Meandering Em's

This is an semi-autobiographical story of the author's experience in Japan between 1989 and 1991. She meets a young Japanese student and they begin a friendship that leads them into being a couple. As their relationship develops, Amelie relates the misunderstandings that occur between cultures and nations. She especially adept in revealing the problems with communications and accurately translating two totally different languages. There are hilarious moments when she meets her lover's grandparents and later his male friends. There is the horrifying moment when she is eating an octopus that has just been killed, but the tentacles can still squeeze the tongue. Altogether a hilarious book.