Bicycle Days - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Bicycle Days is the debut novel by American author John Burnham Schwartz published in 1989 on his 24th birthday. It began as an undergraduate thesis for Harvard's East Asian Studies department and became a critically acclaimed bestseller. It was inspired by his time living in Japan.

Plot Introduction

The book follows Alec Stern as he arrives in Tokyo, newly graduated from Yale. He starts a new job, living with a Japanese family; the book portrays his life in Japan as he adapts to the culture, made far easier by his ability to speak Japanese...

Reception

Reviews were generally positive :

The New York Times, "Reminiscent of A Good Man in Africa...or one of Kingsley Amis's gentler comodies of manners."

Publishers Weekly called this a "promising, if overly self-absorbed debut novel."

People commented "it's too bad Schwartz wrote his intimate story in the third person. As it is, Schwartz outlines the most incidental happenings of Alec's life without letting us get inside his mind. It's as if a great deal yet not nearly enough has been revealed in Bicycle Days."

Publication history

1989, US, Summit Books, ISBN 0-671-66600-2, Pub date May 1989, Hardback

1989, UK, Heinmann, ISBN 0-434-67778-7, Pub date Nov 1989, Hardback

1990, US, Plume Books, ISBN 0-452-26421-9, Pub date May 1990, Paperback

1990, UK, Minerva, ISBN 0-749-39132-4, Pub date Nov 1990, Paperback

1999, US, Vintage, ISBN 0-375-70275-X, Pub date Apr 1999, Paperback

1999, UK, Phoenix, ISBN 0-753-80764-5, Pub date Nov 1999, Paperback

References

Bicycle Days Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents

Plot Introduction

Reception

Publication history

References