Turning Japanese

by MariNaomi

Overview

MariNaomi’s newest graphic novel tours the mid-90’s US and Japanese illegal hostess bar scene and her own personal cultural awakening.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781937541163
Publisher:	2dcloud
Publication date:	05/10/2016
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

MariNaomi (she/they) is the award-winning author and illustrator of Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0 to 22 (Harper Perennial, 2011), Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories (2dcloud/Uncivilized Books, 2014), Turning Japanese (2dcloud, 2016), I Thought YOU Hated ME (Retrofit Comics, 2016), the Life on Earth trilogy (Graphic Universe, 2018-2020), and Dirty Produce (Workman Publishing, Nov. 2021). Their work has appeared in over eighty print publications and has been featured on websites such as The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, The Rumpus, LA Review of Books, Midnight Breakfast and BuzzFeed, and has been translated into French (Devenir Japonaise, Editions IMHO, Feb. 2021) and Russian.

MariNaomi’s comics and paintings have been featured in the Smithsonian, the de Young Museum, the Cartoon Art Museum, the Asian Art Museum, and the Japanese American Museum.

In 2011 and 2018, Mari toured with the literary roadshow Sister Spit. They are the founder and administrator of the Cartoonists of Color Database, the Queer Cartoonists Database, and the Disabled Cartoonists Database. They have taught classes for the California College of the Arts Comics MFA program, and was a guest editor for PEN Illustrated. They were cohost of the Ask Bi Grlz podcast with author Myriam Gurba.

MariNaomi lives in Southern California with their spouse and a menagerie of rescue cats, dogs, and butterfly babies.

Editorial Reviews

04/18/2016
Graphic memoirist MariNaomi (Kiss and Tell) explores a chunk of her 20s in the 1990s, spent working in hostess bars in California and Japan while traveling with her then-fiancé, Giuseppe. Naomi’s off-the-cuff, thoughtful anecdotes look at a sometimes banal, sometimes frightening social space. It’s not exactly sex work, but hostess work leans on the same idea: making male clients feel important and desired. Naomi’s simple, brush-drawn artwork tells the story clearly with a breezy tone, though the images’ starkness causes occasional narrative confusion. Naomi deals with the nuances of being hapa, half white and half Japanese, while trying to get her mother to speak Japanese with her. After some time, Naomi suffers an anxiety attack from the constant harassment at her job. Threads around anxiety and racial identity culminate in a thoughtful scene in which Naomi visits an ancient temple known to hold a balming effect for travelers. This book has something of the same effect in its exploration of the many complexities of identity and romance. (May)

Publishers Weekly

2016-03-01
The rite-of-passage chronicles of the artist at age 22, coming to terms with her ethnic heritage. A virtuosic comic artist whose slapdash introspection is occasionally reminiscent of Lynda Barry, MariNaomi (Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume, Ages 0-22, 2011, etc.) tells a story here that is both singular and universal, sure to resonate most strongly with females facing similar challenges of young adulthood. It takes place in 1995, beginning and ending with the breakup of a relationship, while the pages in between detail a relationship that almost became a marriage. After leaving San Francisco for San Jose—"I needed to clear my head and reboot, so I chose to do so more than fifty miles away"—she quickly became involved with her co-worker Giuseppe after both had confided about their history of broken relationships. Though she says that the common bond was that they were "both sluts," promiscuity didn't seem to be an issue during their year together. Instead, they faced challenges from a number of low-paying jobs, the ethnic divide between his Italian culture and her Japanese-American one, and an extended visit to Japan, where they realized that their impulsive decision to become engaged was likely a mistake. The author's pilgrimage toward cultural illumination began when she stumbled into a job as a hostess at a Japanese-American bar, where the young women competed for tips and at least one was a borderline prostitute. She wondered why her mother had never bothered to teach her Japanese, and she enlisted her fiance to accompany her to Tokyo, where a visitor's visa would allow her to reunite with her extended family and immerse herself in their culture. By the time she returned, her perspective on her Japanese heritage had shifted: "The cultural divide was much deeper than I'd thought possible." This third volume of memoir reads like a chapter in an ongoing series, leading readers to anticipate what comes next.

Kirkus Reviews

"In Turning Japanese, Mari’s unflinching honesty, open heart, and hard-earned wisdom challenges us to embrace the unexpected detours that unfold in our own lives."

Yumi Sakugawa