An assistant professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, Allison worked as a hostess in a Tokyo club, where she examined how the rituals of a hostess define gender identities in Japan. Allison combines feminism with Asian studies in her examination of night work. Japanese corporations bond their white- collar workers to the company with after-hours drinking sessions that employees are expected to attend—and their wives to allow. Allison partially criticizes her subjects, who justify these sessions as part of their culture. As she digs into their points of view, she tells us, ``My goal here is to lay out the cultural ideas that support corporate entertainment by framing and legitimizing it as cultural custom.'' As far as possible, she ``lets the voices of Japanese speak for themselves.'' Men often come to these bondings ``straight from work, tired, uptight, and insecure.'' As part of the corporate life, bonding is work, even though it is made to seem like nonwork. The hostess's job is to create a warm, pleasant atmosphere and lively discussion. Even so, she can also ``be insulted, ignored, and walked away from [and] `put in her place' by the men for whom she's lighting cigarettes, pouring drinks, and instigating conversation. She is lectured, her appearance is evaluated and criticized, her body is ogled and pawed....'' Allison describes the Japanese take on the meaning and place of work; the family and home; male play with money, women, and sex; male rituals of masculinity; and the ways in which white-collar workers are impotent. After retirement, deprived of the money for expensive booze and hostesses, the poor male finds himself in a reverse role, ruled by the absolute master of domestic space, his wife. Serious anthropology but also much like a long night out, expenses paid.
Pub Date: April 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-226-01485-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
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