Administrative Aspects of Investment-Based Social Security Reform

It's immediately apparent that Daniel Thayne is rapidly losing interest in Keiko Harada, his divorced Japanese girlfriend. Whether it's her Mickey Mouse socks or her cryptic take on the Queen's English, his tetchy disapproval of her foibles is symptomatic of his far-from-ideal situation as an English teacher working illegally in a school that cannot or will not pay him. To make matters worse he has lost his passport, and to make matters worse again, Keiko's family have decided that the time is right to convince Daniel that he and their daughter would make the perfect married couple. Daniel's unenviable and lonely existence is brought to life superbly and it's difficult not to empathize with this young man whose ambitions are no loftier than getting together enough money to travel more and maybe get a lucky break as a photographer. No such luck for the likeable central character, though, as he wanders like the perennial outsider through a claustrophobic Tokyo, with its rickety buildings and relentless downpours. His unaffectionate attitude towards his students and their reasons for learning English is tainted further by his endless, fruitless attempts to extract his wages from the odious Mrs Chiba. When a painfully awful night out with a freeloading Australian makes matters even worse for the penniless ex-pat, it would seem that things could only get better. Then he discovers that Keiko is pregnant and her family is intent on exerting a nightmarish vice-like grip on his life. Matthew Kneale is probably best known for English Passengers, which won him the 2000 Whitbread Book of the Year as well as being shortlisted for the Booker Prize. This novel, his first, was originally published in 1987 as Whore Banquets and deservedly won him a Somerset Maugham Award the following year. Highly recommended to fans of the sophisticated comic novel. (Kirkus UK)