{"product_id":"i-called-him-necktie-9781939931146","title":"I Called Him Necktie","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"The best of the best from this year's bountiful harvest of uncommonly strong offerings ... Deeply original.\" --\u003ci\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Milena Michiko Flasar's beautiful novel ... is a story about freedom and responsibility, and it results in an almost Sartrean meditation.\"--\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Exceptional ... In today's less-than-brave new world in which sincere human interaction is disappearing even as the numbers of so-called 'friends' are multiplying, Necktie is a piercing reminder to acknowledge, nurture, and share our humanity.\"--\u003ci\u003eSmithsonian Asian Pacific American Center blog \u003ci\u003eBookDragon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The quiet reflection of this jewel of a novel is revelatory, redemptive and hypnotic until the last word.\"--\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A spare, stunning, elegiac gem of a book. Milena Michiko Flasar writes with a poet's clarity of language and vision, probing deeply below the surfaces of familiar Japanese stereotypes ... to tell a compassionate and insightful story of dysfunction, despair and friendship.\"--Ruth Ozeki, author of \u003ci\u003eA Tale for the Time Being\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Flasar's exquisite, finely wrought novel is both a prose poem and a parable about how we deflect, defer and disconnect from life, and what is needed before we can bravely embrace it again.\"\u003cbr\u003e-- Monique Truong, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Salt\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBitter in the Mouth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A tender, melancholy book of great linguistic beauty and clarity. A flawless novel.\"--\u003ci\u003eS ddeutsche Zeitung\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"With high artistry . . . this seductive beauty is also strangely religious: the book treats life with an almost Buddhist serenity.\"--\u003ci\u003eDer Spiegel\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTwenty-year-old Taguchi Hiro has spent the last two years of his life living as a hikikomori--a shut-in who never leaves his room and has no human interaction--in his parents' home in Tokyo. As Hiro tentatively decides to reenter the world, he spends his days observing life around him from a park bench. Gradually he makes friends with Ohara Tetsu, a middle-aged salaryman who has lost his job but can't bring himself to tell his wife, and shows up every day in a suit and tie to pass the time on a nearby bench. As Hiro and Tetsu cautiously open up to each other, they discover in their sadness a common bond. Regrets and disappointments, as well as hopes and dreams, come to the surface until both find the strength to somehow give a new start to their lives. This beautiful novel is moving, unforgettable, and full of surprises. The reader turns the last page feeling that a small triumph has occurred.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMilena Michiko Flasar\u003c\/b\u003e was born in 1980, the daughter of a Japanese mother and an Austrian father. She lives in Vienna. \u003ci\u003eI Called Him Necktie\u003c\/i\u003e won the 2012 Austrian Alpha Literature Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New Vessel Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/09\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781939931146\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 133\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/15\/2014\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eForeword\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/27\/2014\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Milena Michiko Flasar","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38020088070325,"sku":"9781939931146","price":13.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_873816f3-f517-4869-b857-21d4fdd19506.jpg?v=1609174459","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/i-called-him-necktie-9781939931146","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}