Vroege RecensentenWayne/Lionel Aponte

You have either experienced unemployment or know someone who has. But what is it like to endure joblessness in a foreign country in the middle of an economic crisis? How would one survive cash-strapped circumstances for close to a year? In his beautiful and intelligently written travel memoir, Aponte tackles these questions as he tells his intimate, first-person, true story about triumphing over adversity, in the form of being poor and American, in Japan, during the country`s worst recession, since the second world war. Along the way, he uses the wise perspective of an outsider to demonstrate the financial, emotional, and psychological effects of yearlong unemployment on a foreigner; how economic hardship can be an opportunity for reinvention; and an aspect of what it`s like to be black and simultaneously American in Japan. His book of creative nonfiction will inspire people who have encountered personal obstacles by showing them that they can recover, even under the most difficult conditions. Wayne Lionel Aponte’s gift of observation, subtlety, and wry humor make THE YEAR OF NO MONEY IN TOKYO an extraordinary pleasure to read.