A young Belgian woman begins her working life at a company in Tokyo. An ironic and sharp look at the differences between East and West.
This novel, with a declared autobiographical charge and an impressive success in France since its release, tells the story of a 22-year-old Belgian woman, Amélie, who starts working in Tokyo at one of the world’s largest companies, Yumimoto, the quintessence of Japanese corporations. With astonishment and trembling: this is how the Emperor of the Rising Sun demanded his subjects to present themselves before him. In today’s highly hierarchical Japan (where every superior is, first and foremost, the subordinate of another), Amélie, burdened by the double handicap of being both a woman and a Westerner, lost in an anthill of bureaucrats and also captivated by the very Japanese beauty of her direct superior, with whom she has a frankly perverse relationship, suffers a cascade of humiliations. Absurd tasks, insane orders, repetitive chores, grotesque humiliations, thankless, inept, or delirious missions, sadistic bosses: young Amélie starts in accounting, then moves on to serving coffee, to the photocopier, and, descending the steps of dignity (though with a very zen detachment), ends up taking care of the... men’s restrooms.
