A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer Hardcover | Pages: 139 pages

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Original Title:	A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer
ISBN:	080144375X (ISBN13: 9780801443756)
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	Kiriyama Prize Nominee for Nonfiction (2006)

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San'ya, Tokyo's largest day-laborer quarter and the only one with lodgings, had been Oyama Shiro's home for twelve years when he took up his pen and began writing about his life as a resident of Tokyo's most notorious neighborhood. After completing a university education, Oyama entered the business workforce and appeared destined to walk the same path as many a "salaryman." A singular temperament and a deep loathing of conformity, however, altered his career trajectory dramatically. Oyama left his job and moved to Osaka, where he lived for three years. Later he returned to the corporate world but fell out of it again, this time for good. After spending a short time on the streets around Shinjuku, home to Tokyo's bustling entertainment district, he moved to San'ya in 1987, at the age of forty.

Oyama acknowledges his eccentricity and his inability to adapt to corporate life. Spectacularly unsuccessful as a salaryman yet uncomfortable in his new surroundings, he portrays himself as an outsider both from mainstream society and from his adopted home. It is precisely this outsider stance, however, at once dispassionate yet deeply engaged, that caught the eye of Japanese readers. The book was published in Japan in 2000 after Oyama had submitted his manuscript on a lark, he confesses for one of Japan's top literary awards, the Kaiko Takeshi Prize. Although he was astounded actually to win the award, Oyama remained in character and elected to preserve the anonymity that has freed him from all social bonds and obligations. The Cornell edition contains a new afterword by Oyama regarding his career since his inadvertent brush with fame."

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Title	:	A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer
Author	:	Oyama Shiro
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 139 pages
Published	:	September 15th 2005 by Cornell University Press (first published August 11th 2005)
Categories	:	Cultural. Japan. Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Asian Literature. Japanese Literature. Biography

Rating Based On Books A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer

Ratings: 3.92 From 105 Users | 13 Reviews

Critique Based On Books A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer

"These Christian volunteers depend in a far more profound way on San'ya men - as objects for their "good deeds" (that is, relief work) - than San'ya men do on the volunteers... If, for example, the government were to conduct relief work on a larger scale, San'ya men would no longer need these people; the volunteers, on the other hand, will always require San'ya men as their very own "needy" and as living proof of their own spiritual redemption."Interesting memoir of life as a day laborer in

Sadly, not so far removed from my own life.wow, what a perspective-bending book.the author is a man who worked as a day laborer in tokyo. not just for a few weeks or a year in order to write a book. he'd done so for 13 years before he penned this book.and it wasn't some misfortune or a lost job that landed him in that position--he chose it quite freely despite other opportunities. he'd had "normal" jobs for years, and decided that he just wasn't made for the salaryman life.for 13 years, then, working day labor jobs, living pretty much

The day laborer never made much sense to me and definitely never got much sympathy from my direction. Oyama Shiro (or so he calls himself) provides, almost by accident, an amazing insight into the day laborers life.It's a little scary how much anybody can relate with this person.

This book was recommended to me by my son who is a big fan of Japanese culture. You would think that the memoirs of just an average joe would be boring as hell, but they're not.

I love this book. I love this man and that he shared everything he's been through.

wow, what a perspective-bending book.the author is a man who worked as a day laborer in tokyo. not just for a few weeks or a year in order to write a book. he'd done so for 13 years before he penned this book.and it wasn't some misfortune or a lost job that landed him in that position--he chose it quite freely despite other opportunities. he'd had "normal" jobs for years, and decided that he just wasn't made for the salaryman life.for 13 years, then, working day labor jobs, living pretty much