Gina in the Floating World
Gina in the Floating World
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Summary
When naïve but ambitious Midwesterner Dorothy Falwell accepts the help of a wealthy customer at the Tokyo bar where she works as a hostess, she lands on a twisted road in her own version of Oz, where unorthodox Zen instruction, erotic art, and kinky sex cause her moral compass to go so haywire that working as a prostitute feels normal and the way home, unimaginable.
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Gina in the Floating World by Belle Brett
A bank internship in Japan’s booming 1981 economy is supposed to be twenty-three-year-old Dorothy Falwell’s ticket into a prestigious international MBA program. But the internship is unpaid—so, to make ends meet, she accepts an evening job as a hostess in a rundown suburban bar, a far cry from the sensuous woodblock prints she’s seen of old Tokyo’s “floating world.” Like her namesake, Dorothy hasn't planned on the detours she encounters in her own twisted version of Oz. Renamed Gina by her boss, she struggles with nightly indignities from customers and confusing advice from new friends. Then her internship crumbles and the suave but mysterious Mr. Tambuki offers help. How can she resist? With patience and the utmost respect for her opinions, Mr. Tambuki lures her into his exotic world of unorthodox Zen instruction, erotic art, and high-octane sex. Soon, bizarre sexual escapades with monks, salarymen, and gangsters begin to feel normal until one of her clients goes too far, and Dorothy realizes she’s in over her head. But can she find her way back from this point of no return?
2019 International Book Awards, Finalist, Fiction: Cross Genre
2019 IBPA Ben Franklin Awards Finalist in Best New Voice: Fiction
2018 Sarton Women's Book Awards Finalist in Contemporary Fiction
“Brett’s engaging and compulsively readable debut traces one woman’s erotic coming-of-age in a frank, intelligent manner…A sharply observed and unforgettable debut.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This is a promising start for a writer to watch.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In this erotic thriller, Gina, a midwestern innocent, fights temptation as she falls into the underbelly of Tokyo’s nightlife, where a stew of high culture, quick money, love, and lust threatens to drown her, leaving the reader hot to know what happens next.”
—E.B. Moore, author of Stones in the Road and An Unseemly Wife
“In this unique coming of age story set in 1981, Dorothy, a good Midwestern girl, plans to attend Wharton but finds herself working as a hostess named Gina in Tokyo to pay the bills. Like Dorothy in Oz, she meets unexpected people and gets into situations more outlandish than she could’ve imagined. Brett’s debut is inventive, funny, and authentic in its depiction of how life’s surprises, even unpleasant ones, can shape the course of a life.”
—Stephanie Gayle, author of Idyll Threats and Idyll Fears
“Belle Brett’s wise and gorgeous novel of self-discovery takes us on a journey through Japan’s floating world, a land where evening is morning, life is art, and an aspiring MBA student named Dorothy becomes Gina, a woman with the courage to explore her darkest erotic desires.”
—Donna George Storey, author of Amorous Woman
“Belle Brett's debut sears, holding readers captive inside a world of vamped up whiskey nights. Brilliant, sexy, and sincere, Gina in the Floating World goes all the way. . . and then some. Brett's talent is clearly matchless.”
—Michael Graves, author of Parade and Dirty One
2019 IBPA Ben Franklin Awards Finalist in Best New Voice: Fiction
2018 Sarton Women's Book Awards Finalist in Contemporary Fiction
“Brett’s engaging and compulsively readable debut traces one woman’s erotic coming-of-age in a frank, intelligent manner…A sharply observed and unforgettable debut.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“This is a promising start for a writer to watch.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In this erotic thriller, Gina, a midwestern innocent, fights temptation as she falls into the underbelly of Tokyo’s nightlife, where a stew of high culture, quick money, love, and lust threatens to drown her, leaving the reader hot to know what happens next.”
—E.B. Moore, author of Stones in the Road and An Unseemly Wife
“In this unique coming of age story set in 1981, Dorothy, a good Midwestern girl, plans to attend Wharton but finds herself working as a hostess named Gina in Tokyo to pay the bills. Like Dorothy in Oz, she meets unexpected people and gets into situations more outlandish than she could’ve imagined. Brett’s debut is inventive, funny, and authentic in its depiction of how life’s surprises, even unpleasant ones, can shape the course of a life.”
—Stephanie Gayle, author of Idyll Threats and Idyll Fears
“Belle Brett’s wise and gorgeous novel of self-discovery takes us on a journey through Japan’s floating world, a land where evening is morning, life is art, and an aspiring MBA student named Dorothy becomes Gina, a woman with the courage to explore her darkest erotic desires.”
—Donna George Storey, author of Amorous Woman
“Belle Brett's debut sears, holding readers captive inside a world of vamped up whiskey nights. Brilliant, sexy, and sincere, Gina in the Floating World goes all the way. . . and then some. Brett's talent is clearly matchless.”
—Michael Graves, author of Parade and Dirty One
Belle Brett is a graduate of Grub Street’s intensive Novel Incubator program. After a career in education as a teacher, career counselor, and evaluator of educational programs, she is now an artist and a writer, contributing to her own and others’ blogs and writing fiction that deals with coming of age across the life span. She holds a doctorate of education in human development and psychology from Harvard University. A lifelong traveler, in her twenties Belle served as a bar hostess in a working-class Tokyo suburb after a six-month trip across Asia. She now lives with her photographer husband in Somerville, Massachusetts. Gina in the Floating World is her first novel.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781631524073 |
| ISBN 10 | 1631524070 |
| Title | Gina in the Floating World |
| Author | Belle Brett |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | She Writes Press |
| Year published | 2018-11-08 |
| Number of pages | 328 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |