RansomRansom, Jay McInerney's second novel, belongs to the distinguished tradition of novels about exile. Living in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, Christopher Ransom seeks a purity and simplicity he could not find at home, and tries to exorcise the terror he encountered earlier in his travels—a blur of violence and death at the Khyber Pass.Ransom has managed to regain control, chiefly through the rigors of karate. Supporting himself by teaching English to eager Japanese businessmen, he finds company with impresario Miles Ryder and fellow expatriates whose headquarters is Buffalo Rome, a blues-bar that satisfies the hearty local appetite for Americana and accommodates the drifters pouring through Asia in the years immediately after the fall of Vietnam.Increasingly, Ransom and his circle are threatened, by everything they thought they had left behind, in a sequence of events whose consequences Ransom can forestall but cannot change.Jay McInerney details the pattern of adventure and disillusionment that leads Christopher Ransom toward an inevitable reckoning with his fate—in a novel of grand scale and serious implications. |
Contents
Section 15 | 166 |
Section 16 | 172 |
Section 17 | 186 |
Section 18 | 191 |
Section 19 | 201 |
Section 20 | 209 |
Section 21 | 226 |
Section 22 | 233 |
Section 9 | 98 |
Section 10 | 115 |
Section 11 | 122 |
Section 12 | 129 |
Section 13 | 137 |
Section 14 | 160 |
Section 23 | 240 |
Section 24 | 247 |
Section 25 | 258 |
Section 26 | 262 |
Section 27 | 275 |
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Common terms and phrases
aikido Akiko American Annette arms asked Ransom bath bazaar began beside bike bowed Buffalo Rome chest Chris coffee DeVito dojo door drink English eyes face feel feet fight friends front fucking gaijin girl going hand heard Honda hour Japan Japanese Jay McInerney Kaji Kano karate katana Katmandu Keith Richards kendo kick Kyoto Landi Kotal Marilyn Miles Monk mountains move night Okay opened Osaka Otani oyabun Pathan picked practice pulled Ransom asked Ransom felt Ransom knew Ransom looked Ransom nodded Ransom sat Ransom thought Ransom tried Ryder Sadaharu Oh samurai seat seemed sensei asked sensei called shook his head shoulder stay stood street Suzuki sword talking tatami tell temple thing Thomas McGuane Tokyo took trying turned Umeda Station waiting walked watched woman wondered yakuza Yamada