Fear and Trembling: A Novel by Amelie Nothomb, Adriana Hunter (Translator)

From the Publisher

A stunningly funny novel about the gap between East and West, and the story of a young woman who falls straight into it.

Winner of the Grand Prix de l'Academie Franç:aise and the Prix Internet du Livre, this taut tour-de-force of a novel created a sensation in France, where it has sold nearly half a million copies. Fear and Trembling tells the story of Amelie, a young Western woman who spends a year working at a Japanese corporation. She soon learns that at theYumimoto Corporation hierarchy means everything. Keep to your place and you survive; break ranks and you will be broken. The determined but hapless Amelie makes mistake after mistake, not least of which is deigning to sympathize with her immediate superior, the beautiful, efficient, and ice-cold Miss Mori. A perverse process of ritual humiliation follows. But even as Amelie's life at theYumimoto Corporation spirals inexorably and hilariously downward, what she learns about herself and her colleagues in this brilliant novel will alternately delight and outrage readers. Not since Marguerite Duras has a novelist so indelibly marked the differences between East and West, and with such seductive honesty.

About the Author:
Amelie Nothomb was born in Kobe, Japan and now lives in Paris. Her previous works include The Stranger Next Door and Loving Sabotage.

Le Point

This book is a little miracle. No, forget the `little.' It is a miracle, plain and simple.

O. Magazine

Amelie Nothomb's slim, ingenious novel drops its plucky Belgian heroine, Amelie, into the etiquette-mad hierarchy of Japanese corporate culture.... Amelie's is not a victim's tale but one of transcendence. Every error, every humiliation, becomes an opportunity for spiritual gain, not to mention laugh-out-loud humor laced with surprising pathos. With great delicacy, Nothomb updates the age-old divide between East and West in the delectable little book.

The New York Times Book Review

Nothomb demonstrates a shrewd understanding of the intricate ways Japanese relationships are made and spoiled. And she has the classic Japanese corporation dead to right....rich with authenticity...elegantly written.

The Wall Street Journal

...polished satire...

Newsday

A scathingly funny novella.

Wall Street Journal

A polished little satire.

Publishers Weekly

A sharp, satiric new novel…Readers are sure to be won over by her spare, self-deprecating and wise tale.

Library Journal

An utterly charming, humorous tale of East meets West…Nothomb is a terrific writer whose writing style is simple, honest, and elegant. Very highly recommended.

Elle

Nothomb is the latest enfant terrible of French letters…She has an acidic yet passionately romantic view of human nature.

Los Angeles Times

Amélie Nothomb adds humor, the ingredient most often missing in other writers from France of her generation, the ingredient most difficult to translate.

Kirkus Reviews

Highly entertaining…Fear and Trembling (a perfect title) is filled with both droll observations and wry bitch gags.

New York Times Book Review

Elegantly written…Nothomb demonstrates a shrewd understanding of the intricate ways Japanese relationships are made and spoiled."

Elle Magazine

If you have ever survived a crazy boss who, in trying to destroy you, only made you stronger, then FEAR AND TREMBLING by Amelie Nothomb is for you.

O Magazine

Ingenious...With great delicacy, Nothomb updates the age-old divide between East and West in this delectable little book.

Publishers Weekly

Following on the heels of her American debut (Loving Sabotage), Belgian novelist Nothomb's sharp, satiric new novel--winner of France's Grand Prix de l'Academie Fran aise and the Prix Internet du Livre--revolves around a young Western woman's humiliations at a Tokyo firm. At age 22, Am lie has just landed a bottom-rung job in the import-export division of the powerful Yumimoto Corporation. As a European woman raised partly in Japan, she is at once insider and outsider: she is accused of creating an "appalling tension" by speaking perfect Japanese while serving coffee at a meeting ("How could our business partners have any feeling of trust in the presence of a white girl who understands their language?"), and is ordered to speak only English henceforth. She is awed by her immediate superior, the beautiful and unusually tall Fubuki Mori (whose name means "snowstorm" in Japanese). Fubuki, 29 and still unmarried, has earned her position in the face of debilitating sexism and brutal treatment at the hands of her superiors, especially the ranting, obese Mr. Omochi. Kindly Mr. Tenshi gives Am lie a rare opportunity to prove herself by allowing her to work on an important report; enraged, Fubuki betrays them both, sealing the young girl's fate. Despite her intelligence, Am lie is unable to complete the Sisyphean tasks doled out by her superiors, and Fubuki eventually relegates her to cleaning the rest rooms. Nothomb maintains a humorous and effective detachment throughout--Am lie, for instance, finds comfort in a recurring fantasy of falling through one of the company's 44th-floor windows. Readers are sure to be won over by her spare, self-deprecating and wise tale, which contains many smarting truths about sexism and racism in Japanese society, and even more about the rituals of corporate culture. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Winner of many literary prizes in France, Nothomb (Loving Sabotage, Stranger Next Door) presents an utterly charming, humorous tale of East meets West in her newest novel about a young Belgian woman who works for a year in Japan, a country that she has revered and admired since childhood. At the Yumimoto Corporation, a huge export/import business, the chain of command is made very clear to her on a daily basis, and all initiative is snuffed out. After several crucial errors, our heroine's career ends up in the toilet, literally. Nothomb is a terrific writer whose writing style is simple, honest, and elegant. Very highly recommended for all libraries.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, East Palestine Memorial P.L., OH Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details

• Reading Group Guide
• Read an Excerpt

Reading Group Guide

Alternately disturbing and hilarious, unbelievable and shatteringly convincing, Fear and Trembling will keep readers clutching tight to the pages of this taut little novel, caught up in the throes of fear, trembling, and, ultimately, delight.

Review: "Elegantly written . . . Nothomb demonstrates a shrewd understanding of the intricate ways Japanese relationships are made and spoiled." -The New York Times Book Review

Review: "[A] polished little satire." -The Wall Street Journal

Review: "A scathingly funny novella." -Newsday (New York)

Review: "Am‚lie Nothomb adds humor, the ingredient most often missing in other writers from France of her generation, the ingredient most difficult to translate." -Los Angeles Times

Review: "An utterly charming, humorous tale of East meets West . . . Nothomb is a terrific writer whose writing style is simple, honest, and elegant. Very highly recommended." -Library Journal

Review: "A sharp, satiric new novel . . . Readers are sure to be won over by her spare, self-deprecating and wise tale." -Publishers Weekly

Review: "Highly entertaining . . . Fear and Trembling (a perfect title) is filled with both droll observations and wry bitch gags." -Kirkus Reviews

Review: "There can be no doubt about Am‚lie Nothomb's talent: her imagination, energy, facility, fertility, her edgy use of language all prove that she is a writer of enormous gifts. Her writing is as sharp as a whip, the perfect antidote to sleep-inducing novels. She wakes you up. She shakes you up . . . Fear and Trembling will keep readers entertained and on the edge of their seats until the final page." -Le Figaro

Review: "More than anything this is a beautiful love story-in which Sappho meets the Marquis de Sade." -Le Nouvel Observateur

Review: "Fear and Trembling is Nothomb at her finest. Never has she been so daring or inspired . . . This book is a small miracle. On second thought, no 'small' about it; it is plain and simple a miracle." -Le Point

Discussion Questions:

The novel is a portrait of life in a Japanese office from the point of view of a Westerner. What seems peculiarly "Japanese" about the Yumimoto Corporation, and what things might or might not have happened in a company with headquarters in Chicago or Houston?

The relationship between Amelie and Fubuki Mori is central to the book. Discuss what bonds them and, eventually, what repels them. Are some of these reasons the same?

The novel gradually but inexorably becomes a battle of wills between Amelie and Fubuki, each refusing to back down and admit defeat. At the core is the whole issue of "face," particularly the importance of not losing it. How do you feel "face" relates to what happens in the story?

Amelie wants desperately to become Japanese, according to her definition of what this means. Does she succeed by the end?

Halfway through the novel Amelie provides a long description of what Japanese women have to endure in their culture, and how their quest for perfection both drives and dooms them. Do you think women living in this country - particularly women working within corporate structures - share their dilemmas?

Why is Amelie so drawn to windows? Is she suicidal? And is Amelie a victim or does she bring about her own downfall?

Japanese women are held to high behavioral standards. Are Japanese men held to the same standards? Consider all the men in the novel, from the maniacal bully Mr. Omochi to the saint-like Mr. Saito. Does the strict adherence to hierarchy render them in someway powerless? After all, even the supreme Mister Haneda can only stand aside and let the excruciatingly embarrassing drama between Fubuki Mori and Amelie run its course.

This novel is based on a true story. What do you think the original Miss Mori, whoever and wherever she is, might have felt while reading Fear and Trembling?

About the Author: Belgian by nationality, Amelie Nothomb was born in Kobe, Japan, and currently lives in Paris. She is the author of eight novels, translated into fourteen languages. Fear and Trembling won the Grand Prix of the Academie Francaise and the Prix Internet du Livre.

Read an Excerpt

You could put this another way. I took orders from Miss Mori, who took orders from Mister Salto, and so on up the ladder; of course, orders that came down could jump a level or two.

And so it was that, within the import—export division of the Yumimoto Corporation, I took orders from everyone.

On the 8th of January in 1990 an elevator spat me out on the top floor of a towering Tokyo office building. An enormous bay window at the far end of the landing sucked me over with the irresistible force of a shattered porthole on an airplane. Far, very far, below, I could see the city; it seemed so distant and unreal from that height that suddenly I wasn't sure I had ever even set foot there.

It didn't occur to me that I ought to introduce myself at the reception desk. Actually, at that moment, I didn't have a single thought in my head, nothing aside from fascination with the endless space outside the great bay window.

Eventually a hoarse voice from behind pronounced my name. I turned around. A small, thin, ugly man in his fifties was looking at me irritably.

"Why didn't you let the receptionist know that you'd arrived?" he asked.

I couldn't think of anything to say. I bowed my head and shoulders, realizing that in just ten minutes, and without having spoken a single word, I had made a bad impression on my first day at Yumimoto.

The man told me he was Mister Saito. He led me through huge, endless, open—plan offices, introducing me to hordes of people whose names I forgot as soon as he had pronounced them.

He showed me the office that was the domain of his superior, Mister Omochi, who was enormously fat and terrifying, proving that he was the vice—president of the division.

Then he indicated a door and announced solemnly that behind it was Mister Haneda, the president. It went without saying that I shouldn't even dream of meeting him.

Finally he led me to a gigantic office in which at least forty people were working. He indicated a desk, which sat directly opposite from another desk, belonging, he informed me, to my immediate superior, Miss Mori. She was in a meeting and would join me in the early afternoon.

I was just beginning to enjoy myself when Mister Salto interrupted me. He tore up the umpteenth letter without even reading it and told me that Miss Mori had arrived.

"You will work with her this afternoon. In the meantime, go and get me a cup of coffee."

It was already two o'clock in the afternoon. My epistolary exercises had so absorbed me that I had forgotten about taking a break.

I put the cup down on Mister Salto's desk and turned around. A young woman as tall and slender as an archer's bow was walking toward me.

Whenever I think of Fubuki Mori, I see the Japanese longbow, taller than a man. That's why I have decided to call the company "Yumimoto," which means "pertaining to the bow."

And whenever I see a bow, I think of Fubuki.

..Miss MORN—.

"Please, call me Fubuki."