan, which now exists only in his memory, and what he lovingly describes as \"the filthy charm of New York City,\" in the only too-real present day.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Donovan Street Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52078242955538,"sku":"9781069096579","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_2ebefc29-f96d-4a70-b37a-821c93ab4481.jpg?v=1772538020","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/cherry-whip-9781069096579","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}