（続）リアルTOEIC 著者のブックツアー

日曜日に紹介させていただいたBarry Lancetさんの話を聞いてきました。動画は昨年のものです。写真ではスリラー作家のようにかっこいい感じに映っていましたが、実際は動画のようにやさしい感じの方でした。

Japantownという本が昨年発売されていたのを知っていましたが、てっきり日本をよく知らない作家が書いているものだと思ってスルーしていました。ところがLancetさんは英文書籍を扱っていた講談社インターナショナルに長らく勤めていた方でさまざまな日本関連本を手がけ、日本語にも堪能でした。

このシリージの面白いところは、他のアメリカ人なら見落としてしまう手がかりを日本に精通している主人公が読み解いていくところにあるようです。日本人英語学習者にも楽しめそうな感じですよね。

BOOKS
Veteran Tokyo editor turns his mind to crime
BY MARK SCHREIBER
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

“For one thing, Brodie (the book’s protagonist) was born in Japan to American parents who were both Caucasian,” he says. “He’s completely fluent in the language, making him an insider who can explain the country in terms that outsiders can understand.”


しかし何と言っても、ロストやスタートレックが有名なJ. J AbramsがJapantownのテレビ放映権を獲得したことでしょうか。Lancetさんの話によると、もともと日本を題材にしたドラマを探していたが、なかなかいいものに出会えていなかったそうです。

J. J Abramsや講談社インターナショナルの頃の話はTokyo Weekenderの記事にも出ていました。講談社インターナショナルは2011年に解散したのですが、作家デビューの後押しとなったようです。

Author Barry Lancet Talks about the Inspiration for His “Japantown” Thriller Series
Arts Japanese culture - July 19th, 2014

Mixing high culture with the seedy shadow side of the societies of Japan and the US, Japantown found a rapt audience even before it hit the shelves: the novel was reprinted three times before it was released, and once more one week after publication. Abrams, the director, writer and producer behind the recent Star Trek reboots and the immensely popular TV series Lost, has plans to turn the books into a television series through his production company, Bad Robot.

But between the interrogation session at that police station and the overnight success of his first novel, there were two decades of work as an editor with the Japanese publishing house, Kodansha International. Lancet commissioned and organized book projects for projects such as high-end cookbooks, studies of Asian philosophy, and others; this experience is part of what gives his fictional hero his deep knowledge of Japanese culture. As he explains, the novel itself took a long time to write: he jotted down ideas while on daily commutes and weekends, but chose to stay away from editing fiction at his day job. It was the closing of Kodansha that gave him the push to give the writing a solid year, but his advice for any budding writer is to keep at their projects every day, “even if it’s for five minutes in any given day.”

早くもシリーズ化され、4冊目まで契約をし、3冊目が来年11月に出るそうです。短期間で注目を浴びるようになりましたが、これは長い間の編集経験が生きているとJapan Timesの記事で話しています。作風についてもいろいろな試行錯誤の末に見つけたもののようです。

BOOKS
Veteran Tokyo editor turns his mind to crime
BY MARK SCHREIBER
SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

Lancet credits his previous career as an editor at Kodansha International in Tokyo for giving him a wide range of exposure to Asian history and culture.

“Over the years I edited, acquired and developed dozens of works on art, history, Asian philosophy and other nonfiction books. I was able to meet experts in the field, go behind closed doors and delve deeply into many facets of the culture.”

He can’t say exactly how long it took him to write his first book.

“I was searching for my voice and the best way to tell the story. The first version was hardboiled, the second medium with punch, and the third and final incarnation was — and still is — a mystery-thriller with an edge. But the main thing is, I plugged away until I found a tone and an angle that met my vision.”

Tokyo Kill: A Thriller (A Jim Brodie Novel) (2014/09/09) Barry Lancet 商品詳細を見る

最新作Tokyo Killが発売されたばかりなんですが、表紙に隅田川とスカイツリーが描かれています。この本の評価がどうなるにしろ、表紙にスカイツリーが初めて描かれた本として歴史に名を刻むことになるとユーモアたっぷりに語っていました。

ミーハー全開で恥ずかしいですが、JJ Abramsが放映権を獲得したと聞いてJapantownを読み始めました（苦笑）最初の部分を試し読みできます。主人公の生い立ちが分かるところです。absorbed the language and culture like a spongeなんてのは日本語と同じ比喩ですね。



4分２５秒あたりから

I was the go-to guy for the SFPD on anything Japanese—even though my name is Jim Brodie, I'm six-one, a hundred-ninety pounds, and have black hair and blue eyes. And I'm Caucasian.

The connection? I'd spent the first seventeen years of my life in Tokyo, where I was born to a rugged Irish-American father, who lived and breathed law enforcement, and a more delicate American mother, who loved art. Money was tight, so I attended local schools instead of one of the exorbitant American international facilities and absorbed the language and culture like a sponge.

Along the way, I picked up karate and judo from two of the top masters in the Japanese capital, and thanks to my mother got my first peek at the fascinating world of Japanese art.

What drew my parents to the far side of the Pacific was the U.S. Army. Jake, my father, headed up a squad of MPs in charge of security for Western Tokyo, then worked for the LAPD. But he took orders badly so he eventually returned to Tokyo, where he set up the city's first American-style PI/security firm.

JapantownとTokyo Kill、２冊読み終わったらまたご報告させていただくかもしれません。