The distinguished writer Pico Iyer discusses his new book A Beginners Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations (Knopf, 2019), with Joseph Planta.

A Beginners Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations by Pico Iyer (Knopf, 2019). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: A Beginners Guide to Japan

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

One month ago tomorrow, I talked to the distinguished writer Pico Iyer. He was in Toronto for an appearance, and we discussed his new book, A Beginners Guide to Japan: Observations and Provocations. It’s a fascinating book featuring thoughts Mr. Iyer has about Japan, a country he has lived in for more than thirty years. It’s a country that feels like home for him, yet can still feel foreign. It’s a country, one realises, as they read the book that has a lot of contradictions, and that’s where the writer in Mr. Iyer revels in and reveals much of the character and society of the Japanese. This book is a companion to his most recent book Autumn Light, which was also released earlier this year. That book is a memoir on recent times in Mr. Iyer’s life. He ruminates on life itself, as he returns to Japan, where he shares a home with his wife, as her father has just died. It’s a beautiful book on holding on what’s close and seeing what falls away as one gets older. These two books taken in tandem, share so much about how unique life is in Japan, and how Pico Iyer has made a home there. Pico Iyer is also described as “the greatest living travel writer,” which I’ll ask him about. He is the author of more than a dozen books, which have been translated into twenty-three languages. His four recent TED Talks have received more than eight million views so far. This past summer he was the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton, guest director of the Telluride Film Festival, and the first official writer-in-residence at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. An essayist in Time magazine since 1986, he is regularly read in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Granta, and many other publications. Visit www.picoiyerjourneys.com. This new book is published by Knopf. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Pico Iyer; Mr. Iyer, good morning.

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