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Fear and Trembling [Paperback]

Amélie Nothomb (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Book Description

Publication Date: 19 Aug 2004

'Ingenious . . . With great delicacy, Nothomb updates the age-old divide between East and West in this delectable little book.' O, The Oprah Magazine

Amélie, a well-intentioned and eager young westerner, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land where she was born is the fulfilment of a dream for Amélie, but once there her working life quickly becomes a comic nightmare of terror and self-abasement. Disturbing, hilarious and totally convincing, Fear and Trembling displays an elegant and shrewd understanding of the intricate ways in which Japanese relationships are made and spoiled.

'A vituperatively funny attack on an alien culture.' Daily Telegraph

'Nothomb is the latest enfant terrible of French letters - she has an acidic yet passionately romantic view of human nature.' Elle

'A scathingly funny novella.' Newsday

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Product details

  • Paperback: 144 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber (19 Aug 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0571220487
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571220489
  • Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 18,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Authors

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Adriana Hunter
Amélie Nothomb

Product Description

Review

"'Ingenious... With great delicacy, Nothomb updates the age-old divide between East and West in this delectable little book.' O, The Oprah Magazine; 'Nothomb is the latest enfant terrible of French letters... She has an acidic yet passionately romantic view of human nature.' Elle"

About the Author

Belgian by nationality, Amélie Nothomb was born in Kobe, Japan, and currently lives in Paris. Described by Time Magazine as 'prolific and ingenious', she is the best-selling author of thirteen novels, translated into thirty languages. Fear and Trembling won the Grand Prix of the Académie Française and the Prix Internet du Livre. The Book of Proper Names was originally published in France, as Robert Des Noms Propres, where it has sold over 250,000 copies.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars The Revenge of the Loo Brush 7 April 2012
By Antenna TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
"Fear and trembling" describe the behaviour expected of the Japanese on entering the presence of their Emperor, when he was still regarded as a living god. These extreme emotions were still found to apply when Amélie Nothomb took up a year's contract in 1990 as a translator in the authoritarian, anti-individualistic, inward-looking Japanese corporation of "Yumimoto". The shattering of her illusions was all the more painful since this young Belgian had lived happily in Japan as a child.

In the semi-autobiographical book based heavily on her experiences, Amelie describes her humiliating descent through a series of tasks, ending up spending months as the lavatory attendant on the forty-fourth floor. The decision to endure this fate rather than resign is her only form of retaliation, since her ludicrous demotion reflects badly on her boss. The only way the other staff can show sympathy, if not solidarity, is by boycotting the loos in her charge.

I was torn between frustration through not knowing how much of this parody is true or just very exaggerated and unsubtle, irritation over Amélie who is clearly a pain in the neck at times and brings some of her troubles upon herself, and a sense of unease over the very negative, one-sided portrayal of the Japanese. Amélie chooses not to mention her life outside work at all, which gave the story a very narrow, claustrophobic quality, which in artistic terms could be thought quite effective.

Nothomb, who is on her own admission quite eccentric and clearly enjoys attention, has become something of a cult novelist with some, but is considered by others to be overrated. I tend to agree with the latter view. In her crude and unhelpful treatment of cultural differences, revenge and self-promotion seem to be the main objectives.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A witty and entertaining novella which is both very readable and thought-provoking 17 May 2012
By Pablo
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fear And Trembling is a delightfully humourous novella which is eminently readable, yet also thought-provoking in a multitude of ways. Semi-autobiographical, it is a first-person narrative of the Japanese corporation through Western eyes. The rigidly hierarchical, authoritarian, racist and sexist Japanese corporation which dominates Japanese society is portrayed with penetrating irony and humour and as such constitutes a insightful, if at times simplistic, analysis of Japanese society. But before Western voices smugly talk about "the age-old divide between East and West" (Oprah Magazine) or an "attack on an alien culture" (Daily Telegraph), I think it's worth pondering the universality of this little book. Over the past century, corporations have increasingly come to dominate societies the world over, and as Joel Bakan has lucidly analysed in 'The Corporation', the corporation is an inherently psychopathic entity. We can laugh at the Japanese executive who names his son 'work' in Japanese, but the Japanese are by no means the only wage-slaves. Nor is workplace bullying and sexism confined to Japan. Corporations dominate the lives of people both humane and inhumane, intelligent and stupid, the world over. Amélie's eventual fate as a lavatory cleaner can be seen as a metaphor for the price of non-conformism in any contemporary society. Fear And Trembling is thus also a penetrating indictment of corporate society per se. As for those who talk of Nothomb as "over-rated", this concept implies a consensus about literature which thankfully doesn't exist, moribund academics notwithstanding. For me personally Fear And Trembling is a wonderful book. Highly recommended.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing 19 Mar 2006
By Ralph Blumenau TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
I have never been to Japan and have no idea whether Amélie Nothomb’s picture of Japanese corporate society is correct - but if it is, it is a horrifying one: sadistically hierarchical, where no one can expect any pleasure, can hope only to avoid shame, and where the expectation for women in particular is a life of such artificiality and submission that their only escape could be into a pleasure-less and loveless marriage with some man who is nearly as stunted as she is. A western woman, hoping to work in such an environment for which nothing has prepared her, is likely to be driven mad, to lose all confidence in herself and eventually even to see in her own degradation some kind of liberation: she can hardly fall any lower. She should have been sacked for incompetence, but it is almost impossible for a corporation to sack an employee. As for her, however humiliated she is, she won’t quit herself before her contract was up because she, too, has assumed that quitting is a matter of shame rather than of an assertion of her dignity. (True, she also admits that she already had a martyr-complex.) That, at any rate, is what happens to the Belgian-educated Amélie in this story. The blurbs on the back describe the book as ‘funny’ and ‘hilarious’: I find it hard to enjoy the humour. It is one thing to find Japanese culture alien to that of the west, another to subject it to an attack so savage and unremitting that I think it comes close to racism. Lest we think that Nothomb is merely describing the situation in one particular company from which we should not draw general conclusions about the country as a whole, she drives her point home by saying that Japan was simply ‘an extension of The Company’. That the book has achieved international best-seller status must dismay even those Japanese (and I know some) who are critical of their conformist society.

I have given this book a four star rating for its literary quality. Were the rating to reflect how it made me feel - that is, uneasy and indeed repelled - it would be considerably lower.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars I feel sorry for the company
This is the third review I've written of this book, since Amelie or someone close to her regularly purges all reviews under 4 stars. Ho hum. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jude Austin
5.0 out of 5 stars The Classic Account of Workplace Bullying
Amelie Nothomb lands a job in Tokyo with a major Japanese corporation. The young Belgian has an impeccable background: besides excelling at university, she grew up the child of a... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Christopher H
4.0 out of 5 stars title
Interesting read, written in a very simple and at times childish language, exploring tiny bits of Japanese culture and comparing it, very mildly, with Western culture. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Ms. Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh
5.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to the real world!
Once upon a time, a year after the start of the 1989 Japanese recession, a new employee came to work at the Yumimoto company in Tokyo. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Omnes
5.0 out of 5 stars 'All forms of beauty are poignant. Japanese beauty particularly so'
Amelie Nothomb has a real passion for Japan and the Japanese. Her story of working in Japan is peppered with one failure after another. She just never seems to get it right. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Hazel Danielle Benson
5.0 out of 5 stars Fear and Trembling
I loved this book. Very witty and almost semi-tragic at times. I have been to Japan, but didn't even skirt the surface of the culture not speaking Japanese or being there for any... Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2010 by Rachel EM Firth
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
A humorous yet sensitive observation of cultural differences, conveyed in a charming style of narrative. Read more
Published on 10 July 2010 by W
3.0 out of 5 stars Don't speak too ill of yourself, people will believe you.
A strange little book (132pp), this had me reading compulsively to see where on earth it was going to take me. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2010 by Eileen Shaw
4.0 out of 5 stars My career was in the toilet
Literally, in the bathrooms on the forty-fourth floor of the Yumimoto Corporation. This is some comedown given the narrator's early ambition. Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2009 by Sphex
5.0 out of 5 stars light but profound
This short book manages to be both hilarious and painful and both light and profound - written with a delicate touch but serious in its exploration of ideas.
Published on 30 July 2009 by William Jordan
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