{"product_id":"cherry-whip-paperback","title":"Cherry Whip - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe poignant and hilarious tale of a Japanese musician's struggles with genius and illness in a vividly realized New York City.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the moment the deeply eccentric Hiroshi, a budding Japanese jazz genius, hits American ground, the ground starts hitting back with everything it's got -- just as he is to begin a high-profile gig that promises to make his career.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHiroshi's experiences in New York are exhilarating and humiliating, thrilling and traumatic in equal measure. As the quirky, disaster-prone, and language- and music-obsessed artist struggles to recover both emotionally and physically from a paralyzing illness that may render him unable to ever again play his clarinet, he must also cope with the long-distance betrayal of his beautiful girlfriend and with his sublimated guilt over his role in the death of his sister many years ago, at the dusty end of a mysterious route she called \"The Forbidden Pathway\" in the tiny country town in Japan where they grew up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis seriocomic novel, densely populated with quirky characters, is a love letter to New York City and to the English language. It also shines a spotlight on one fairly peculiar corner of the Japanese sensibility embodied in its hyperconscious but absentminded, sensual but abstracted, intelligent but terribly innocent hero, a Japanese Lucky Jim, who comes to terms with becoming an adult and respecting his gifts against the dual backgrounds of a mysterious pathway in Japan, which now exists only in his memory, and what he lovingly describes as \"the filthy charm of New York City,\" in the only too-real present day.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50102210461919,"sku":"9781069096579","price":23.02,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/RDiV2tiYkC9781069096579.webp?v=1781079148","url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/products\/cherry-whip-paperback","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}