The Many Roads to Japan tells the story of the adventures of a conscientious objector who had to follow many twists and turns in his life journey before finding his niche in Japan. Suitable for low... More > intermediate level and above ESL students. An excellent resource for peace education studies, too.
"The Many Roads to Japan influenced my students a lot, not only in studying English but also in searching for their own identities and thinking about how to live their lives." -- Kazuyo Yamane, Peace Studies lecturer at Kochi University
"Norris's story of a symbolic life is a gift from his own experience, and it gives us something good, meaningful, and inspiring.... The comprehension questions, exercises, and discussion/essay questions are quite useful in helping Japanese students to think in English and in encouraging them to express themselves in English as well. This is the ideal textbook." -- Professor Kazushige Sagawa, Aoyama Gakuin University< Less
The Kobe-Osaka area in 1983. A 33-year-old American drifter and Vietnam War veteran has just arrived in Japan seeking one more adventure and an escape from his past. A promiscuous, rebellious,... More > 23-year-old Japanese woman has just returned from a two-year homestay in a Canadian mission, where she was sent by her parents to cure her suicidal behavior. A snobbish, upper-class, 22-year-old Japanese woman who cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality is about to graduate from university and enter the frightening world of adulthood. Three people searching for a place to belong. Three people dancing on a psychological highwire. Three people about to become enmeshed in a relationship that will change each of their lives forever.
"Goes beyond the gaijin experience...evokes the rootlessness felt by young Japanese uncertain about their future."--The Japan Times
"Crafted in excellent style and patiently honed...the Japanese characters are wholly convincing."--Kansai Time Out Magazine< Less
David Thompson is a former Vietnam War conscientious objector in Paris on a quest to find himself in the early days of 1977. When he befriends an Iranian and an Afghan and is invited to return with... More > them to their countries, his quest slowly becomes a descent into his own personal hell.
On the road from Europe to the East he encounters Kurdish bandits in the eastern mountains of Turkey, becomes involved with an underground group opposed to the Shah in Iran, escapes to Afghanistan, and later suffers extreme sickness on the streets of Delhi and Calcutta. Although continually searching for the happiness and identity he could not find in the U.S., he cannot easily shed his American past. Throughout the journey he is hounded by the demons of memory, particularly that of his father, a World War Two hero who disowned David and died while David was still in prison. The journey itself becomes a physical manifestation of his struggle to achieve reconciliation with his own conscience.< Less
The Many Roads to Japan tells the story of the adventures of a conscientious objector who had to follow many twists and turns in his life journey before finding his niche in Japan. Suitable for low... More > intermediate level and above ESL students. An excellent resource for peace education studies, too.
"The Many Roads to Japan influenced my students a lot, not only in studying English but also in searching for their own identities and thinking about how to live their lives." -- Kazuyo Yamane, Peace Studies lecturer at Kochi University
"Norris's story of a symbolic life is a gift from his own experience, and it gives us something good, meaningful, and inspiring.... The comprehension questions, exercises, and discussion/essay questions are quite useful in helping Japanese students to think in English and in encouraging them to express themselves in English as well. This is the ideal textbook." -- Professor Kazushige Sagawa, Aoyama Gakuin University< Less
David Thompson is a former Vietnam War conscientious objector in Paris on a quest to find himself in the early days of 1977. When he befriends an Iranian and an Afghan and is invited to return with... More > them to their countries, his quest slowly becomes a descent into his own personal hell.
On the road from Europe to the East he encounters Kurdish bandits in the eastern mountains of Turkey, becomes involved with an underground group opposed to the Shah in Iran, escapes to Afghanistan, and later suffers extreme sickness on the streets of Delhi and Calcutta. Although continually searching for the happiness and identity he could not find in the U.S., he cannot easily shed his American past. Throughout the journey he is hounded by the demons of memory, particularly that of his father, a World War Two hero who disowned David and died while David was still in prison. The journey itself becomes a physical manifestation of his struggle to achieve reconciliation with his own conscience.< Less
An hallucinogenic mid-life crisis/adventure, and homage to Malcolm Lowry and Hermann Hesse. An American expatriate and his Japanese wife set out on a journey to Europe to retrace a path from his... More > youth. What lies ahead--a trip through the Magic Theater, a sudden death, an encounter with Lowry's ghost, and a descent into the Capuchin Crypt in Rome--will change their lives irrevocably.
"A journey in miles and of states of mind. The reader travels through Europe with an American expatriate who recapitulates his past in a transcendental and evocative fashion.... An insightful and very enjoyable read."--David Echt, author of Messenger from the Summer of Love.< Less
The Kobe-Osaka area in 1983. A 33-year-old American drifter and Vietnam War veteran has just arrived in Japan seeking one more adventure and an escape from his past. A promiscuous, rebellious,... More > 23-year-old Japanese woman has just returned from a two-year homestay in a Canadian mission, where she was sent by her parents to cure her suicidal behavior. A snobbish, upper-class, 22-year-old Japanese woman who cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality is about to graduate from university and enter the frightening world of adulthood. Three people searching for a place to belong. Three people dancing on a psychological highwire. Three people about to become enmeshed in a relationship that will change each of their lives forever.
"Goes beyond the gaijin experience...evokes the rootlessness felt by young Japanese uncertain about their future."--The Japan Times
"Crafted in excellent style and patiently honed...the Japanese characters are wholly convincing."--Kansai Time Out Magazine< Less
About Robert Norris
Robert W. Norris was born and raised in Humboldt County, California, where he played basketball in high school and junior college. In 1969 he entered the Air Force, subsequently became a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, and served time in a military prison for refusing to fight in the war. In his twenties he roamed across the United States, went to Europe twice, and made one journey around the world. During that time, he worked as a millhand, construction laborer, stevedore, mailman, baker, saute cook, and oilrig steward.
Norris has lived and taught English in Japan since 1983. He has an M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Newport University in Newport Beach, California. He is the author of three novels, a novella used as an ESL textbook, and several articles on teaching English. He and his wife live near Fukuoka, Japan, where he is a professor at Fukuoka International University.
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