Book review: The Method Actors

My friend Matt (you can find his picture in previous blog entries) kept telling me to read The Method Actors by Carl Shuker. He described it as a “Lost in Translation for the noir crowd.” I didn’t think I would like it and I put off reading it, but The Method Actors surprised me. I'd say it's a blend of postmodern chic, comedy, and mystery. There’s no Scarlet Johansen-esque character, which I thought unfortunate, but I guess it was written before the movie actually came out.

The Method Actors is made up of stories of different expats living in Tokyo, in an out-of-order way that I expected to be be frustrating. Once I got used to it, I wound up enjoying it so much that I'm considering re-reading it. The scenes involving psychedelic mushrooms were my favorite. You'd think that all the bits of esoterica would make it dense and difficult, but somehow it manages to entertain all the way through.