Ihara Saikaku "wrote of the lowest class in the Tokugawa world -- the townsmen who were rising in wealth and power but not in official status."--Back cover.

An American woman's sexual awakening in Japan, testing the limits of love and sensual pleasure

First published in 1682, The Life of an Amorous Man depicts the pursuits and follies of the glorious age of old Japan, when the new bourgeoisie, unfettered by t

This tale of a Russian immigrant is a “gripping and gritty memoir [and] a eulogy for a combative, self-conscious, often violent American working class” (Los