In the Empire of Dreams

Candid disillusionment and a fragile, exquisite hopefulness characterize Highbridge's sensitive assortment of expatriates living, teaching and growing older in Japan. Most of these 10 interconnected stories deftly reveal the lives of gaijin: American, British and Australian foreigners, self-consciously exploring Japanese culture, people and customs. Among the adventurous misfits are Janet, an uncertain ""big"" American who came to Japan after her divorce and now figures she could partner off with a sumo wrestler. British expat Gwyneth finds comfort in the way the Japanese politely perceive her: ""Thin, gangly Gwyneth, her mother's streak of misery, is now `our elegant teacher.'"" Australian author Highbridge (A Much Younger Man) suggests that for many of her characters the search for identity is grounded in a desire to escape their previous incarnations. One fascinating element her characters share is how tenaciously their signature melancholia clings to them in spite of their escapist immersions and occasional epiphanies. Highbridge's version of Japan is skillfully and complexly filtered through her Western characters' eyes via rebellious trysts at ""love hotels,"" cramped and transitory Tokyo apartments, earthquakes and cherry blossoms, public urban suicides, post-AIDS bathhouses. In several stories, she also gives voice to Japanese women navigating the rough waters of marriage and careers. ""Teaching the Nightingale"" finds Teruko, a no longer young Japanese professor, rethinking her position as the mistress of her married lover and attempting to propose marriage to her homosexual gaijin friend. In Highbridge's assured hands, each tale is a separate and complete revelation of the narrator; meanwhile, the stories cumulatively construct a graceful and coherent picture of alienation and connection, of longing and belonging, and Japan is rendered gorgeously as the site of simultaneous escape and self-exploration. (Apr.)