This is probably the first time I have been disappointed by a French writer, especially after I found her first book, "Hygiene and the Assassin" incredibly well written and shocking and that fact truly raised my expectations for her other books. Yet, "Fear and Trembling" did nothing except to annoy me up to its last page. Written in 1999, seven years after Nothomb's literary debut, this short novel is supposed to be about her less than positive cultural experience in Japan. But it is not. In fact, all I could grasp was this masochistic side the main character showed towards any Japanese person she encountered. There was too much humility from the main character's part to be able to somehow sympathize with her.
Life reduced to happily scrubbing toilets.
P.S. The book received le Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française in 1999, so you may give it a try, maybe you will find the story amusing.
P.P.S. The woman on the cover is Amelie...
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