"A head-spinning tale, Sweet Daruma pricks the nerves as much as it delights the imagination." - Japanzine
"Young's novel contains several gigs' worth of material that would go down well on the Tokyo comedy club circuit, especially with a foreign female audience." -Daily Yomiuri
Sweet Daruma, A Japan Satire is a hilarious satirical romp through Japanese pop culture and the twisted politics of English in Japan.
Written by Janice Valerie Young
Cover illustration by Wayne Wilson
Magda is thrilled to leave her globalization-protesting boyfriend in Toronto and head to Tokyo to teach English conversation... or so she thinks. Upon her arrival she is whisked off to save the life of a suicidal salaryman with the help of a strategic idiom. Magda has unwittingly joined the Anne of Grey Tokyo Emergency English Response Team, and she better brush up on her vocabulary in a hurry, because the English emergencies keep coming. Suddently caught up in the politics of English and pop culture in Japan, Magda soon realizes to expect the unexpected. She's now the student--and Japan definitely has a lot to teach.
Recent News
April 2008
Janice in the Toronto Star... Check out the latest interview with Janice in Canada's biggest newspaper.
January 2008
Student days are over! Janice received her MA in Creative Writing from the
University of Canberra.
October 2007
Don't miss Janice's short story The Day Mr. Noda Became Mr. Wong in
Jungle
Crows, A Tokyo Expatriate Anthology.
April 2007
Sweet Daruma is selected as a course text at the University of California Long Beach! Students read the book for the "Comic Spirit" Course in the Department of Comparative World Literature and Classics.
Janice was the guest author in an online chat with students. One student commented: "Sweet Daruma is a delightful read. Being a college student and a young traveler who sometimes feels lost in the vast urban landscape of Los Angeles, I found great courage in Magda's journey as a young woman trying to fit in with a new, strange culture."
January 2007
Read Janice's latest short prose The Cement Ballerina in Inscribed, a great Canadian lit journal.
Check out her 50-word stories on 50 beans and challenge yourself to your own 50-word masterpiece!
