Rejection Letters The scene takes place in the late 1970s in Yokohama, Japan. In those days, mail carriers delivered rejection letters by hand. 1 My name is Charles Borromeo, and I have lived in Japan for over fifty years. I’m 80 years old, and in a short time, I will die in a country whose …
I have lived in Yokohama for over 50 years. I am in my eighties, and in a short time, I shall die in a country whose language I never mastered. (excerpt from The Dead Enjoy Eating, Too (2023)) In the early 1960s, I dreamed of moving to Europe to follow in the footsteps of the …
Tammachi Park is a brisk fifteen-minute walk from my apartment in Yokohama. I often walk through it on my way to a supermarket. Once in a while, I sit on a park bench and read. When I grow weary of reading, I observe vignettes of life unfolding in front of me. A mother watching her …
The world has turned upside down. War in Ukraine. A civil war in Ethiopia. A proxy war in Yemen. Repression in Myanmar. So many people are suffering external physical and mental duress. But then there are individuals who experience mental disorders caused by psychic pressures or by sexual abuse. The three major characters in the …