Tokyo Bay Traffic, set in a geographically extended Tokyo, follows three characters through the illusory world of Tokyo’s hostess clubs and a newly built theme park, Fresh Style New York (F.S.N.Y).

Kang, a hard-working accountant,  directed by an undefined desire to escape his everyday drudgery, convinces a colleague to accompany him to an avant-garde strip club in F.S.N.Y, a theme park on a man-made island off the coast of Tokyo. The performances he sees at the club obsess Kang and he returns losing himself on the island’s deserted areas.

Livia, daughter of an American GI and a Japanese army base hostess, has only recently left her Okinawan hometown in search of a better life in Tokyo. She quickly finds work in F.S.N.Y., choreographing dances and performing at the Club of the Perfect Fragment. In the early morning hours both Kang and Livia are audience to an unorthodox performance on a deserted city corner: an old bum repeatedly inflates nude play-dolls until they burst. Kang is driven to pick up the pieces.

Then there is Ki-ku-ko, the one-eyed hostess, who approaches every situation like an improvisation. Like a performance artist, Ki-ku-ko develops multiple personas. Either she’s working in disguise as Jaki-O at the hostess club Fu-fu’s (Feline Unlimited) or she’s experimenting with customers in her one-bedroom apartment.

At the heart of the novel is Tokyo Bay itself, its polluted waters harboring an elusive flotilla: boats rocking with a group of illicit pleasure seekers.

Tokyo Bay Traffic (Red Hen Press 2007)
ISBN: 978-1-59709-690-4

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Red Hen Press: https://redhen.org/book/tokyo-bay-traffic/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/Tokyo-Bay-Traffic-Cecile-Rossant/dp/1597096903

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