Samari Shelby grows up in La Jolla, an affluent Southern California beach town. She is your typical surf rat but at the age of seventeen, turns her surfboard in for a pair of toe shoes. Too old to be a ballet dancer, she opts for being a chorus girl, and ends up traveling the world in a variety of different shows. In Japan, one of the clubs turns out to be Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) where she witnesses shocking violence as well as girls being held against their will, addicted to shabu (Japan's super meth). Desperate to get out, she finally finds work in a legitimate club where Yakuza are not allowed entry. It is there she meets the inimitable Haruto, a charismatic, rich man who dazzles her with his individualistic style. Even though her intuition tells her the relationship is unsustainable (the cultural divide is too wide, and he has a temper), she really does love and adore Haruto, and ends up ambivalently marrying him. But gradually the marriage unravels: Haruto is never home, he has a "second wife," and even more troublesome, he begins to beat her. She knows she needs to get out, but feels stuck--stuck by her alcoholism.
It started off innocently enough: hitting the international night club scene to speak English, drinking moderately. But gradually, she succumbs to drinking ludicrously large amounts of alcohol and realizes not a day goes by without the ubiquitous hangover. Yet even in her drunken malaise, she knows she needs to get out of Japan to save her soul if possibly not her life. She begins to plot ways to escape her wretched existence, but her plans are abruptly thwarted by Haruto.
Samari has written a bold, brutally honest book with a unique voice. Her book will give you an inside peak into the underbelly of Japanese society, as well as the world of the elite: She's either at Haruto's side, rubbing elbows with Japan's gentry, or snorting lines of shabu in janky joints.
Samari lets us know what typical life is for many gaijins (slang for outsider, mainly used for Caucasians), and lots about Japan's underground culture.
This book is a tragicomedy that will break your heart when you're not laughing at Samari's crazy antics.
Anyone that has a problem with alcohol can be helped by reading Samari's circuitous journey to recovery. She unequivocally feels if she can stop drinking, anyone can.
