J-Boys: Kazuo''s World, Tokyo, 1965

Kazuo Nakamoto''s life in inner-city Tokyo is one of tea and tofu, of American TV and rock ''n'' roll. Kazuo is nine. It is the mid-1960s, just after the Japan Olympics, and Kazuo dreams of being a track star. He hangs out with his buddies, goes to school, and helps with household chores. But Kazuo''s world is changing. This bittersweet novel is a deft portrait of a year in a boy''s life in a land and time far away, filled with universal concerns about fitting in, escaping the past (in this case World War II''s lingering devastation), and growing up. J-Boys author Shogo Oketani is a writer and novelist who grew up in Tokyo in the mid-1960s. See more