title: Bedtime Eyes
author: Japan Association for Cultural Exchange
description: Originally published in Japan in the mid-1980s (before <i>Trash</i>), the three novellas in this harsh, vivid collection each feature a Japanese woman in a destructive relationship with an African-American man. The title novella presents Kim, a nightclub singer who falls for a navy deserter called Spoon. As Kim and Spoon's coke-fueled sexual idyll spirals into violence, Kim remains desperate to keep him. Another sadomasochistic relationship forms the core of "The Piano Player's Eyes," about a woman named Ruiko who dominates her "new toy," Leroy Jones. When he returns to Japan two years later as a noted jazz pianist, they vie for the upper hand in the relationship, with devastating results. "Jesse," a wrenching story that unfolds more warmly than the previous two, revolves around a turbulent threesome: Rick, an alcoholic; his young girlfriend, Coco; and the title character, his 11-year-old son. Coco first sees Jesse as competition, but as she realizes the father-son bond trumps that between lovers, she struggles to win the boy's approval. In stark, profane prose, Yamada complicates racial stereotypesthe hypersexual black man, the submissive or dragon lady Asian womanas she illustrates how cultural and racial difference amplify "the extraordinary power of sexual curiosity."<i> (Feb.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: ![](index-1_1.jpg)
  
  
  This book is being published within the Japanese Literature Publishing
  Program, managed by the Japan Association for Cultural Exchange on behalf of
  the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan.
  
  
  BEDTIME EYES. Copyright © 2006 by Amy Yamada. English translation copyright ©
  
  
  2006 byYumi Gunji and Marc Jardine. All rights reserved. Printed in the United
  States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
  manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
  quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address
  St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
  
  
  "Bedtime Eyes" _("Beddo taimu aizu")_ copyright © 1985 by Amy Yamada,
  originally published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha in Tokyo, Japan.
  
  
  "The Piano Player's Fingers" _("Yubi to tawamura")_ and "Jesse" (" _Jeshi no
  sebone_ ") copyright © 1986 by Amy Yamada, originally published by Kawade
  Shobo Shinsha in Tokyo, Japan.
  
  
  [www.stmartins.com ](htt